Folk Songs about Canakkale in Albanian History and Literature

Abstract

Albanian culture coexisted for a period of over 500 years with Ottoman culture, at the turn of the new century, along with the Balkan troubles that led to the continued embrace of the transition from an old culture to the ideology of the Young Turk movement, and the continuation of joint Albanian-Turkish actions, in order to protect the Albanian Vilayets from the Serbo-Montenegrin occupiers. Early nineteenth-century Turkey emerged from bloody wars on all sides of its borders and from a weak government led by Abdul Hamid II faced a new war in 1915 now in defense of the Dardanelles in the bloodiest battle "The Battle of Canakkale". The First World War found Albanians divided and occupied in some of its territories, however, from 1912 Albania had declared Independence, but Kosovo, Skopje and Bitola, Ulcinj and Bar had remained outside the borders, while Chameria - the South of Albania had been invaded by Greece. During the First World War a large number of Albanians remained in the Turkish military service, many others joined the Turkish army, mainly Albanians who had migrated to Turkey from the violence of the Serbo-Montenegrin invaders, as well as some more from Kosovo, Skopje, Tetovo, Presevo, Shkodra, Ulcinj, etc who volunteered to help the Turkish army. According to history, oral literature and written documents, many Albanians died heroically, it is said that about 25,000 martyrs had died in this battle. In their honor, the Albanian people composed songs, it is worth mentioning the "song dedicated to the Battle of Canakkale" by the most prominent folklorists of the Albanian nation. Our research was done through a semi-structured interview with: 5 teachers of Albanian literature (at the same time master’s students at the University "Kadri Zeka" in Gjilan, Kosovo); 5 history teachers (at the same time master’s students at the University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Prishtina, Kosovo); 2 independent researchers from the Institute of History "Ali Hadri" Prishtina, Kosovo.