The Montenegrin Policy of Expansion towards Albania before the Balkan War and the 1912 Summer Campaign

Abstract

Montenegro launched a large-scale military attack on Northern Albania and the Sancak border region in 1912. Many writers have analyzed this military operation in the framework of the border disputes between Montenegro and Ottoman State as their borders were not clearly established by the Berlin Treaty (June 13-July 13 1878) According to this view, the fighting that took place had a limited scale and scope. Our study is based on the material at the Ottoman Ministry of War archives. The documents assert that the said fighting was widespread and violent. The main argument of this work is that this military operation of Montenegro was not of limited scope, and the result of reacting to immediate challenges, but was a war which went beyond border skirmishes. Especially the Montenegrin operation which began at the end of July was a planned, large-scale, and violent military operation. This study is based on the idea that Montenegro started this fight upon the successful conclusion of Serbian-Bulgarian negotiations and when a Balkan War became imminent at the beginning of 1912, in order to achieve gains and to anticipate Serbia.

Keywords

Montenegro, Albania, 1912 Summer Campaign.

Citation

Özen, Çınar et al, “The Montenegrin Policy of Expansion towards Albania before the Balkan War and the 1912 Summer Campaign”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Volume 6, No 22 (Summer 2009), p. 125-142.

Affiliations

• Çınar Özen, Assoc. Prof. Dr., Ankara University, Department of International Relations
• Yelda Demirağ, Assoc. Prof. Dr., Başkent University, Department of Political Science and International Relations
• Ahmet Tetik, Dr., ATASE Archives Director