Start of War
The war started on June 4, after the Italian general Settimo Piacentini refused to hand over the Vlora district to the Albanian government. Albanian volunteers were organized by the National Defense Committee under the political leadership of Qazim Koculi and they reached the number of 4,000, while Ahmet Lepenica was appointed their commander in chief. In the meantime, Italy had 20,000 well-armed soldiers in the area. The Albanian rebels started the first battles in the city Vlora, where they used swords, sticks and stones. Some of them had even no weapons.
The advance of the Albanian troops, and the revolutionary movements in Italy made the reinforcements basically impossible. On August 2, 1920 the Albanian-Italian protocol was signed, upon which Italy would retreat from Albania. This gave an end to Italian claims for Vlora and a mandate over Albania, rescuing the territory of the Albanian state from further partition. A cease-fire was announced on August 5, ending all Italo-Albanian hostilities.
Read more about this topic: Vlora War
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