The Albanian revolt of 1911 or the Malësori uprising of 1911 was one of many Albanian revolts in the Ottoman Empire and lasted from 24 March 1911 until 4 August 1911 in the region of Malësia.
Background
The main headquarters of the rebels were in Podgorica and King Nikola provided weapons for the insurgents. King Nicholas promised to support Malësor with arms and to provide a shelter to their families before the revolt began.
Although both king Nikola and prince Danilo were assuring Ottoman ambassador that they are observing "the strictest neutrality" it was obvious that Kingdom of Montenegro was involved in this revolt. General Vukotić organized passing out the weapon to the rebels.
Nikola's strategy was to stimulate unrest in northern Albania and north-western Kosovo to the point where he could intervene and annex more territory for Montenegro. Most of contemporary studies confirm that this uprising was supported by Montenegro.
At the end of March 1911 the Kingdom of Montenegro forced them to return to Kosovo Vilayet. Thousands of refugees together with the Albanian Catholic tribes staged the Albanian Revolt of 1911.
The Albanian National Committee was founded in Podgorica in February 1911. In a meeting of the Committee held in Podgorica from 2 to 4 February 1911, under the leadership of Nikolla bey Ivanaj and Sokol Baci Ivezaj, it was decided to organize an Albanian uprising.
Revolt in Malësia
Revolt
Troops of Montenegro supported the revolt and captured 12 Ottoman soldiers and imprisoned them in Podgorica.
The first serious attempt of the Ottoman government to suppress the revolt resulted with the Battle of Deçiq. Terenzio Tocci gathered the Mirdite chieftains on 26 April 1911 in Orosh, proclaimed the independence of Albania, raised the flag of Albania (according to Robert Elsie it was raised for the first time after Skanderbeg's death) and established the provisional government. Shefqet Turgut Pasha wanted to meet this threat and returned to the region with 8.000 soldiers. As soon as he reached Shkodër on 11 May, he issued a general proclamation which declared martial law and offered an amnesty for all rebels (except for Malësor chieftains) if they immediately return to their homes. After Ottoman troops entered the area Tocci fled the empire abandoning his activities.
On 14 May, three days after his proclamation, Shefqet Turgut Pasha ordered his troops to seize Dečić, hill that overlooked Tuzi. Sixty Albanian chieftains rejected Turgut Pasha's proclamation on their meeting in Podgorica on 18 May. After almost a month of intense fightings rebels were trapped and their only choices were either to die fighting, to surrender or to flee to Montenegro. Most of the rebels chose to flee to Montenegro which became a base for large number of rebels determined to attack the Ottoman Empire. Ismail Kemal Bey and Tiranli Cemal bey traveled from Italy to Montenegro at the end of May and met the rebels to convince them to adopt the nationalistic agenda which they eventually did. On 12 June Porte prematurely proclaimed that the revolt had ended.
Gerče Memorandum
At initiative Ismail Qemali the assembly of the tribal leaders of the revolt was held in a village in Montenegro (Gerče) on 23 June 1911 to adopt the "Gërçe Memorandum" (sometimes referred to as "Red Book"(Libri i Kuq) because of the color of its covers) with their requests both to Ottoman Empire and Europe (in particular to the Great Britain). This memorandum was signed by 22 Albanian chieftains, four from each tribe of Hoti, Grude and Skrel, five from Kastrati, three from Klementi and two from Shale.
Requests of memorandum included: general amnesty for all participants in the revolt demand for recognition of the Albanian ethnicity election of the deputies of Albanian ethnicity for the Ottoman Parliament according to the proportional system Albanian language in schools governor and other appointed high officials have to know Albanian language and all other positions in the administration have to be reserved only for people of Albanian ethnicity men who are ethnic Albanians to serve army only in Albania during the peacetime confiscated arms to be returned all Albanian property damaged by Ottoman troops to be compensated
The Memorandum was submitted to the representatives of Great Powers in Cetinje, Montenegro. It was basically a reply to amnesty offered by Ottoman military commander Shefqet Turgut Pasha.