The Manastir Congress, the Congress for the Unification of an Albanian Language Alphabet, gathered the most outstanding Albanian scholars from November 14 to November 22, 1908, in Manastir to define the alphabet of the Albanian language. Until this year, the Albanian language was written in several different alphabets, influenced by the occupying states that had always had claims to Albanian territories. One of the most recent alphabets was the one created in Istanbul, called the Istanbul Alphabet. The prevailing opinion was that non-Latin letters were not suitable for the future of the Albanian language. For this reason, the most active and well-known society, “Bashkimi” in Manastir, called the First General Congress to discuss a unified alphabet. A unified alphabet would be the beginning of all Albanian literature. Therefore, on November 14, 1908, the Manastir Congress, or the Alphabet Congress, was convened in Manastir.

160 delegates from Albania and Albanian communities attended the congress in Romania, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, America, etc. Gjergj Fishta was elected President of the Congress. Parashqevi Qiriazi, a teacher at the girls’ school in Korça, was elected commission secretary. Grigor Cilka, from Korça, was elected vice president, along with 11 other members. In that Congress, Albanians of the Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant faiths learned people, and all came together to achieve a great national goal.

History of the Congress

The speech by the Catholic priest Gjergj Fishta from Shkodra touched all the participants. The Albanian patriots demanded that the Albanian language should not be written in Arabic or Greek letters but in the Latin alphabet, which would mean non-submission to the Ottomans or the Greeks. The Congress decided by unanimous vote to leave aside the Istanbul alphabet and write the Albanian language only with the 36-letter Latin alphabet used today. It was also agreed that after two years, a second Congress would be held in Ioannina to examine orthographic and literary problems and make efforts to merge the Gheg and Tosk dialects into a unified Albanian language. Since before the Congress of Manastir, the Albanian language was written in Arabic, Greek, and Slavic characters, or their adaptations, the delegates’ determination to turn their eyes to the West was a cultural declaration of independence, which did not go unnoticed by either the Turkish government or the Greek Orthodox Church and their Slavic allies.

A printing press was also opened in Manastir, financed by patriotic Albanian Muslim merchants. The Manastir printing press soon became known throughout Albania as a distributor of books and newspapers in the Albanian language. This workshop employed 17 people, who worked with a new electric machine set in motion by hand to print the weekly newspaper Bashkimi I Kombit and Albanian primers and school textbooks.

The persecutions

Meanwhile, the issue of the Albanian language often became the cause of the outbreak of violence by fanatics who mercilessly attacked the progress of the Albanian language. Baba Dudë Karbunara (1842-1917), born in Berat, collaborated closely with Kostandin Kristoforidhi. Baba Karbunara often read the gospel in Albanian during the celebration of mass and thus began the first threats from Orthodox clergy members. In 1895, fanatics burned down his entire house. The Orthodox priest, Kapedan Stathi Melani, ran with Albanian books in his pocket and a rifle from village to village in southern Albania to spread the Albanian school and the Albanian church. The activities of Father Stath Melani caught the attention of the Turkish authorities. On December 24, 1917, Father Stathi was ambushed by Josif Suropullo’s band of robbers, who killed him by cutting off Father Stath Melani’s head. Petro Nini Luarasi (1865-1911) is one of the prominent patriots who worked for the spread of the Albanian language in the Korça district. He was the director of the boys’ school in Korça. Petro Nini Luarasi went from village to village to spread the Albanian language.

On September 20, 1892, the bishop of Kostur Fillateri issued an announcement entitled “The Curse of the Albanian Letters”. In 1909, the Turkish government closed all Albanian schools and gave a firm order to burn all Albanian books, documents, and literature. The political situation in the country at that time was critical. For the Albanian patriots, it became clear that they would never be able to realize their lofty goals without first opening Albanian schools for the education of the youth. However, while working to create their school system, the Albanian patriots encountered three significant problems: obstacles from the Turkish and Greek authorities, a lack of money, and a lack of educated teachers.

The first school for Teachers

Small but valuable sums of money had been collected within the country, while more considerable sums had come from Albanian societies and clubs in other countries. However, there were very few educated teachers of the Albanian language. The Salonika Club called the Elbasan Congress from August 20 to 27, 1909, to meet this educational challenge. Delegates from 28 Albanian societies and clubs came to this eight-day Congress, which aimed to develop the educational movement throughout the country. At the Congress, it was decided to establish the “Norm School in Elbasan,” a six-year school to prepare new teachers. People educated in foreign European Universities were found and appointed to form the pedagogical body.

The Monastery Club was designated as the center for creating a Federation of Albanian Clubs in Albania and the suburbs. The purpose of the Clubs was to spread the Albanian language and education without interfering with politics. The Korça Club “Përparimi” was designated as the financial center, which would administer the aid and increase the number of day and night schools. The primary responsibility was to maintain the Elbasan Normal School. The Elbasan Congress encouraged all Albanians to introduce the Albanian language in foreign schools and spread throughout Albania. The Elbasan Normal School continued to prepare education pioneers for the reborn Albania. The first director of the Normal School was Luigj Gurakuqi. Years later, this school was named after him. The Normal School opened in December 1909 with 143 students.

The offensive of Turks

The explosion of Albanians exceeded all the predictions of the enemies of the Albanian language. At that time, about 90 Albanian newspapers and magazines were published abroad in Albania and Albanian colonies. The Young Turks, with their leader Ferit Pasha, frightened by this rapid explosion of Albanian education, reacted harshly, banning societies, schools, and publications in Albanian. In Vlora, honest patriots were arrested and interned; the Vlora school was closed. In Gjirokastër, the pioneer of Albanian national education, Koto Hoxhi, was interned in the Bosphorus castle. Pandeli Sotiri, the founder of the first Albanian school in Korça, was interned in Thessaloniki.

The Young Turks had set themselves the task of capturing alive all honest Albanians who worked for the spread of the Albanian language. Things were going from bad to worse. The emergence of the Albanian language, with Latin letters, provoked ignorant and conservative Muslims. They protested that Albanian, like Turkish, should be written only in Arabic letters and that the preference of Albanian patriots for the Western Latin alphabet was an insult to the Muslim religion. Ignorant and ignorant people, with the support of the Young Turk Government in Istanbul, formed the Mahfeli society to divide Albanians and curb education in Albanians. At the end of 1909, the Turkish Government banned using the Albanian language with the national alphabet in all schools nationwide. It also issued a decree that the Albanian language would be written only in Arabic letters. The reactionary “Mahfeti” society, with the support of the Turkish government, printed and distributed the first primers in Arabic letters.

For this reason, in February 1910, a protest rally was held in Elbasan, where 7,000 protesters raised their voices against using Arabic letters for the Albanian language. That same month, protests continued in Korça and Berat, where over 15,000 people burned Albanian alphabets with Arabic letters sent from Istanbul in the city center.

Numerous telegrams from Albanian societies in Thessaloniki, Skopje, and Manastir were expressed in defense of the Albanian alphabet. In Shkodër, a group of Muslims prepared to organize a demonstration supporting the Arabic letters. However, they changed their minds when 60,000 honest Albanian Catholics and Muslims from Malësia e Madhe organized a grand demonstration a few days earlier to support the Latin letters. Similar protests were organized in Përmet, Kolonjë, Tepelenë, Frashër, Konicë, etc. But the Turks continued their offensive towards the Albanian language. Then, in March 1910, the Second Congress of Manastir was called. There, it was decided to continue using the national alphabet with Latin letters and to protest against the unjust decision of the Turkish Government.

The final movement

The patriotic newspaper “Shkreptima” of Cairo published a memorandum drafted by the insurgents fighting in the mountains of Albania. It emphasized that their goal was to fight for “freedom of education in the Albanian language and with the national alphabet, freedom to open all Albanian schools closed by the Turkish government and to put printing presses into operation, as well as the publication of banned newspapers, the release of political prisoners. It concluded with the message: “Let the entire civilized world and especially the government of the Ottoman Empire know well that all Albanians, Gheg and Tosk, Christians and Muslims, will not cease fighting for these three demands until the government guarantees them to us with certainty.”

Even in this war, the Albanian school emerged victorious. With few means and teachers but with the desire for Albanian school knowledge, amidst obstacles from enemies near and far, the Albanian school won from the north to the south of Albania and prepared new patriotic generations. Although this cultural development was imagined as non-violent, it soon turned into a dangerous fire. Brave Albanians like Isa Boletini and his husband, Ismail Bey Qemal Vlora, would hasten the steps to declare the independence of Albania on November 28, 1912, in Vlora. After a few months, the Balkan War began, and Manastir and Skopje, two cities historically inhabited by a majority Albanian population, were occupied by the Slavs. All Albanian shops and books were burned, and the Serbs slaughtered most Albanian patriots; some were imprisoned. The Albanian Muslim population was forced to abandon the cities of Skopje and Manastir; those Albanian Orthodox families who remained there, over the years and by force, were subjugated, losing their Albanian dignity.