| Siege of Scutari | |||||||
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| Part of the First Balkan War | |||||||
Clockwise from top left: Flags of Great Powers on Shkodër fortress; Ottoman troops defending Shkodër; Montenegrin flag flying over the Shkoder fortress; Captured flag standard of Montenegrin forces proudly displayed by Turkish and Albanian troops; Albanian guerillas shooting from a tree; Albanian officers posing with captured Montenegrin ammunition |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Ottoman Empire Albania Voulanteer force |
Montenegro Serbia |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hasan Riza Pasha Esad Pasha Toptani[4] |
King Nikola Crown Prince Danilo |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 5,000 Ottoman Empire 10,000 Albanian volunteers |
25,000 Montenegrins Three Serbian Divisions (30,000) |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | 8,000 Montenegrins killed, or wounded 10,000 Serbians killed, or wounded [5][6] |
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The Siege of Scutari took place from October 28, 1912 to April 23, 1913, between allied forces of Montenegro and Serbia against forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Provisional Government of Albania.
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The Siege of Scutari is also referred to as the Siege of Shkoder,[7] Siege of Shkodra (Albanian: Lufta e Shkodrës, Serbian: Опсада Скадра) or Defence of Shkodra.[8] (Turkish: İşkodra Müdafaası[9] or İşkodra Savunması[10])
In 1912 the Balkan League--consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria--had jointly declared war against the Ottoman Empire. Montenegro mobilized its troops and prepared to attack the Ottoman forces in Albania directly to the south. It also enlisted the support of Catholic Albanian tribes across the border who had been fighting the Turkish armies for centuries.[11] Scutari had long been desired by Montenegro, although its inhabitants were overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians.
On 8 October 1912 Gen. Hasan Riza Pasha announced that Montenegro had declared war on Turkey and that its troops were crossing the border between Montenegro and Albania. Two hours after the news the Montenegrin troops, as expected, were approaching Scutari. At noon Hasan Riza Pasha in his headquarters gathered all his commanders and told them:
The city will soon be surrounded, but this city will not fall into the hands of Montenegrins. Shkodra is our fate or our grave, but not our shame. Today we have five thousand troops, but over 20 thousand others are coming to our assistance. As of today begins an uphill battle, that none of us knows how long it will last—Hasan Riza Pasha, during the orginasation of the defence of Scutari, [12]
When the Montenegrins crossed the border, only 10,000 volunteers from Mirdite, led by Gen. Essad Toptani, were available to defend the city. Two thousand soldiers from Mat, who were led by the 17-year-old Ahmet Bey Zogolli, were trapped by the Serbs in Lezhë, while Turkish troops led by Gen. Mahmoud Jella Hajra, which were located in Berat, were trapped in the field of Myzeqe, under attack by a Serb-Bulgarian army. Hasan Riza Pasha did not expect other reinforcements to reach the 15,000 combatants in the city, who had to face more than 25,000 Montenegrins and 30,000 Serbs.[12]
After the declaration of independence in 1912 the people of Scutari withstood the siege of the Montenegrin and Serbian armies for seven months. A total of some 36,000 shells were fired on the city, but still it did not fall into the hands of the invading armies. It became apparent that Turkey was suffering from domestic problems and would not be able to defend its possessions in the Balkans. It was theorized after the attack that Russia had advised the Turks to conquer as much territory as possible, with the idea that the Conference of Ambassadors, expected to meet in December, would decide the extent of their boundaries in all lands that were under control.[12]
The siege started on October 28, 1912. The attack was originally carried out by the Montenegrin army under the command of Prince Danilo. However, his forces encountered stiff resistance, and the Serb army sent reinforcements to help its Montenegrin allies. The combined Turkish and Albanian defenders led by Hasan Riza Pasha and his lieutenant, Esad Pasha Toptani, resisted for seven months and managed to inflict a heavy toll on the besiegers.[11]
On January 30, 1913, Riza Pasha was ambushed and killed by Osman Bali and Mehmet Kavaja,[13] two Albanian servants of Esad Pasha, as he left Esad's house after dining with him.[12] Riza Pasha wanted to keep up the defense of the besieged city but Esad Pasha wanted to continue his secret negotiations with Montenegro, which were done through the counsel of Russia in Scutari. Esad Pasha's plan was to hand over Scutari to the Serbs and Montenegrins as the price for their support in his attempt to proclaim himself King of Albania.[12][14]
On April 21, 1913, Esad Pasha made the official proposal to surrender the city to Montenegrin Gen. Vukotic. On April 23 his proposal was accepted and he was allowed to leave the city with full military honors and with all of his troops and equipment, except heavy guns. He also received a sum of 10,000 sterlings from the Montenegrin King.[15] Essad Pasha signed the final surrender protocol[1] with the Montenegrins[16] Essad Pasha surrendered Scutari to Montenegro only after its destiny was decided by the Great Powers, after they forced Serbia to retreat and after it was obvious that the Great Powers would not allow Montenegro to keep Scutari. Essad Pasha was able to save many of his soldiers,[17] who would otherwise have died defending the city with no hope of prevailing. At the same time he managed to get the support of Serbia and Montenegro for the new Kingdom of Albania, which would gain Scutari indirectly by the Great Powers.[12]
The taking of Scutari removed the only obstacle to the Serbian advance in the remainder of Ottoman Albania. By November 1912 the country had declared independence but was yet to be recognized by anyone. The Serbian army eventually occupied most of northern and central Albania, stopping north of the town of Vlorë. It also managed to trap the remains of the Army of Vardar in what was left of Albania proper, but were not able to force them to surrender.[11] However, when the war was over, the Great Powers did not award the city to the Kingdom of Montenegro, which was compelled to evacuate it in May 1913, in accordance with the London Conference of Ambassadors. The army's withdrawal was hastened by a small naval flotilla of British and Italian gunboats that moved up the Bojana River and across the Adriatic coastline.[6] The Kingdom of Montenegro also later took Metohija, an area of Kosovo-Kosmet. They, along with their Serb counterparts, were involved in several massacres of Albanians.
Albanian novelist Ndoc Nikaj wrote an historical novel titled Shkodra e rrethueme ("Shkodra under siege") in 1913.[19] Aleksa Šantić, poet of Serbian descent, wrote a poem "To Essad Pasha" (Serbian: Esad Paši), inspired by the Siege of Scutari.[20]