SERBIAN VASSALAGE AND COOPERATION WITH TURKS

SERBIAN VASSALAGE AND COOPERATION WITH TURKS



King Milutin in 1305 employees Turks against Byzantium (Oikonomides ‘Turks in Europe’ 159-62)

Marko Krajlevic and Konstantin Dejanovic take part on the Turkish side in Kosovo battle in 1389 (Decei ‘Istoria Imperiului’ 54- Vladimir Corovic ‘Boj na Kosovu’ 191)

Nov 10, 1444,Djurdadj Brankovic,contributed to disastrous defit of Christian alliance by informin sultan Murad and barring the road by which Scanderbeg had intended to traverse Serbia to join Christian forces at Varna (Cambridge Medieval History 4, 572-73.

He does the same 4 years later against Hunyadi (M. Kostic ‘Opis Vojske’ 90)

Milica accepts Turkish vassalage to get help against Hungarian King Sigismund in 1390 with the blessing of the Orthodox Church.(N. Pavlovic ‘Despot Stefan’ 47-8)

Olivera marries sultan Bayezit in a formal and honorific wedding (Gibbons “Foundations’ 183)

Stefan Lazarevic joins Turkish army in 1393 against prince of Wallachia (N. Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 82)

Sept 25, 1396, Stefan Lazarevic a crucial factor at Turkish victory in Nicopolis, over an Europian alliance (Cambridge Medieval History 4, 561) he could have chosen to sit aside and claim neutrality, like the Bulgarians, but he hated Hungarians and chose fidelity to his Muslim overloard (Tuchman ‘A distant mirror’ 560)

Oct 17, 1448 Turkish clash with Christian armies in Kosovo again… Serbs didn’t participate, instead they lurked in the mountain passess.. ready to fall upon and plunder the fugitives (Ibid. 573)

1455, Christain spahis from Vuk Brankovic’s vilayet and martologues join the Turkish army (Inalcik ‘Od Stefana Dusana’)

On Serb vassalage see historian Leopold Ranke ‘History of Servia’ 84.



ORTHODOX VS. CATHOLIC UNDER OTTOMAN EMPIRE



Second half of XVI century rebuilding of churches and monasteries in the area of Patriarch of Pec (Zirojevic ‘Crkve’ 27-31- Triton ‘Caliphs’ 37-60)

1557,Serbian Orthodox Church was in fact enjoying a particularly favored position at this time (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 109)

1571, Catholics in Kosovo suffered harsh treatment (Giannelli ‘Documenti inediti’ 101-2)

Catholic church was poor and was frequently under pressure not only from the Ottomans but also from the Orthodox Church, which tried to force catholics to pay it ecclesiastical dues. Patriarch Makarije had obtained an imperial firman (decree) that all Christian in his territory must pay their church taxes to him (Lamansky ‘Secret d’etat’ Appendix 064)

Monks of Pec were all related to beys and sancakbeyis (Hadrovics ‘L’eglise serbe’ 50)

Catholic priests complained that they were more oppressed by Orthodox than Muslims (Cordignano ‘Geografica ecclesiastica’ 233)

1791 Archbishop Mazarek reports he was taunted by proud Orthodox and schismatic people in Prizren, who asked if he arrived accompained by an honorary Janissary Guard, as their Patriarch did (ASCPF SOCG 895, fo 71r)

June 15, 1910, sultan Mehmet V was welcomed by Serbian Orthodox Seminary, serenading him with Turkish songs, vice-consul Rakic gathered a large contingent of serbs, while Albanians boycotted the event (Rakic ‘Konzulska pisma’ 245-50)



SERBIAN ANTI-ALBANIAN POLICY, AND ETHNIC CLEANSING



Prince Milos had taken special trouble to expel Muslim Albanians from his territory (Pavlovitch ‘Society in Serbia’ 144)

Serbian state policy to create an ethnically clean territory expelling Albanians from Vranje (Hadzi-Vasiljevic ‘Arbanska liga’ 12-13)

1910, Isa Boletini and Idriz Seferi tried to halt westward advance of Ottoman troops, but they were outflanked by the army (which had been given the assistance of local Serbs and school teachers to guide them through mountains (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 241)

Serbian policy was directed quite actively against the Albanians, to the point of giving direct support to the Young Turk regime (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 243)

1910, Orthodox Metropol of Skopje signed a decree for the suppression of this alien script, joining Young Turks campaign against use of Albanian latin alphabet (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 243)

PM Pasic told Times in Nov 1913: It’s essential that Serbia should possess about 50KM from Lissus to Durrazzo (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 255)



OTHER ISSUES


British politician Aubrey Herbert wrote: Like Samson in the temple of Gaza, the Albanians pulled down the columns of Ottoman Empire upon their own head. It was Albanians, not Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians who defeated the Ottoman Empire (Swire ‘Albania’ 124-5)

They gave the right of their schools to Serbs but the ottomans continued to deny it to Albanians (Spuler ‘ Minderheitenschulen’ 51,59)

XV-XVI centuries. There were many cases of peasants migrating from unconquered regions to settle in Ottoman territory. Ottomans taken more care of peasants than its Serbian predecessors (N.Malcolm ‘Kosovo a short history’ 101)

Albanian guardians of church buildings and monasteries Pec, Decani, Devic (Zirojevic ‘Crkve’ 36)



SERBIAN ATROCITIES AGAINST ALBANIAN CIVILIANS



1913 Durham ‘Frontiers’ 643

Trotsky ‘Balkan Wars’ 120, 286

Leo Freundlich ‘Albania’s Gogotha’