QUOTE #1: League of Prizren was initially created by the Ottomans as a took to counter Serb influence. However, as the source shows, it got out of control and the Ottomans had to subdue it...
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The “Albanian League for the Defence of the Kights of the Albanian Nation” had been set up at Prizren on June 13, 1878, only to influence the decisions of the Congress of Berlin; but it proved to have great significance for the birth of an Albanian state later on. Encouraged by the Ottoman government at the beginning, the League set up resistance to the Montenegrins and Greeks in order to keep the Albanian provinces united (the four Ottoman wilâyets of Yanya, Ishkodra, Manastir and Kosova). But when the league tended to further the idea of an autonomous Albania, the Porte sent an army and aspersed the League (1881).
Osman Zade Naib, referred to Albania as the 'Garden of the Viziers' in his book of that title published in Constantinople in 1853: (He) expressed amazement at the disproportionally large number of cabinet ministers contributed by the subjugated Albanians. He listed 26 grand viziers or prime ministers of Albanian blood who had directed the affairs of the Otytoman Empire since the 1500s.
These grand viziers originated in such places as "Orchrida, Arta, Monastir, Pojani of Korcha, Vlora and Berat. Among them were three who carried Turkey to the peak of her military renown: Sinan Pasha, Ferhad Pasha and Kupruli Pasha"
(p. 325-6)
(Sinan-pasha was the Albanian military lord who burned the bones of the Serbian patron sain Sava on Vracar in Belgrade in order to destroy Serb morale)
"The town of Opari just west of Korcha produced three Albanian architects who designed several of the most superb mosques and fountains in Turkey ...Petro Korchari, chief architect for Ali Pasha of Yanina; the Katro brothers, identified with the exquisitely beautiful Byzantine churches of Voskopoja...and especially Mehmet Isa, chief builder of the incomparable Taj Mahal for Shah Jahan at Agra, India and that Sadefqar Mehmeti of Elbasan, was the architect credited with the famous Blue Mosque (1562) in Istanbul."
During five centuries of Ottoman rule, about two-thirds of the Albanian population, including its most powerful feudal landowners, converted to Islam. Many Albanians won fame and fortune as soldiers, administrators, and merchants in far-flung parts of the empire.
Mehmed Ali was an Albanian mercenary leader. In 1798 Mehmed and his troops were sent to Egypt to fight the French invasionary force. He relinquished control over Syria, but he was granted the right to become the first of hereditary Pasha of Egypt. He died in 1848 and was followed as Pasha of Egypt by his eldest son.
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Early 17th century Albanians who convert to Islam found careers in Ottoman Empire's government and military service.
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Encyclopedia Entry
Wikipedia
During the time of Osmanly Khilafa, Albanians were on their peak of power and glory. Albanians had the key posts in the Osmanly State. They were the main administrators of the Islamic state and in the same time, the bravest generals and comanders of the Osmanly army. While the Janissary army, was almost totally controlled from Albanians.
Fehim Suleimanoglu MuslimOnline.com
Passed on the side of Osmanly State, Albanians become lovely and helpfully on widening of Ottoman and Islamic conquests. When they used to order, armed as they were, they were ready to go until in deserts of Sudan. The state (Osmanly) by valuing their service and loyalty trusted them with the highest ranks and positions of the state. Albanians got very high positions in the Osmanly State; only Pashas that become sadriazem (PM-s) were 25, and many of them were from the time of Sultan Selim the First and Sultan Sulejman (al Kanuni-the magnificent tr.O.J.). Albanians arranged to become PM-s of khilafa up to five turns without change. They saved Osmanly State from bigger destructions. Then, Qypërli Mehmed Pasha with his sons and nephews, and with God's help, had success to triumph on the siege of Vienna and to return to Osmanly State its previous glory and good name Sinan P, under the Osmanly flag, reached up to Yemen and Amman, in Ache and Sumatra, unrecognized places those days.
Sami-Bey Frasheri
...guerrilla wars and uprisings by Serbs brought them limited autonomy in 1815. Meanwhile, the Albanian nationalist movement was as yet unborn. The largely Islamicised Albanians still felt themselves to be a part of the Ottoman Empire, which secured high offices and privileges for their leaders.
Fatos Lubonja, Albanian dissident and historian Essay
The historical hatred of the Serbs for the Albanians is rooted in the latter's links to the Turks. For Serbs, Albanians conquered their lands by means of Turkish expansion. In the 1920's, agricultural reform gave the Serbs another pretext to expel more Albanians by claiming that the land was given to them unjustly by the Turks.
During the Second world war, Albanians thought that their moment of revenge had finally arrived, when the Italians and then the Germans created a "greater Albania". The Kosova Albanians even created a military division named "Skenderbeg" which fought alongside with the Germans (against Serbs). But this moment would be short-lived.
Even during Tito's time in the 1950's, when an effort to disarm the population was made, many Kosova Albanians found it easier to go to Turkey (as permitted by the pre-war treaty), than to relinquish their weapons or remain undefended.