League of Prizren

League of Prizren
Lidhja e Prizrenit
	The four Ottoman vilayets clearly divided (in red: Vilayet of İşkodra, Yannina, Monastir and Kosovo as proposed by the League of Prizren for full autonomy).
Formation	10 June 1878
Founder	47 Albanian beys
Dissolved	April 1881
Location	Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet;
Leader	Abdyl Frashëri

The League of Prizren (Albanian: Besëlidhja e Prizrenit), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation (Albanian: Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave te kombit Shqiptar), was an Albanian political organization that was officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of Prizren in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. It was suppressed in April 1881.

The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin assigned areas inhabited by Albanians to other states. The inability of the Porte to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced Albanian leaders to organize their own defence and to consider the creation of an autonomous administration, as Serbia and the other Danubian Principalities had enjoyed before their independence.^[1]

The league was established at a meeting of 47 Ottoman beys. The initial position of the league was presented in the document known as Kararname. With that document, Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to establish autonomy within the Ottoman Empire by supporting the Porte and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". The document said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet, but under the influence of Abdyl Frashëri, that initial position changed radically and resulted in demands for an independent Albanian state and open war against the Ottoman Empire.

^ Jelavich, Barbara (1999). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge University: Cambridge University Press. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-521-25249-2.

[1] Jelavich, Barbara (1999). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge University: Cambridge University Press. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-521-25249-2.

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