[5] Based on the Treaty of London signed on May 30, 1913, the Great Powers resolved on July 29, 1913 that they should establish International gendarmerie to take care of public order and security on the territory of newly recognized Principality of Albania.

A plot by the Young Turk government led by Bekir Fikri to restore Ottoman control over Albania through the installment of an Ottoman-Albanian officer, Ahmed Izzet Pasha, as monarch was uncovered by the Serbs and reported to the ICC.

[14][13][18] During Fikri's trial, the plot emerged and an ICC military court under Colonel Willem de Veer condemned him to death.

[20][21] By early May 1914,[22] the discontent had evolved into a general revolt led by Haxhi Qamili, Arif Hiqmeti, Musa Qazimi and Mustafa Ndroqi.

[32]Dutch officers led by Lodewijk Thomson who were stationed in Albania as part of the ICC ultimately decided to have Toptani arrested,[28] despite Wilhelm remaining indecisive on the matter.

[34] In order to gain support of the Mirdita Catholic volunteers from the northern mountains, Prince Wilhelm appointed their leader, Prênk Bibë Doda, to be the foreign minister of the Principality of Albania.

The second attack began after an hour before it was once again repulsed, mainly due to the brave actions of the Romanians who were greatly praised by their Christian Albanian comrades.

[43] On 1 September 1914, the Muslim insurgents notified the ICC that they demanded that Wilhelm leave Albania or they would begin a renewed bombardment of Durrës until it surrendered.

[44] Under overwhelming pressure, Wilhelm finally decided it would indeed be best to leave the country, departing on 3 September 1914 on the same Italian yacht that he had briefly fled to earlier in May after the battle at Shijak.

[42] He issued a proclamation to the Albanian people that "he deemed it necessary to absent himself temporarily",[45] and went on to join the Imperial German Army on the eastern front.

Inside the city, the victorious rebels hoisted the Ottoman flag, began imprisoning supporters of Wilhelm, and declared that they would seek to install a Muslim prince.

[47][48] Prince Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin, a son of the former Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II, was invited to take up this position,[49][50] but this proposal never materialized.

[53][55] Toptani was aware that the vast majority of the population governed by the Senate of Central Albania remained pro-Ottoman (the Ottoman Empire was neutral at this point in the war).

Emboldened especially by the Ottoman declaration of jihad against the Entente (14 November), a Muslim revolt occurred once more, this time starting from the Krujë area.

[56] These rebels were extremely anti-Serbian and influenced by Ottoman propaganda which branded Toptani as a traitor to Islam and called for the reconquest of Kosovo from Serbia.

[61] After months of delay, Serbia finally sent forces to Albania to intervene on behalf of Toptani in June 1915, and were able to crush the rebels.

[62] Nonetheless, later in October 1915, the forces of the Central Powers overran Serbia and invaded Albania, with Toptani going into permanent exile.

Local Islamic leaders also denounced the "archaic" ideas of Haxhi Qamili and supported the adoption of the Latin alphabet, contradicting much of the Sunni clergy elsewhere.

[68] During the revolt, the "disciplinary forces" of rebels headed by the mufti of Tirana, Musa Qazimi, carried out executions in order to "clean" the "Bektashi schismatics".