Isterivanje Arnauta

The Expulsion of the Albanians was a lecture presented by the Yugoslav historian Vaso Čubrilović (1897–1990) on 7 March 1937. originally presented it as a lecture on 7 March 1937 at the Serbian Cultural Club in Belgrade. It suggested a radical solution, ethnic cleansing in the form of expulsion, of Albanians from Kosovo as a geopolitical measure, a means to prevent Albanian irredentism and to secure a Yugoslav Kosovo.

In a memorandum submitted by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Čubrilović proposed in 1937 the mass eviction of Albanians to Albania and Turkey. This proposal was a suggestion to resorting to the use of force as the "only solution" and generating fear as a prerequisite. Other suggestions propounded were the use of "persecution for trivial offences", "economic exclusion" and "burning down Albanian villages and city quarters". He called for this colonisation programme to be placed in the hands of the Army.

Points The paper details a radical solution, the mass expulsion of Albanians. Čubrilović proposed that the Albanians be forced to emigrate free willingly through harassment and settling of Serbs, calling the state for help to make the "Arnaut suffer as much as he can". This would be done through fines, arrests, ruthless application of all police regulations, punishment, smuggling, deforestation and violence. A ruthless collection of taxes would be used and all public schools be closed. Albanian homes and villages could be burnt down, referring to the 1877–78 expulsions of Albanians in Niš and Kuršumlija. These methods would result in ethnic cleansing.

Čubrilović believed that the Albanians were nationalistic, tribalistic, fanatical, superstitious and that previous expulsion plans, like those enacted within the wider Niš region during 1878 in areas such as the Toplica and the Morava Valleys given to Serbia in the Treaty of San Stefano in 1877–1878, would be the only effective way. He proposed that Albanians be called Turks and that their lives should be made as miserable as possible forcing them to leave. Arrangements eventually led to the relocation of tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians to Turkey.

Aftermath and legacy The programme was difficult to put into practice because of the economical and political situation at the time. Yugoslavia did not have the political and military power to apply this plan and no actual political action was undertaken to realise this plan.

The April War and the collapse of Yugoslavia by the invasion of the Third Reich's German army in April 1941 stopped it and the document remained hidden in the archives for years. Čubrilović's paper was "erased" by the Communist authorities because they believed that "all non-Slavic" people should be incorporated into Yugoslavia. The international community found the document in the 1960s, which was then given to Albanian president Enver Hoxha who used it to criticize the Yugoslav authorities, who denied that such a document even existed.

The document was mentioned and published in January 1988 in the Belgrade newspaper Borba, and later in Zagreb-based magazine Start. Čubrilović's document was not supported by Yugoslav historians and professors except for Ivo Andrić.

Annotations