Albanian revolts of 1833–1839

Once their rule had ended, old and powerful Muslim families across Albanian-inhabited territories attempted to regain their positions and opposed the centralistic policies of the Sublime Porte.

The beys and agas of southern Albania, who had initially sided with the Ottomans during the Greek War of Independence in 1821, abandoned the battlefield due to not being paid their contractual payment by the Sultan's High Command.

In 1829, when both the Greek Revolution and the Russo-Turkish War had concluded, Sultan Mahmud II decided to break the Albanians' disobedience and pacify them.

In 1830, the southern Albanian beys were invited to Manastir under the pretext that they were to be rewarded for their efforts in the Greek revolution, but were deceitfully massacred by Ottoman forces.

[1] On 10 April 1833 about 4,000 armed Albanians from Shkodër and the surrounding areas entered the city occupying the main market and asking for the abolition of taxes and the application of old privileges granted before by the Sultan to the region.

Alarmed by the continuous uprisings, which were also happening in Southern Albania at that time, the Ottoman government accepted the rebel requests and replaced the unpopular governor Namik Pasha with another official.

Inspired by the first successes, other regions of Vlorë, Berat and Skrapar, rose up in rebellion under the leadership of Tafil Buzi, Zenel Gjoleka and Çelo Picari.

In a sign of pacification the Ottoman government evicted Emin Pasha from his post, but the rebellion continued and spread out even more.

Alarmed, the Ottoman government accepted the rebels' requests by nominating Albanian officials in the cities of Berat, Vlorë, Tepelenë, Përmet, and Gjirokastër, and by also declaring an amnesty.

[5] In January 1835, the rebels committee signed a document in which the Ottoman government promised to fulfill their requests while they had to depose the arms.

While the agreement was quickly violated by the Ottoman government, the rebels under Tafil Buzi rose up again, this time marching to Ioannina.

They created a new committee led by Hamza Kazazi, Haxhi Idrizi and other local leaders, asking from the Ottoman government to respect their old privileges.

A new regular army of 30000 men under the command of the secretary of Sultan, Vasaf Efendi was sent as reinforcement to Vali's troops.

[8] Many of the rebels convinced of the document began leaving the ranks, only a part of them under Haxhi Idrizi distrustful of Ottomans continued their resistance.