page_title: Isa Boletini
section_title: 1878–1907
hierarchical_section_title: Isa Boletini / Career / 1878–1907
caption_attribution_description: English: Isa Boletini and friend, ca. 1900
context_page_description: Isa Boletini was an Albanian commander, guerrilla, politician and rilindas from Kosovo.
  As a young man, he joined the Albanian nationalist League of Prizren and participated in a battle against Ottoman forces. After this, he was temporarily loyal to the Ottoman sultan and built a power base in the Mitrovica area. He served as the commander of Ottoman palace guards in Istanbul for four years, returning with a land grant, officer rank and the command of the local militia. In 1909 he and other Kosovo Albanian chieftains revolted against the Young Turk imposition of taxes on Muslims. Next, he took an important role in the 1910 revolt against Ottoman rule, while in the First Balkan War negotiated with both sides, then fought against the Montenegrin and Serbian armies in Kosovo. He participated in the Albanian Declaration of Independence in Vlorë, and was then assigned as a diplomatic agent to the British, and bodyguard of Prince William of Albania. He was killed during a shoot-out in Podgorica under unclear circumstances in January 1916.
context_section_description: After the rise of the Albanian nationalist League of Prizren (1878), he took part as a young man in the Battle of Slivova against Ottoman forces on 22 April 1881. Isa built a power base in his hometown and illegally seized property from fellow Muslims. By 1898–99, he received money for protecting the Serbian Orthodox community in the Mitrovica region, and was rewarded with a medal and supply of weapons by the Kingdom of Serbia. The Sokolica Monastery, located between Albanian villages, was protected by brothers Ahmed and Isa, who lived 800m and 100m, respectively, from the monastery. It was stated in 1899, by Serbian consul in Pristina Svetislav Simić, that "not one Serb fell from his rifle, and where the power of his martini reached, the rayah was completely free from zulum". The time after 1900 was increasingly marked by ethnic tensions. 
  In the summer of 1901, organised atrocities on Serbs in Ibarski Kolašin were carried out under the command of Boletini, including massacres, rape, blackmail, looting and eviction of local ethnic Serbs. An earlier Ottoman investigation had uncovered arms smuggling from Serbia to Ibarski Kolašin, sent to protect the local Serb population from atrocities (constant since the 1897 war). The events led to Russia opening a consulate in Mitroviça (Mitrovica) on May 7, 1902. Schterbina was appointed consul. Boletini threatened that all Serb houses would be set upon fire if they worked with the consulate – the consul could not enter Mitrovica until the Porte sent for Boletini to Istanbul. It is reported on 29 September, according to an Ottoman source, that Boletini had given himself up to the authorities, was to be pardoned and used by the Ottomans against Mustafa Aga and his supporters. He is reported on 24 November 1902 as having arrived in Istanbul. Four days later it was reported that the Porte promised to not return Boletini to Mitrovica, and that Schterbina was soon to arrive to the consulate. Sultan Abdul Hamid II, instead of crushing Boletini, brought him to Istanbul and appointed him head of the palace guard (tüfenkciler). To govern the sultan used patronage networks by awarding privileges and government positions to co opt local charismatic leaders such as Boletini into the Ottoman system.
  On 11 March 1903, the Porte denied that it planned to return Isa Boletini back to Mitrovica. Schterbina did not survive his assassination attempt on 31 May, during an Albanian riot, and died of his gunshot wounds in April 1903. After serving as the head of the Ottoman palace guard for four years, he returned to Kosovo with an imperial land grant and officer rank in the local Ottoman militia in March 1906. He was now the most famous and richest Albanian in Mitrovica. Boletini assembled a band of armed retainers and resumed his role as a local "protector". Weapons and financial assistance came from Serbia and Boletini also had a direct telegraph line to the Yildiz Palace functioning as the sultan's policeman in the region.
caption: Boletini and friend, ca. 1900.
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