An Assessment of Albania’s Path to Independence and of Albanian Relations with the Committee of Union and Progress Through the Lens of Ottoman Sources

One of the peoples that gained independence during the Second Constitutional Era, the period of Ottoman disintegration, was the Albanians. Although the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) dominated much of this era, it was in opposition during the decisive months of 1912. Albanian nationalism offers an instructive case, as Albanians comprised Muslims as well as Orthodox and Catholic (Malësor) Christians. While the CUP sought support for Ottomanism and Islamism, neither idea secured the lasting allegiance of a decisive part of the Albanians, although Ottoman and Islamic loyalties persisted among some Muslims; instead, national ideals and demands for autonomy, and eventually independence, increasingly united Albanians of different religions. Drawing primarily on Ottoman archival documents (BOA), periodicals, pamphlets and memoirs, supplemented by Albanian and English-language sources, this article examines the stages of Albanian statehood and CUP–Albanian relations from the Ottoman perspective. It argues that Ottoman official and pro-Unionist sources placed particular emphasis on foreign incitement and resistance to equal obligations, both well documented in the archival record. This emphasis, however, may have left less room for addressing the diverse linguistic, autonomist and separatist demands voiced by different Albanian groups.