Prizren, League of

Albanian League, a national organization founded on June 10, 1878, in Prizren by a congress of representatives of the feudal-patriarchal aristocracy, the merchants, and the bureaucracy. It was founded in protest against the decisions of the Congress of Berlin of 1878, which handed over to Montenegro and Greece the areas of European Turkey along their borders that had an Albanian population.

The league, whose creation was supported by the Turkish government in an attempt to further its own interests, soon broke off relations with Turkey. In November 1878 the league demanded autonomy for the territories populated by the Albanians. Its Central Council (from August 1880, Abdul Bey Frasheri and others) led the struggle to maintain the unity of the Albanian areas until April 1881, when the Turkish troops defeated the ill-equipped forces of the league and dealt brutally with its participants.