Abstract:

ABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACT The order established in Albania after the Ottoman conquest at the beginning of the 15th Century was preserved until the Tanzimat period, with the exception of a few local uprisings. During the 19th Century, marked by modernization efforts, reforms of the central administration were not welcomed among the Albanians and the local people rebelled in some occasions. However, such uprisings were not national or political in character, and remained in local level. The European states, which were previously interested in the affairs of the other Balkan nations, turned their attention to Albania during the second half of the Century. Ottoman administration tried to amend the structure, which was getting worse, and attempted to recreate the region on the basis of new projects. In order to follow strategies in a planned form, some statesmen and intellectuals prepared proposals. In the proposals the Albanian question was discussed in length, and sources of the problems were determined, and additionally some suggestions were made. The proposals, which compiled typical characteristics of the region’s and Albania, contain striking findings about a set of topics ranging from geographical conditions to ethnic diversity, from demographic structure to cultural heritage, from politics of the European states to the state ideology of the Ottoman empire. Although proposals were not adequately exploited for solving the Albanian question by the administrators of the period, their importance cannot be disregarded. One can find clues for solution about the problems settled from past up to the present in these documents. In this study, the Albanian question is dealt with from a different perspective on the basis of findings of the concerning layihas, official reports, and reasons for the decline of the Ottoman administration in the Balkans is discussed

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