Idriz Seferi

Idriz Seferi was born in an Muslim family in the village of Sefer (in modern-day Preševo, south Serbia), to the north of the mountain range known as Black Mountain of Skopje (Tur. Karadağ, Alb. Mali i Zi i Shkupit, Ser. Skopska Crna Gora)[1] , at the time part of the Ottoman Kosovo Vilayet. He joined the Albanian national movements at an early age,[2] being a member of the League of Prizren (est. 1878) and the League of Peja (est. 1899).[1]

Before the general Albanian uprisings in the Ottoman Empire, Seferi had wanted to establish relations with the Serbian government; this was also done by Albanian chiefs in Yakova (Gjakova/Đakovica), İpek (Pejë/Peć) and in Montenegro.[3] In 1909, the Serbian government aided the Albanian rebels with money and weapons.

Idriz Seferi and his guerrillas entering Ferizaj.

In early April 1910, twelve Albanian tribes of the Kosovo Vilayet led by Isa Boletini and Idriz Seferi rose up against the Ottomans.[4] 5,000 rebels under Seferi cut off the Pristina-Üsküp railway at Kaçanik,[4] managing to resist the Ottoman forces at the gorge of the Kaçanik Pass.[1][5] Seferi's men stopped a train carrying soldiers and supplies bound for Pristina, carried off the supplies and disarmed the soldiers.[1][6] Boletini at the same time had led 2,000 rebels onto Ferizovik (Ferizaj) and Prizren.[4] Seferi inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish army despite the fact that they were without artillery[7] and held the pass for more than a fortnight. The rebels were only driven out after a desperate battle lasting thirteen hours, for they were greatly outnumbered.[8] The uprising was quelled by the 16,000 Ottoman troops under Shefket Turgut Pasha, however not without difficulty.[4] Under Seferi's command, some 2,000 Ottoman soldiers around Gnjilane were killed.[9] By August, the Ottomans had reinstated order, and now the government took harsh measures to maintain suzerainty in the Kosovo Vilayet: all men aged 15–60 were registered (for conscription); Albanian men were disarmed and those eligible were conscripted into the Ottoman army.[4] Boletini had given up arms after he and a Vıçıtırın state ambassador went to the Kosovo vali, who promised to meet his requests. Idriz Seferi then followed suit.[10]

On April 23, Hasan Prishtina's rebels revolted in the Yakova mountains, and the revolt then spread within the Kosovo Vilayet.[11] On May 20, Albanian chiefs Bajram Curri, Isa Boletini, Riza Gjakova, Seferi, Hasan Prishtina, Nexhib Draga, and others, decided on a general armed insurrection throughout the Kosovo Vilayet.[11] Seferi organized the rebels in the Ferizovik area, where fiercest fighting took place.[1]

Idriz Seferi in Gjilan

On 12 August, unable to wait any longer for the Turkish acceptance of all the demands of the League, 30,000 Albanian irregulars, the forces of chieftains Bajram Curri, Hasan Prishtina, Mehmet Pashë Dërralla, Riza bej Gjakova and Idriz Seferi, united among themselves under the command of Isa Boletini and advanced towards Üsküp (Skopje), the capital of the Vilayet of Kosovo, which they entered without encountering any resistance and took possession.[8][12] As the national uprising spread throughout Kosovo and most of the north, troops were sent against the rebels, who retired to the mountains but continued to protest against the government, and in the whole region between Ipek and Mitrovica they plundered military depots, opened prisons and collected taxes from the inhabitants for the Albanian chiefs.[8] On August 18, the moderate faction led by Prishtina managed to convince Seferi, and other leaders Boletini, Curri and Riza Bey Gjakova of the conservative group to accept the agreement with the Ottomans for Albanian sociopolitical and cultural rights.[13][14] Isa Boletini and Idriz Seferi had established friendly relations with Serbia during the latest Albanian uprisings, though they were about to switch sides, unbeknownst to the Serbians.

Monument to Idriz Seferi in Gjilan

One day ahead of the Balkan War, at noon, Seferi had 1,000 men attacking the Serbian frontier posts. They were armed with Martinis and Serbian rapid-fire guns that had been supplied by Serbia during the 1909 Albanian Uprising.[15] The Albanians did this after realising that Albanian-inhabited regions would possibly be divided between Serbia and Greece; the notion of using Serbian weapons and money against Serbia enraged the army.[15] Serbian companies hurried to the frontier and charged back the Albanians, then the Serbian guerrilla fighters (Chetniks) destroyed their foremost post with hand-thrown bombs, after which the Albanians left.

• Elsie, Robert (2012). A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. London: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd. p. 403. ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
• Sylvia Kedourie (13 September 2013). Seventy-five Years of the Turkish Republic. Routledge. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-135-26698-1.
• Trotsky, Leon (1980). The Balkan wars: 1912-13 : the war correspondence of Leon Trotsky. Resistance Books. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-0-909196-08-0.
• Pearson, Owen (2004). Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History, Volume 1. London: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd. pp. 11, 24. ISBN 1-84511-013-7. Retrieved 8 July 2013.