Acts of violence were committed against ethnic Serbs, primarily by Albanians, during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire and their control of parts of the Balkans (late 19th and early 20th century).

During the Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78, between 49,000 and 130,000 Albanian civilians were violently expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Niš and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet.

[1][2][3][4][5] Within the context of the Serbian–Ottoman Wars, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II unleashed his auxiliary troops consisting of Kosovar Albanians on the remaining Serbs before and after the Ottoman army's retreat in 1878.

[11] The governor (vali) was dismissed, and several other anti-Serb officials and Albanian chieftains who had been especially cruel were removed from their posts.

[14] Ottoman defeat to Serbia alongside new geopolitical circumstances post 1878 opposed by Albanian nationalists resulted in attitudes among them that eventually supported what today is known as "ethnic cleansing" that made part of the Kosovo Serb population to leave.