Serbia in the Balkan Wars
According to Bulgarian strategy, the agreement would restrict Serbia's access to Macedonia while allowing Bulgaria to unilaterally capture as much as its troops could without regard to Greek interests.
[citation needed] The failure of the Şarköy-Bulair operation and the deployment of the 2nd Serbian Army together with its much-needed heavy siege artillery sealed Adrianoples fate.
On 11 March, after a two weeks bombardment that destroyed many fortified structures around the city, the final assault started with Allied forces enjoying a crushing superiority over the Ottoman garrison.
Adding to the 33,000 killed, the Turkish historians note that 28,500-man survived captivity[8][better source needed] leaving only 10,000 men unaccounted for[7] as possibly captured (including the unspecified number of wounded).
Accordingly, the Serbs claimed that their troops of the 20th Regiment were those who captured the Ottoman commander of the city and that Colonel Gavrilović was the allied officer who accepted Shukri's official surrender of the garrison, a statement that the Bulgarians disputed.
[12] The Serbs accused the Bulgarians of maximalism, pointing out that if they lost northern Albania and Vardar Macedonia, their participation in the common war would have been virtually for nothing.
[citation needed] The Serbian forces operated against the major part of the Ottoman Western army which was located in the areas of Novi Pazar, Kosovo, and northern and eastern Macedonia.
Putnik declined and instead turned his army to the west, towards Albania, foreseeing that a future confrontation between the Greeks and Bulgarians over Thessaloniki could greatly help Serbia's plans over Vardar Macedonia.
After the Great Powers applied pressure on them, the Serbs started to withdraw from northern Albania and the Sandžak, although they left behind their heavy artillery park to help the Montenegrins in the continuing siege of Shkodër.
Summing the situation in Albanian areas, the Commission concludes: Houses and whole villages reduced to ashes, unarmed and innocent populations massacred en masse, incredible acts of violence, pillage, and brutality of every kind – such were the means which were employed and are still being employed by the Serbo-Montenegrin soldiery, with a view to the entire transformation of the ethnic character of regions inhabited exclusively by Albanians.
The Serbian campaign on present-day Albanian territory (then still officially Ottoman Empire) took place during the First Balkan War and lasted from November 1912 to October 1913.
[18][better source needed] In particular, Serbia had strong reasons to take part in the Albanian Adriatic coast, as the Serbian writer and geographer Jovan Cvijić said: ...for economic independence, Serbia must acquire access to the Adriatic Sea and one part of the Albanian coastline: by occupation of the territory or by acquiring economic and transportation rights to this region.
During the campaign, General Janković forced notables and local tribal leaders to sign a declaration of gratitude to King Petar I Karađorđević admitting to "Liberation by the Serbian army".
[15] During the campaign, the Serbian army committed numerous crimes against the Albanian population "with a view to the entire transformation of the ethnic character of these regions.
Summing the situation in Albanian areas, Commission concludes: Houses and whole villages reduced to ashes, unarmed and innocent populations massacred en masse, incredible acts of violence, pillage and brutality of every kind – such were the means which were employed and are still being employed by the Serbo-Montenegrin soldiery, with a view to the entire transformation of the ethnic character of regions inhabited exclusively by Albanians.
[13] The goal of the expulsions and massacres of ethnic Albanians was a statistic manipulation before the London Ambassadors Conference which was to decide on the new Balkan borders.
"[26] In the region of Yakova, the Montenegrin police-military formation Kraljevski žandarmerijski kor, known as krilaši, committed many abuses and violence against the Albanian population.
[28] According to Zef Mirdita, Serbian priests carried out violent conversions of Albanian Catholics to Serbian Orthodoxy,[29] with the Vienna Neue Freie Presse (20 March 1913) reported that Orthodox priests with the help of military force converted 300 Catholics into Orthodoxy, and that Franciscan Pater Angelus, who refused to renounce his faith, was tortured and then killed with bayonets.
[30][better source needed] After the Serbian army achieved control over the city of Prizren, it imposed repressive measures against the Albanian civilian population.
[14] After the operations of the Serbian military and paramilitary units, Prizren became one of the most devastated cities of the Kosovo vilayet and people called it "the Kingdom of Death".
[14] Eventually, General Božidar Janković forced surviving Albanian leaders of Prizren to sign a statement of gratitude to the Serbian king Peter I Karađorđević for their liberation.
[14] Reports spoke of the atrocities by the Serbian army, including the burning of women and children related to the stack of hay, within the sight of fathers.
In December 1913, the official report was sent to the Great Powers with details of the slaughter of Albanians in Luma and Debar executed after the proclamation of the amnesty by Serbian authorities.
[32]The Treaty of London (which oversaw the creation of an independent Albania) awarded Kosovo to Serbia[16] and the region was immediately subjected to military governance.
[13] The opposition press demanded the rule of law for the population of the annexed territories and the extension of the constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia to these regions.
[33]As a result of the Treaty of London in 1913, which legally awarded the former Ottoman lands to Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, an independent Albania was recognised.
[36][37] Many of the high clergy of Bulgarian Orthodox Church were expelled: Cosmas of Debar (Bishop), Axentius of Bitola (Archbishop), Neophytus of Skopje, Meletius of Veles, Boris of Ohrid and others.
"[38] Specific denials related to Balkan Wars have included: Such atrocities alleged to have been perpetrated by the Serbian Army are simply unthinkable today on the part of a people who are exceptionally religious and tolerant.
[15] Writing about Serbian war crimes denials in 1913, Austrian socialist Leo Freundlich stated that "such grave and detailed accusations cannot be repudiated by a simple statement that the events in question did not occur".
[15] He concluded that different international reports from various sources have more weight in any court of human justice than all the formal denials issued by the Serbian Press Office.
