Appendix A (iii) RESOLUTION No. III (Relating to Bulgaria) 1. The Conference agree that it is desirable to proceed without delay to the consideration of preliminary Peace Terms with Bulgaria and to press on the necessary investigations with all possible speed. 2. The preliminary Peace Terms, other than the naval, military and air conditions should inter alia cover the following points: (a) the approximate future frontiers of Bulgaria; 3. In order that the Conference may have at its disposal with the least possible delay the results of the labours of the various Commissions which have been investigating these subjects it is requested that the various Commissions will send in their reports to the Secretary-General not later than Saturday, March 8th. This will not apply to Commissions set up after February 15th which may be unable to render their final reports at so early a date, but it is requested that in these cases interim reports may be presented dealing with all matters affecting the preliminaries of peace with Bulgaria. PARIS, 22nd February, 1919. Appendix A (iv) RESOLUTION No. IV (Relating to Turkey) 1. The Conference agree that it is desirable to proceed without delay to the consideration of preliminary Peace Terms with Turkey and to press on the necessary investigations with all possible speed. 2. The preliminary Peace Terms, other than the naval, military and air conditions, should cover inter alia the following points: (a) the approximate future frontiers of Turkey; 3. In order that the Conference may have at its disposal with the least possible delay the results of the labours of the various Commissions which have been investigating these subjects it is requested that the various Commissions will send in their reports to the Secretary-General not later than Saturday, March 8th. This will not apply to Commissions set up after February 15th which may be unable to render their final reports at so early a date, but it is requested that in these cases interim reports may be presented dealing with all matters affecting the preliminaries of peace with Turkey. PARIS, 22nd February, 1919. Addendum ALBANIAN CLAIMS Statement by Touran Pasha Refer to Page 8, BC-38, Report for February 24, 1919 The Albanians base all their hopes on the justice of this High Assembly, on whom they rely utterly. They trust that the principle of nationality so clearly and solemnly proclaimed by President Wilson and his great Associates will not have been proclaimed in vain, and that their rights-which have, up to now, been trampled underfoot-will be respected by the Congress whose noble mission it is to dower humanity with a peace which, to be durable, must be based on right and justice. It was the Congress of Berlin which first of all denied the rights of the Albanian nation. The reasons therefor are explained by the fact that Albania, unlike other Balkan nations, has never had any protectors, and also by Albania's very advantageous geographical position, which has from time immemorial excited the cupidity of her neighbours. 5 The Treaty of Berlin deprived Albania of the territories of Antivari, Hoti, Grouda, Triopchi, Kichi, Podgoritza, Plava and Goussigne, to the benefit of Montenegro; and of a part of Southern Albania (Epirus) between the Gulf of Proveza and the Kalamas River, to the benefit of Greece. This flagrant injustice led the Albanians to form the Prizrend Patriotic League, which opposed the handing over of the territories of Plava, Goussigne, Hoti, and Grouda by force of arms. The Great Powers thereupon gave Montenegro the port of Dulcigne in compensation for those territories, which the Albanians retained. This compensation was carried out by means of a naval demonstration, well known under the name of "Dulcigne Naval Demonstration". In the south, the Prizrend League made the same energetic resistance. The International Commission which came to Preveza to carry out the transfer of Albanian territory to Greece met with popular resistance, and had to leave the country without fulfilling its ungrateful task. On the strength of its report, the Powers who had signed the Treaty of Berlin were obliged to acknowledge as Albanian the region which they had decided to cede to Greece, and fixed the Greek frontier at the Arta River. The Treaty of Berlin has justly been called "Albania's Funeral Treaty". Nevertheless, the mutilations made by it might be called scratches, when compared with those later inflicted on Albania by the Conference of London of 1913. This Conference not only settled the Kalamas line (repudiated by the Albanians, as stated above), but also gave Greece the whole region from Arta to Cape Stilos. This region, which is known as the Chameria and is between 30 and 40 kilometres long, had a population of 63,000 before the Balkan War-40,000 being Albanians, 14,000 Christian Albanians, and 9,000 Greeks (or speaking Greek among themselves). To the North, the Conference gave Montenegro and Serbia the territories of Kraya and Anamalit and the clans of Hoti and Grouda, the districts of Plava, Goussigne and Ipek, the Eastern part of the Mitrovitza district, the districts of Prichina, Guilan, Ferizovitch and Kachanik, part of the Uskub district, and the districts of Prizrend, Kalkandelen, Gostivar, Karcheva, Dibra, Strouga and Ochrida. The Albanian population of these districts, which are situated in the ancient vilayets of Kossova and Monastir, forms an 80% majority over the Slav elements. We therefore claim all these territories, which were torn from us by the Treaty of Berlin and the Conference of London of 1913. Kossovo, also known as Old Serbia, has been inhabited by Albanians from time immemorial. The Serbs only appeared there in the 7th century, but could never establish their mastery owing to continual insurrections by the Albanians and to Bulgar rivalry. Serbian preponderance in the Kossovo region has always been transitory, and in spite of Serbian oppression and persecution the large majority of its population has always been Albanian. The Serbian population which has penetrated there forms a minority of only 15%. During the last few years and especially in 1910, 1911, and 1912, the Albanians attempted to regain their independence by insurrections. In 1912, 18,000 Albanians of Kossovo captured the town of Uskub after a desperate struggle against the Turkish Army, and compelled Turkey to grant them certain concessions. The Ottoman Government was about to own the justice of Albanian aspirations by granting autonomous administration to part of Albania comprising the vilayets of Kossovo, Scutari and Yaninia, and part of the vilayet of Monastir. The Balkan States realised the weakness of a Turkey unable to subdue the Albanians, and feared the creation of an autonomous Albanian state in territory which they had long desired to possess. They therefore hastened to declare war against Turkey, and so the Albanians were unable to benefit by the concessions which they had won by armed force. At the time of the territorial readjustment of the Balkans in 1913, our country was sacrificed for the sake of its neighbours, because the imminent danger of a European conflagration had to be averted at all costs. But now that the conflagration is over and the questions connected therewith are being settled by the triumph of the rights of nationalities, we are fully convinced that the rich districts which are wholly Albanian and as such necessary to the existence of Albania, will in justice be restored to their mother country. Even though small foreign minorities must inevitably be included within the boundaries of the State of Albania, large groups of Albanians will, on the other hand, remain outside its boundaries. The Conference is certain to appreciate the difference between our own legitimate desire for the return of brother Albanians to the Albanian family and the unjust claims of our neighbours, who, not content with having snatched from us so much wholly Albanian territory by force, now ask permission from the Congress to take yet more away. Thus Greece claims the part of Southern Albania called Northern Epirus, arguing that it has a population of 120,000 Greeks and 80,000 Albanians. We dispute these figures, and maintain that the pro-Greek population of that region does not exceed 20,000 inhabitants. These 20,000 inhabitants live in the valley of Drinopoli and the plain (Vource) of Delvino; they are farmers who possess neither fields nor houses, but cultivate the land belonging to the Albanians. It is also argued that all orthodox Albanians should be considered Greeks, regardless of nationality. This empty claim has naturally induced the Greek clergy to make their religion an instrument of oppression and tyranny. The League of Prizrend had wrung from Turkey permission to open an Albanian school at Koritza; but the Greek clergy excommunicated orthodox parents who sent their children to this school, and denounced them to the Ottoman Government as conspirators against the State. By this means they procured the deportation and imprisonment of many heads of Albanian families and led to the said school being closed. As the Ottoman Government, for its part, brought the same pressure to bear on Mussulman parents to prevent them from sending their children to the Albanian school, the Greek clergy were in this instance allies of the Ottoman Government against patriotic Albanians. Those who consider orthodox Albanians as Greeks urge that it would be unjust to attempt to subject a Christian majority, with a superior civilisation, to a Mussulman minority with an inferior civilisation. There can be no question of a difference of civilisation between children of the same race who live together under the same conditions, speak the same language, and have the same customs. If orthodox Albanians have attended Greek schools, Mussulman and Catholic Albanians denied the right to be taught in their native tongue have, on the other hand, attended Turkish, French, Italian, English and American schools. Much emphasis is laid on the Greek sympathies of orthodox Albanians. In contradiction to this we bring forward the opinion of Lord Hobhouse, who accompanied Lord Byron to Albania and at the beginning of the 19th century wrote as follows concerning the populations forming the Ottoman Empire: "Only the Albanians are conscious of nationality; all the other peoples of the Empire are grouped according to religion”. Monsieur Aubaret, French delegate on the Commission for Eastern Roumelia, says in a Memorandum presented to the said Commission on August 13th, 1880 "They (the Albanians) live in complete unity; they are Albanian before everything else. If it is true that the Catholics are warmly attached to their religion, it is not less true that both they and their Mussulman fellow-countrymen value national consciousness, love of the soil and respect for old customs very highly, and put them before all other considerations." In "L'Illustration" of 7th April, 1917, M. Vaucher writes concerning the Koritza district:- "Albania for the Albanians is the motto of all the inhabitants of this rich plain of Koritza.. "For two months (as a Republic) the Albanians have . . . shown that they are capable of living on good terms with one another. There are no more religious quarrels, for the excellent reason that there is nobody now to stir them up." Our opponents claim precisely that part of Albania which was burnt out by the Cretan bands of Zographos and disguised Greek soldiers under the command of Greek officers. This is clearly shown by the sketch which I have the honour to submit to you," and which gives the names of the villages concerned. It is a curious fact that the Greeks set fire to precisely those villages which they considered and still consider Greek. On this subject M. Vaucher, correspondent of "L'Illustration," writes: "The whole region of Kolonia has been laid waste since Greek bands passed through it in 1913. Names marked on the map are Not filed with the minutes. |