Kelmend Region - History

History

Johann Georg von Hahn, one of the founders of Albanology placed the settlement of Kelmendi's first patriarch in Bestana, southern Kelmend. The foundations of the settlements, where the Kelmendi are found in modern times has been attributed to his seven sons. The Kelmendi tribe is first mentioned in Latin documents of 1485 as Celmente. The Kelmendi recognized the Ottoman rule in 1497 and gained the status of derbend and became the guards of the roads leading to Plav and Shkodër-Gjakova route. Marino Bizzi, the Archbishop of Bar mentions them in 1610 as "popoli quasi tutti latini, e di lingua Albanese e Dalmata" (almost all are Catholics, speaking Albanian and Slavic). Bizzi reported in 1613 an incident that involved the Kelmendi-Ottoman conflict. An Ottoman commander, Arslan Pasha, raided the villages of the Kelmendi and started taking prisoners until an agreement was reached with the Kelmendi clans. According to the agreement, the Kelmendi would surrender fifteen of their members as slaves, and pay a tribute of 1,000 ducats to the Ottomans. However, as Arslan Pasha waited for the payment of the tribute, the Kelmendi ambushed part of his troops and killed about thirty cavalrymen. After this incident the Ottoman troops retreated to Herceg Novi (Castelnuovo).

In 1614 along with the Kuči, Piperi and Bjelopavlici they sent a letter to the Kings of Spain and France claiming that they were independent from the Ottoman rule and did not pay tribute to the empire. In 1651, they aided the army of Ali-paša Čengić, which attacked Kotor; the army raided and destroyed many monasteries in the region. In 1685, they helped the Sanjak Bey of Skadar, Sulejman Bushati, ancestor of Kara Mahmud Bushati to defeat the Montenegrin forces at the Battle on the Vrtijelica, in which Bajo Pivljanin died. Again, in 1692, they aided him capturing Cetinje after defeating the Montenegrins and their Venetian allies. Giorgio Stampaneo, abbot of Mirdita reported in 1685 that the city of Peć paid an annual tribute of 3,000 reali to the Kelmendi.

In 1689 the Kelmendi volunteered in the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire during the Kosovo campaign. Initially they were serving Sulejman Pasha, the mutasarrif of Shkodër, but after negotiations with a Venetian official, they abandoned the Ottoman ranks.

A year later, c. 2,500 people from the Selcë region settled in Pešter, after the defeat and subsequent withdrawal of the Imperial army and their surrounding by the Ottoman army. Some of them returned to their home region after 1706. In the 18th century, the Hoti and Kelmendi clans assisted the Kuči and Vasojevići ones in the battles against the Ottoman Turks. After that unsuccessful war, a part of the Kelmendi clans fled their lands. After the defeat in 1737, under Archbishop Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta, a significant number of Serbs and Kelmendis retreated into the north, Habsburg territory. Around 1,600 of them settled in the villages of Nikinci and Hrtkovci, where they later adopted a Croat identity. On May 26, 1913 130 leaders of Gruda, Hoti, Kelmendi, Kastrati and Shkreli sent a petition to Cecil Burney in Shkodër against the incorporation of their territories into Montenegro.