Today marks 120 years since the founding of the Peja Covenant.
In honor of this day, various activities will take place.
Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj will pay respects in front of the monument and tower of Haxhi Zeka in Peja. Likewise, the Vetevendosje Movement will develop several activities in the city of Peja.
How was the League of Peja formed?
At the end of the 19th century, the lands inhabited by Albanians were put in danger, as the Balkan neighbors began actively aggressively to conquer Macedonian territories, which would lead to the Balkan Wars. The contested territory also included the four Albanian vilayets.
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Albanian patriots began preparations for the creation of a new organization to face these dangers in the fall of 1896. The first meeting was held in March 1897, in Gjakovë, when the Albanian Covenant was created. In November, another meeting was held in Peja, attended by 500 people, after which Istanbul intervened and dissolved the Covenant.
In these complicated circumstances, the efforts of the Albanian patriots for the unification of the entire people and for the creation of a new connection, which, according to the example of the League of Prizren, would lead the Albanians in the fight for the protection of the territorial integrity of Albania and for her release.
The focus of such efforts for the formation of a new connection, just as in the years of the League of Prizren (1878-1881) and now, in 1899, were once again the cities of the vilayet of Kosovo and the Sanjak of Dibra, which were directly threatened by regions of Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
The new Albanian League was created after a great preparatory, organizational and political work, that the Albanian patriots inside the country, led by Haxhi Zeka and the patriotic societies outside the homeland, especially those of Bucharest and the Albanian Committee of Istanbul, did at the end of 1898 and in January of 1899. During this time, many meetings of representatives of the population of the cities and their surroundings were held, such as in Pejë, Mitrovica, Pristina, Vushtrri, Drenica and other centers of the province of Kosovo, where the Albanians gave their allegiance and expressed willingness to form the bond.
These consecutive meetings of the Albanian population, as well as the dense correspondence of Haxhi Zeka with the various centers of the vilayet of Kosovo, Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, show that the organizers of the League had the intention of calling a general Albanian assembly, where delegates from all provinces of Albania and of all faiths, Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox, participated.
Even the representatives of the population of Shkodra, Dibra, Pristina, New Pazar, as well as South Albania, demanded that the assembly that was being prepared for the organization of Albanians in a general connection be called as soon as possible.
In this preparatory period, the leaders of the Albanian movement defined the program of this assembly, which, elaborated already at the time of the League of Prizren (1878-1881) and in the Albanian memoranda of the years 1896-1898, contained two fundamental issues: the preservation of the integrity territorial of the country and the formation of an autonomous Albania, where all four Albanian vilayets would be included.
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Haradinaj paid tribute to the statue and tower of the patriot Haxhi Zeka
The fruit of these efforts was the convening of the Albanian National Assembly, which held its work in Pejë on January 23-29, 1899, where representatives of the parish and the population of the Kosovo vilayet, as well as special representatives of the vilayets, participated. of Manastir and Ioannina. Here, the formation of the new Albanian League was announced, which, following the example of the League of Prizren of 1878, was called the League of Peja. Haxhi Zeka was elected Chairman of the Assembly and of the League's Steering Committee.
The Assembly carried out its work in the form of close meetings, attended by a small number of delegates, or by organizing large gatherings, with 450-500 participants, representatives of different layers of the population of the Kosovo vilayet and the vilayets of other Albanians. While the 36 delegates, who enjoyed the right to vote, came from the cities of the province of Kosovo and were representatives of the urban and rural middle classes, teachers of semi-secondary schools and Turkish madrasahs, local administration officials, large landowners, clerks high, clergy, etc. Among them were Haxhi Zeka, Halil Hasan Pasha Begolli, Myderiz Ismaili, Myderiz Abdullahu, Mufti Salihu, Bajram Curri, Myderiz Mehmet Hamdiu, Mehmet Aqifi, Zenel Beu, Ali Pasha Draga from Rozhaja, Ismail Haki Pasha Tetova, Abdyl Halimi, Mehmet Sherifi, Myderiz Abdyli, Naxhi Mehmet Sulejmani, Mehmet Aqifi, Mehmet Tahiri, Mehmet Murati from Senica, etc.
In addition to the 36 delegates of the Kosovo vilayet, who have put their signatures on the decisions of the Assembly of Peja, special representatives of the other Albanian vilayets of Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina also took part in this gathering. The Sanjak of Dibra of the Manastir vilayet was represented by Selim Rusi, an outstanding intellectual and patriot of this region. Many delegates from the cities of the vilayet of Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, who could not go to the Assembly of Peja due to the obstacles put in place by the Ottoman authorities, announced to the Assembly that they approve of its decisions and that they retain the right to take part of the Albanian League.
The assembly of January 1899 was called by its organizers as a first, preliminary gathering, which would be followed by a more general Albanian assembly or congress.
The Assembly of Peja took important decisions for the further development of the Albanian National Movement, such as the 11-point Resolution (Charter) and the 12-point Act of Allegiance, which were approved in the closed-door meeting of the Assembly on January 28 and announced publicly on January 29, 1899.
In the decisions of the Assembly, the formation of the League or, as it was called in the Resolution, the Ittifak was announced and the Besa between the Albanians was established. The League was seen as a general and unique national organization, which would unite in its bosom all Albanians, Ghega and Toska, Muslim and Christian. In order to achieve this union, it was decided to stop blood feuds, hostilities and quarrels, and strict punishments were foreseen both for these and for other actions that violated public order.
The League defined as the main duty of the first hand the protection of the territorial integrity of Albania against any attempt that Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece would undertake for the fragmentation of the Albanian lands. The Assembly emphasized especially the danger of the annexation of the Albanian vilayets of Kosovo and Bitola and expressed the readiness to mobilize all Albanians in the event that the homeland was attacked from any side, and especially in the event that these vilayets were attacked, that the neighboring countries and the Great Powers included them in the so-called Macedonia. In case of war, it was decided to make such a division of the Albanian forces, which would protect the homeland: those of the sanjak of Pristina, Pazar Ri and Dibra would guard the northeastern borders against Serbia, the forces of Peja, Plava and Shkodra, the border with Montenegro and those of the vilayet of Ioannina (of Southern Albania) would be opposed to Greece.
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In these conditions, the League and the Albanian National Movement as a whole suffered heavy losses, which led to their downfall and the struggle for Albania's autonomy.
At the end of 1900, the League of Peja was suppressed without being able to fulfill the tasks of the Albanian National Movement. However, it left deep impressions on the consciousness of the people and exerted a powerful influence on the further organization of the armed struggle against the Ottoman rulers/KosovaPress.
