Isa Boletini


Isa Boletini was an Albanian commander, guerrilla, politician and rilindas from Kosovo.
As a young man, he joined the Albanian nationalist League of Prizren and participated in a battle against Ottoman forces. After this, he was temporarily loyal to the Ottoman sultan and built a power base in the Mitrovica area. He served as the commander of Ottoman palace guards in Istanbul for four years, returning with a land grant, officer rank and the command of the local militia. In 1909 he and other Kosovo Albanian chieftains revolted against the Young Turk imposition of taxes on Muslims. Next, he took an important role in the 1910 revolt against Ottoman rule, while in the First Balkan War negotiated with both sides, then fought against the Montenegrin and Serbian armies in Kosovo. He participated in the Albanian Declaration of Independence in Vlorë, and was then assigned as a diplomatic agent to the British, and bodyguard of Prince William of Albania. He was killed during a shoot-out in Podgorica under unclear circumstances in January 1916.

Biography

Life

Isa Boletini was born in the village of Boletin near Mitroviça, Ottoman Empire. Isa's family had migrated to Boletin from the village of Istinić near Deçan, due to a blood feud though it ultimately hailed from Shala, in northern Albania. They adopted the surname Boletini. The Shala were the poorest tribe of Albania with a small exception of around 400 families who lived in Istinić. They were in conflict with the Gashi tribe until they made peace in August 1879 on the sultan's orders.

Family

Boletini had several sons, who are mentioned in 1924 as living with their women and other relatives in Boletini's kula near the Sokolica Monastery "as though feudal lords, frugally and ceremoniously, but with endlessly less authority". His son Mustafa was a rebel leader in the Balkan Wars. On 27 July 1936, his grandson, Ismet, was knife stabbed by two Albanian criminals while protecting his friends, three Serbs, in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Death

There are different stories about his death in Podgorica on 23 or 24 January 1916:

1878–1907

After the rise of the Albanian nationalist League of Prizren, he took part as a young man in the Battle of Slivova against Ottoman forces on 22 April 1881. Isa built a power base in his hometown and illegally seized property from fellow Muslims. By 1898–99, he received money for protecting the Serbian Orthodox community in the Mitrovica region, and was rewarded with a medal and supply of weapons by the Kingdom of Serbia. The Sokolica Monastery, located between Albanian villages, was protected by brothers Ahmed and Isa, who lived 800m and 100m, respectively, from the monastery. It was stated in 1899, by Serbian consul in Pristina Svetislav Simić, that "not one Serb fell from his rifle, and where the power of his martini reached, the rayah was completely free from ". The time after 1900 was increasingly marked by ethnic tensions.
In the summer of 1901, organised atrocities on Serbs in Ibarski Kolašin were carried out under the command of Boletini, including massacres, rape, blackmail, looting and eviction of local ethnic Serbs. An earlier Ottoman investigation had uncovered arms smuggling from Serbia to Ibarski Kolašin, sent to protect the local Serb population from atrocities. The events led to Russia opening a consulate in Mitroviça on May 7, 1902. Schterbina was appointed consul. Boletini threatened that all Serb houses would be set upon fire if they worked with the consulate – the consul could not enter Mitrovica until the Porte sent for Boletini to Istanbul. It is reported on 29 September, according to an Ottoman source, that Boletini had given himself up to the authorities, was to be pardoned and used by the Ottomans against Mustafa Aga and his supporters. He is reported on 24 November 1902 as having arrived in Istanbul. Four days later it was reported that the Porte promised to not return Boletini to Mitrovica, and that Schterbina was soon to arrive to the consulate. Sultan Abdul Hamid II, instead of crushing Boletini, brought him to Istanbul and appointed him head of the palace guard. To govern the sultan used patronage networks by awarding privileges and government positions to co opt local charismatic leaders such as Boletini into the Ottoman system.
On 11 March 1903, the Porte denied that it planned to return Isa Boletini back to Mitrovica. Schterbina did not survive his assassination attempt on 31 May, during an Albanian riot, and died of his gunshot wounds in April 1903. After serving as the head of the Ottoman palace guard for four years, he returned to Kosovo with an imperial land grant and officer rank in the local Ottoman militia in March 1906. He was now the most famous and richest Albanian in Mitrovica. Boletini assembled a band of armed retainers and resumed his role as a local "protector". Weapons and financial assistance came from Serbia and Boletini also had a direct telegraph line to the Yildiz Palace functioning as the sultan's policeman in the region.

1908–1911

During the Young Turk revolution, a large gathering in Firzovik of local urban notables and Muslim clergy backed restoration of the constitution while Boletini on the side of the chieftains viewed that position as disloyalty to the sultan. He withdrew his forces before a decision could be made realising the weakness of his position. During the revolution, rumors of the time had it that Abdul Hamid II asked Boletini for assistance to disperse the Firzovik gathering. He was loyal to the sultan though in 1908 Boletini had given his initial support to the Young Turks and later fought against their government. Boletini was deputy of Kosovo in the Ottoman Assembly between 1908 and 1912.
The Committee of Union and Progress, within a month of the restoration of the constitution, decided to address blood feuding matters in Kosovo, sentencing Albanians engaged in killings. Toward the end of 1908 aggressive measures was pushed by locals – Nexhip Draga and other notables in Kosovo viewed Isa Boletini as a nuisance, threat and loyalist of sultan Abdulhamid II and lobbied the new Young Turk government for his arrest and destruction of his kulla. Class differences of Draga, a landowner wanting law and order and Boletini, a chieftain preferring maintenance of old privileges and autonomy along with the disagreement in Firzovik about the restoration of the constitution resulted in the rift. Unable to convince CUP members in Mitrovica to take action, Draga traveled to Salonika and pleaded his case to the local CUP committee who approved and got the Ottoman government to act against Boletini. The Ottoman government needing a pretext for action sent an officer with some soldiers to serve a court order to Boletini for illegally receiving land from the sultan that previously belonged to a local named Haxhi Ali. Boletini scoffed at the charges, cursed the Young Turk revolution and threw the Ottoman authorities out. Ottoman forces arrived at his stronghold shortly after, resulting in an attack and fierce firefight with Boletini escaping with a small group of men and his kulla was razed to the ground. Local Ottoman authorities like the mutasarrif of İpek advised the Young Turk government against action on Boletini on grounds it could produce larger troubles for the state and instead advocated for a show of force to make local chieftains submit. After the events with Boletini, the Ottoman army then went throughout Kosovo and razed other kullas of several chieftains involved in the deruhdecilik system.
During the Ottoman countercoup of 1909, Boletini along with several Kosovo Albanian chieftains offered the sultan military assistance. On 15 May 1909, the Young Turks, continuing their former policy of denying the Albanians national rights, sent a military expedition to the Kosovo Vilayet to stop the growth of hostile attitudes to the government and break resistance of the peasants, who refused to pay taxes which Istanbul had introduced. Cavid Pasha, the new commander of the division at Mitroviça, was ordered to carry out a succession of military operations against the Albanian mountaineers, in particular the capture of Boletini. The Young Turks expressed the view through their newspaper Tanin that most Albanians of the area had given their besa not to go against the government apart from Boletini and a few supporters. Ottoman authorities placed a reward of 300 liras on Boletini for his capture. On account of the attempts of the authorities to collect taxes which hitherto had been paid almost entirely by the Christians, serious disturbances broke out among the war-like Muslim tribes of northern Albania. Isa Boletini, a prominent leader often honoured by the Sultan, and other chiefs of Pejë and Yakova, attacked the Ottoman army, and numerous fights led to much bloodshed, the Ottoman army also bombarding several villages. Boletini led fighting in Pristina, Prizren and elsewhere.
Boletini took an important role in the Albanian Revolt of 1910. Early in 1910, he visited the Albanian highlanders who had fled into Montenegro where they were given additional weapons by King Nikolla. In Kosovo at İpek, Boletini and the heads of twelve Albanian highland clans agreed for joint action against the Ottomans. Kosovo Albanians went on the offensive and with 2,000 men Boletini attacked Firzovik and Prizren. He resisted the Ottoman army at Crnoljeva for two days. Boletini later escaped as the Ottomans put down the rebellion. In 1910, Nopcsa named him and the earlier Ali Pasha Draga the leading Albanian figures in Mitrovica. In 1910–11, the Montenegrin government encouraged northern Albanian tribes to revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Apart from the Catholic Malissori, also some Kosovo Albanian leaders were approached, among these were Boletini. Boletini intended to use Montenegro as a base for incursions into Ottoman Albania. At first, Montenegro ignored his presence, but on 15 June, after numerous protests from the Ottoman ambassador, escorted Boletini and his thirteen followers away from the Albanian border.

1912

In the prelude to revolt, the Serbian government worked with some Albanian guerilla bands to be in position of creating difficulties if the moment required it and to that end courted Isa Boletini through the Serb terrorist organisation the Black Hand. On April 23, Hasan Prishtina's rebels revolted in the Yakova mountains, which then spread. By 20 May, Boletini alongside other Albanian leaders were present at a meeting in Junik where a besa was given to wage war on the Young Turk government through armed insurrection in Kosovo Vilayet. In springtime 1912, Boletini led a revolt in Kosovo, with surprising victories after victories against the Turks. During the 1912 uprising, while waiting for an Ottoman response to the demands of the rebels, Boletini and other leaders of the rebellion ordered their forces to advance toward Üsküb which was captured during August 12–15. Albanian irregulars then threatened to march on Bitola and Thessaloniki, and the Ottomans sent troops against the rebels, who retired to the mountains but continued to protest against the government, and in the whole region between İpek and Mitrovica they plundered military depots, opened prisons and collected taxes from the inhabitants for the Albanian chiefs.
On August 18, the moderate faction led by Prishtina managed to convince Boletini, and other leaders Idriz Seferi, Bajram Curri and Riza Bey Gjakova of the conservative group to accept the agreement with the Ottomans for Albanian sociopolitical and cultural rights. The Ottomans then agreed on concessions that promised autonomy for the Albanian-inhabited vilayets of Kosovo, Scutari, Yanina and part of Monastir. On 18 August 1912, the Porte replied that it was ready to concede a series of economic, political, administrative and cultural rights, but no formal autonomy. The Albanian side accepted, abandoned further national claims, and had Boletini pacified and returned to his home. The Ottoman side accepted on 4 September. This created a virtually autonomous Albanian state. While Muslim Kosovo Albanians were pleased, the Balkan neighbours and Catholic Albanians were not. The Balkan states envisaged the partition of Albania between them, and thus hastened to precipitate war. Montenegro won over the Malissori, supporting an autonomous northern Albanian Catholic entity.
In August, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević "Apis", the head of the Serbian Black Hand organisation, sent a letter requesting Boletini and his men to assist the Serbs in fighting the Ottomans. The Black Hand stimulated and encouraged the Kosovo Albanians in their revolt, promising them help; Colonel Apis visited northern Albania several times in order to get in touch with the leaders of the Albanian uprising, especially Isa Boletini. Apis declared that the Serbs only wanted to liberate the Albanians from Ottoman subjection, and that the Serbs and Albanians both would benefit from liberating the country. Succeeding in persuading the Kosovo Albanians to fight against the Ottomans, however, Apis and his men committed political murders disguised as Albanians, and eventually the Montenegrin and Serbian armies massacred Albanians, and stopped the inflow of arms to the Albanians, in early September 1912.

Balkan Wars

In the beginning of the First Balkan War, the Ottoman army was supported by some Albanian volunteers and irregulars; the Ottoman authorities supplied Isa Boletini's men with 65,000 rifles and to protect Albanian lands within the empire he fought by their side which disappointed Serbia. It was reported in the Serbian press that during the surrender of Albanian rebels at Lumë on 16 November 1912, that Boletini and his men had managed to escape. On 28 November 1912 in Vlora the Albanian National Assembly proclaimed independence. Ismail Qemali refused to wait for Isa Boletini and other Albanian leaders of the Kosovo Vilayet and hastily made the declaration. The southern elite wanted to prevent Boletini's plans to assert himself as a key political figure and used him to suite their military needs. Isa Boletini contributed in the protection of Vlora government, while later was part of the Albanian delegation to the London Conference together with Ismail Qemali, Albanian head of government. The Albanian delegation wanted a Kosovo within the borders of the newly founded state of Albania, however the Great Powers said no and ceded the region to Serbia.
In 1913, Boletini and Bajram Curri commanded rebels against the Serbian and Montenegrin armies. On 13 August 1913, an outbreak of hostilities took place on the Serbian-Albanian frontier. A tenacious Albanian band of fighters under the command of Isa Boletini, now Minister for War in the Provisional Government, made a successful attack on the frontier town of Debar and captured it from the small Serbian garrison, which had to retire after suffering severe losses.
On 23 September 1913, the dissatisfaction of the Albanian population at finding themselves under Serbian rule led to an uprising in Macedonia of Albanian patriots who refused to accept the decision of the Ambassadors Conference on the Albanian borders. The Albanian government organised armed resistance to recover the lost areas and 6,000 Albanians under the command of Isa Boletini, the Minister of War, crossed the frontier. After an engagement with the Serbians the forces retook Debar and then marched, together with a Bulgarian band led by Petar Chaoulev, in the direction of Ohrid, but another band was checked with loss at Mavrovo. Within a few days they captured the towns of Gostivar, Struga and Ohrid, expelling the Serbian troops. At Ohrid they set up a local government and held the hills towards Resen for four days.

1914

During the pro-Ottoman Muslim peasant uprising in central Albania which broke out in mid-May 1914, Isa Boletini and his troops defended Prince Wilhelm zu Wied. On 30 May, the loyalty of some northern Albanian tribes was unclear, however, the Lumë tribe was deemed to have been won over by the Albanian government, as they were under the influence of Isa Boletini and Bajram Curri, both having given their service to the government. It was reported on 5 June 1914 that the Mirdites and Malissori in Durazzo had fled and put down their weapons, and that also their leaders, among whom were Isa Boletini, had fled and stated that they were unfit to fight the more numerous enemy. The rebels had surrounded the town and stated that they would not withdraw until Prince Wilhelm left Durazzo; 300 Malissori were left dead and 250 wounded, out of whom 150 had drowned in the town's pond.
When the revolt deteriorated in June 1914, Isa Boletini and his men, mostly from Kosovo, joined the Dutch International Gendarmerie in their fight against the pro-Ottoman rebels. It was reported on 28 June 1914 that Ismail Qemali arrived in Albania to impose order, with the plan of dividing the country into cantons: The northern parts, to the Mat river, managed by Prenk Bib Doda; the central Muslim parts, from the Mat to the Shkumbin, managed by Essad Pasha; from Shkumbin to Tepelena, Ismail Qemali; Orthodox parts, Zoografos. The next day Wilhelm held an assembly in Durazzo of notable Albanian citizens from across the country, numbering some 40, among whom were Prenk Bib Doda, Ismail Qemali and Isa Boletini. Some advised the Prince to ask the Great Powers for troops, others resisted that advice and instead advised to ask the Great Powers for guarantees for the Albanian borders set out in the London Conference of 1912–13. There were manifestations in support of Wilhelm, and Boletini is cited as having said: "Despite that we did not choose Prince Wilhelm, but Europe suggested him, we are today faithfully loyal to him, and in the case that Prince Wilhelm be forced to leave us, may no other receive that mandate, because Albanians are not children with whom you can play". The assembly was viewed of as successful, as the Muslim and Catholic representatives agreed to keep Prince Wilhelm.

World War I

During World War I, Boletini commanded guerrilla fighters against the Montenegrin and Serbian armies.
On 20 October 1914, 1,000 Albanians, led by Bajram Curri, Isa Boletini, Bulgarian komite and Austrian officers, attacked a Montenegrin base near Djakovica, and took two hill artillery pieces with them. The Montenegrin army then surrounded and defeated them, and pushed them into Albanian territory.
On 23 June 1915, after Montenegrin forces entered Scutari, Isa Boletini and his men laid down their weapons and surrendered, traveling to Cetinje.

Legacy

Isa Boletini was tall, well-built, and strong, with great reputation, whose deeds of bravery and escapes from Turks and Serbs had become legends in Albania. He was noted for always wearing the traditional Albanian white cap and national dress. He is considered one of Albania's greatest patriots and heroes. His ideas influenced the likes of Midhat Frashëri and prominent Albanian nationalists.
During the airplane meeting in Podgorica on 24 June 1934, pilot Tadija Sondermajer wore a Montenegrin dress and the flintlock of Isa Boletini.
In 2010, Fatmir Sejdiu, the president of the Republic of Kosova, awarded him the highest order, "Hero of Kosovo", along with Azem Galica, Shote Galica, Hasan Prishtina, and Bajram Curri.
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A statue of him was uncovered in Southern Mitrovica on the 100th anniversary of the Independence of Albania and Flag Day.
During the abandoned Serbia v Albania match, on 14 October 2014, while the game was suspended, a small remote-controlled quadcopter drone with a flag suspended from it hovered over the stadium. The flag showed the faces of Ismail Qemali and Isa Boletini and a map of a Greater Albania.
Boletini was killed in a fight in Montenegro in 1916 and buried in the capital Podgorica. In 1998, his remains were exhumed and brought to Mitrovica, where they were kept in the town's mosque. They were removed in 2011, largely for security reasons in Kosovo's troubled north, and sent to the department of forensics in Pristina, where they were kept until 2015. A decision to rebury Boletini in Vlore the city in which Albanian independence was proclaimed, made by Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, sparked negative reactions among Kosovo Albanians. The Boletini family first agreed to a reburial in Vlore but then refused. On 10 June 2015, Boletini was reburied at a ceremony in the village of Boletin. Hundreds of people attended the reburial which followed a public tribute at Mitrovica's football stadium. The honouring of Boletini was condemned by Serb minority MPs in Kosovo, who boycotted parliamentary session, calling it a provocation.
The Isa Boletini Monument is a heroic statue of Isa Boletini in Shkodër, in northwestern Albania. It is high and was erected in 1986.

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