The Third League of Prizren or the Third Prizren League or the "League of Prizren" in Exile was an organisation founded by a group of nationalist

Albanians The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...

in United States in 1946 and renewed by the initiative of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

in 1962 in order to organize and coordinate activities aimed to creation of the

Greater Albania Greater Albania is an irredentist and nationalist concept that seeks to unify the lands that many Albanians consider to form their national homeland. It is based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in th ...

. One of its members was Hisen Trpeza. After

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

was confronted with

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

in 1948, Albania was directly involved in combined propagandist and diversion fight against

Armaments A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

which were transported from Albania to Kosovo presented significant danger and was forcibly collected in period 1954–1957. One of the presidents of the league was Tahir Zaimi. In 1966

Xhafer Deva Xhafer Deva (21 February 1904 – 25 May 1978) was a Kosovo Albanian politician during World War II. A notable local politician in Kosovo and in Axis-occupied Albania, he took charge of German-occupied Mitrovica and worked with the Germans ...

merged Kosovaret and Third League of Prizren and became its leader. He remained its president until his death in 1978.

Sigurimi The Directorate of State Security (), commonly called the ''Sigurimi'', was the state security, intelligence and secret police service of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Its proclaimed goal was maintaining state security of Albania, ...

infiltrated its men into the Third League of Prizren because they shared the same objectives in case of

. The official magazine of the organization was published under the name "Lidhja e Prizrenit" ( en, The League of Prizren).

Robert Elsie Robert Elsie (June 29, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was a Canadian-born German scholar who specialized in Albanian literature and folklore. Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter, and specialist in Albanian studies, being the author of numerou ...

stated that organization of 1960's was a re-creation of the new

Second League of Prizren The Second League of Prizren was an organisation founded by Albanian officials in Kosovo in September 1943 to campaign for the ethnic unification of Albanians in Albania. From 1918, Kosovo was integrated into the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslav ...

. Yugoslav authorities imprisoned and trialed some members of the league and sentenced them to prison. One of declassified documents of CIA confirm that one of the imprisoned and trialed members of the league was agent of CIA. The Third League of Prizren and the Free Kosovo National Committee agreed on a joint struggle in 1978.

References

{{reflist, 2 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Albanian nationalism Modern history of Kosovo Albanian militant groups Kosovo Serbs Kosovo Albanians Albania–Yugoslavia relations League of Prizren

See also

References