 |
| Tombs of the battalions of the Albanians who fell in Çanakkale |
 |
| Albanians leaving for the Canakkale War |
In the first days of August 1914 the Austro-Serbian conflict turned into a world war between Germany and Austria-Hungary on the one hand and England, France, and Russia on the other. Turkey at that time was lined up on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The causes of the First World War lay in the unequal development of capitalism in some European countries and that the powerful capitalist states possessed colonies and had a role that dominated the world. Greater colonial possessions belonged to Great Britain so that it had 140 times larger territory than its state territory. By the beginning of the twentieth century, two military-political alliances were formed: a) the Central Powers Bloc (Tripartite Pact) and b) the Entente powers. In time, relations between the blocs were strained and the war could have broken even before 1914 because at that time there were many hotbeds, political crises, and local wars.
On April 25, 1915, one of the bloodiest battles ever fought, was the Battle of Canakkale, known otherwise the Gallipoli Campaign.
The father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, commanded the 19th Division of Albanian ranks that were mostly from Albanian lands such as: Presevo, Kumanovo, Skopje, Bitola, Ohrid, Peja, Gjakova, Vlora, Elbasan, etc. there were more than 25,000 volunteer soldiers.
The bloody battle of Canakkale was to end on January 9, 1916, when the English and French realized that this great colonialist battle could not be won, and with great defeat withdrew from Canakkale and the Dardanelles Strait.
THE ROLE OF ALBANIANS IN THE BATTLE OF CANAKALE
The Battle of Canakkale was a great victory for Kemal Ataturk and Turkey, but a historic loss to the (Albanian) people killed and a loss of European support for us, and a bad memory that will follow us historically.
Dr. Ibrahim Krosi, in his book "Kemal Ataturk and the Albanians", writes that "The 19th Division of the Turkish Army in the Battle of Canakkale, commanded by Mustafa Kemal, according to the testimonies of scholars and historians, consisted mainly of Albanians."
According to the data, thousands of Albanians from almost all ethnic areas took part in the Canakkale war, because in 1915, although the Albanian Independent State was declared, the border was not set, while the military forces of the Ottoman Empire were everywhere in the four Albanian vilayets., in the struggle to confront the Slavic and European Christian alliance, which made no distinction between Albanians, Turks, Bosnian Muslims, Jews, and all non-Christians.
It is an undeniable fact that many Albanians had mobilized to go and defend Turkey, which they still consider Turkey their state, but there were more others who had flocked to Turkey since the beginning of the Balkan Wars when there was started the storm of Slavic, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian armies, in the war to overthrow Turkey and everything they considered Turkish, primarily relying on religious grounds. Tens of thousands of Turks, Albanians, Bosniaks, Jews, and others were killed during the escape.
The Gallipoli military campaign, also known as the Dardanelles campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Canakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a World War I campaign that took place on the Gelibolu Peninsula in Turkey from 17 February 1915 - January 9, 1916. Entente powers - Britain, France, and Russia - attempted to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the straits that provided a supply route to Russia. The Allied attack on the Ottoman fortress at the entrance of the Dardanelles in February 1915 failed and was followed by an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915 to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, former Constantinople. In January 1916, after eight months of fighting, with nearly 250,000 casualties on each side, the ground campaign was abandoned and the invading force withdrew. It was a costly loss for the Allies and sponsors, especially the First Admiral Lord (1911-1915), Winston Churchill. The campaign was hailed as a great Ottoman victory. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final rise in the defense of the homeland as the Ottoman Empire had fallen. The war formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who rose as the most prominent commander in Gallipoli, and as the founder and first President of post-imperial Turkey.
One of the most powerful rhapsodic creations of Albanian folklore is the Song of Canakkale, which has been sung in many variants in almost all regions of Albania.
This song, which belongs to the bloody war of the European and Asian allied forces against Turkey, which was attacked from all sides with the aim of destroying the Turkish state, but also of the people of Turkey, describes the fate of the Albanian fighters, who had remained in the Turkish army even after the declaration of Albania's Independence.
Most of them continued to be nizams and redifs, some of them had families in Turkey, many of them fought as volunteers in order to preserve the existence of the Turkish state, many of them with their families had moved to Turkey from the fascist repression of the Slavic peoples during Balkan wars, which aimed to destroy the Albanian being, the Turkish one but also the newly formed Albanian state. The war, sung in this song, is related to the battle of Canakkale, which took place in the First World War during the years 1915-1916, between the British naval forces supported by the French ships with all the army and combat machinery of the allied powers of the Entente, who with human potential received help with volunteers even from very distant countries like Australia and New Zealand.
Canakkale's song is sung even today in Kosovo and everywhere in Albanian lands. It is essentially a Turkish song, also with Turkish melodies, but which has been translated into several languages of the Balkan peoples. It is also sung in Greek, even sung by the most famous Greek singer of all time, Roza Eshkenazi, then sung and sung in Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Many songs have been dedicated to the Battle of Canakkale, where their echo has crossed the borders of Turkey and these songs have penetrated the Balkan countries. Albanians, as participants in this war, could not help but sing and inherit songs about Canakkale. Today one of the cities in Albania that has made this song part of it and has inherited it among different generations of singers is Elbasan, while one of these singers of Albanian folk music who sang the song of Çankale is Medi Zena, who was born in this city. (Medi Zena, the singer from Elbasan who sings Çanakkale in Albanian).
WHY DID THE ALBANIANS HELP THE TURKS IN CANAKKALE?
This happened with the fact that hundreds of thousands of Albanians lived in Turkey and hundreds of thousands more were displaced from the lands of Albania, as early as 1912, because Slavic lava was pouring against Albanians, Turks, and Jews. To commemorate the atrocities committed by Slavic, it is enough to recall only the reports of the Russian intellectual Leon Trotsky, who being a war reporter on the Serbian fronts in Kosovo, Kumanovo and Skopje described many of the atrocities perpetrated by Serbian, Russian and Bulgarian soldiers against the vulnerable Albanian population. In such a quagmire, when the Albanian being was attacked from all sides, hundreds of thousands of Albanians fled to Turkey. (RKL: Leon Trocki, a personality not well known to Albanians, 5. 1. 2016).
They had lost their homeland but were fighting to defend the country that had welcomed them and the state in which they had lived together for nearly 500 years. Here lies the essence of the heroic resistance of the Albanians in Canakkale, here lies the motive of this Homeric song, which describes the terrible details of a very unequal war, but a fight for life or death, as Albanians have always fought throughout their history.