Drač County ( sr, Драчки округ/Drački okrug) was one of the counties of the Kingdom of Serbia established on 29 November 1912 on the part of the territory of

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

taken from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

during the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

. Drač County had four districts ( sr, срез/Srez): Drač (

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of ...

), Lješ (

Lezhë Lezhë (, sq-definite, Lezha) is a city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Lezhë County and Lezhë Municipality. One of the main strongholds of the Labeatai, the earliest of the fortification walls of Lezhë are of typical Illyrian cons ...

Elbasan Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central ...

and

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. The army of the Kingdom of Serbia retreated from Durrës in April 1913.

Establishment

The

Royal Serbian Army The Army of the Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Војска Краљевине Србије, Vojska Kraljevine Srbije), known in English as the Royal Serbian Army, was the army of the Kingdom of Serbia that existed between 1882 and 1918, succeed ...

captured city of Durazzo ( sq, Durrës) on 29 November 1912 without facing opposition.

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Christian metropolitan of Durrës Jakob gave a particularly warm welcome to the new authorities. He also secured friendly relations with the Serbian authorities in the region. As such he successfully intervened to them and several Albanian guerrilla units were saved and avoided execution. The Kingdom of Serbia established district offices and appointed the governor of the county, mayor of the city, and commander of the military garrison. The first military governor of the city of Durrës, captain Branislav Milosavljević (commander of vanguard of Šumadijan unit), appointed the first city council which included Petar Djurasković (chairman), Hristo Spiro, Mehmed Efendi and others. Ivan Ivanic

The first governor of Drač County was

Ivan Ivanić Ivan Ivanić ( Bačko Gradište, Bečej, Austria-Hungary, 24 April 1867 – Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 31 January 1935) was a Serbian diplomat of the Kingdom of Serbia and author of numerous ethnographical works about Serbia and the Balka ...

, a Serbian diplomat. His wife Delfa, one of the founders of the Circle of Serbian Sisters, chaired the city hospital. The first mayor of Durrës was Petar Đurašković, a member of a family from this city, while members of the city council were Hristos Spiro, Imam Husein Efendi and Filip Serić. When the army of Kingdom of Serbia occupied

in 1912, Dragutin Anastasijević was engaged as a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

for the

Greek language Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...

and, after a while, he was appointed as governor of Drač County instead of Ivan Ivanić. Serbia's most important goal of the Balkan Wars was access to the open sea.

Disestablishment

The army of the Kingdom of Serbia retreated from Durrës in April 1913 under pressure of the naval fleet of Great Powers, but it remained in other parts of Albania for the next two months.: VeĆ u aprilu 1913. postalo je izvesno da je kraj "albanske operacije" blizu. Pod pritiskom flote velikih sila srpska vojska je napustila jadransko primorje. U Albaniji je, međutim, ostala još dva meseca... In April 1913 it was obvious that end of "Albanian operation" was close and army of Serbia retreated from Adriatic coast remaining in Albania for two more months.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drac County (Kingdom of Serbia) Military occupation Kingdom of Serbia Balkan Wars 1912 in Albania 1913 in Albania States and territories established in 1912 States and territories disestablished in 1913 Former administrative divisions of Serbia 1912 establishments in Serbia