My Italy

Chapter 267 Detonating Public Opinion

The atmosphere in Colquitt Village was unusual today. The frightened villagers huddled closely together, looking at the Italian officers and soldiers surrounding them.

"Everyone, according to the decree from Rome, Italian citizenship cannot be granted to you. In addition, according to the immigration decree, everyone has half a day to pack up their belongings and leave Albania for the Ottomans. Now please pack your things."

A government official, accompanied by an interpreter, loudly announced to the surrounded villagers an order from Rome.

Sure enough, the order to expel them immediately caused a commotion among the crowd. If it weren't for the Italian officers and soldiers who were surrounded by armed soldiers, the villagers would have wanted to tear the official who was shouting to death alive.

At this time, they can only fight back with their own words.

"My family has lived here for generations, you can't do this."

"Why should we be expelled? We have to protest!"

"We don't want to leave!"

Various voices expressed the anger of the residents at the scene, but the government officials present did not care about the anger of these locals.

He took out his pocket watch and looked at the time on it. "It's 9:12 now. You must leave at 13:12."

Although his voice was not loud, it was extremely intimidating and silenced the noise at the scene.

He was very satisfied with the effect, so he looked at the crowd and continued. "So, you'd better pack your things quickly, otherwise you'll forget what you didn't take and you won't be able to come back."

Following his words, there was a lot of excitement at the scene. The gangsters and others immediately rushed back to their homes to clean up. Only two or three kittens were left at the scene.

Among the two or three people, the dress of one of the old men caught the attention of government officials, because he was dressed in clerical attire and looked like an imam.

I saw him walking up to the government official with a serious face. "Your Excellency, when your country treats us this way, aren't you afraid of the violent reaction of international public opinion and the majority of Christian believers?"

Facing this imam who still has some worldview, the government officials looked at him slightly seriously. "Then which country will stand up for you? The Ottomans have just suffered a defeat. Other powerful countries will not pay much attention to you. As for public opinion, it cannot influence the government. As for your believers, what does it have to do with our country? As long as you dare By causing trouble on our soil, we will make them regret not returning to the arms of Allah.”

Faced with government officials who were unable to get enough food and salt, the imam had no other choice but to encourage everyone to resist. Look at the heavily armed Italian officers and soldiers around him, so that the people of Ala would not suffer anymore.

At 13:12 in the afternoon, the regrouped local people, dragging their families and their families with what they could carry, left the hometown where they were born and raised under the escort of Italian officers and soldiers. The sound of crying along the way was very desolate.

As for the dealers in their houses and lands, a large number of Italian immigrants will take care of them in the future. Of course, they will not be able to take them away from them in the future.

Tragedies in villages like Colkit can be seen everywhere in Albania and Kosovo. On this day, Italy dispatched 100,000 soldiers and government officials to detain and drive away various villages and towns.

Most of these expelled people will pass through the Macedonian region and be sent to the Ottoman territory. A small number of people who believe in Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism will be accepted by the Sephardic and Greek countries.

Of course, these local residents are not all people who accept the situation. There are also many people who are unwilling to leave like this and break out various resistances. Most of those who resisted were suppressed by heavily armed officers and soldiers. What awaited them was to be thrown into various mining areas for labor reform.

There are still some people who are lucky enough to escape. They are temporarily out of danger, but they will face endless encirclement and suppression next.

Beginning in February 1891, waves of resistance erupted in Albania and Kosovo. In the peak month of March, there were more than 400 attacks. These Albanians who were unwilling to leave tried every means to attack the Italian government, army, and immigrants.

However, although the frequency of attacks was very high at the beginning, the resistance of these people was rootless. After the local people were driven away, they lacked the necessary supplies, weapons, and personnel.

After Italy drove away most of the local people, it deployed troops to intensify its crackdown. The results were surprisingly good. In September of the second half of the year, the number of attacks had dropped to less than 30 per month, and the number of attacks continued to decrease irreversibly. By January 1893, the last rebels were wiped out, and Albania and Kosovo became an integral part of the Kingdom of Italy.

These are all the follow-up results. As for now, although Italy has made various moves to block news, how could it be possible that no one knew about the large-scale operation to expel nearly 600,000 people from two places at once.

France's Libre d'Etoile was the first to report extensively on the news that Italy was expelling locals in Albania and Kosovo, causing humanitarian disasters.

Other newspapers later quoted it, and in less than three days the entire civilized world knew about it.

For this reason, various countries asked the Italian government about this matter, but they were dismissed on the grounds that the Italian army was suppressing rebels.

However, the Ottomans issued a serious protest. In response to the Ottoman protest, the Italian government threw its protest letter into the trash.

However, this matter could not be hidden for long, because a large number of expelled local people passed through the Macedonia area and appeared in Austrian South Macedonia.

And with the emergence of these refugees, a large number of Italian actions on the ground were exposed.

Faced with such a situation, Italy could not shirk it, and the pressure from international public opinion on Italy was not small.

For this reason, the Ottoman Empire, which had just lost the war, issued a serious statement, claiming that Italy's actions in Albania and Kosovo were ethnic cleansing. According to Italian Foreign Minister Gemini Bacona, the Ottomans also carried out ethnic cleansing against local Armenians in Armenia.

The Ottoman purge of Armenians was no secret to Europe. Although the Armenian Genocide had not yet occurred in the Ottoman Empire at this time, it had no mercy on Armenians who believed in Christianity. Various exorbitant taxes and arbitrary oppression were commonplace.

No one paid attention to it before, more because the area it is located in is of no interest to all countries, except Russia. However, life among Armenians in Russia is not very good. They are all the eldest brothers, not the second brothers.

Faced with Italy's scandal about Armenia, the Ottomans didn't know what to say for a while, but in the end it became a dog-eat-dog affair.

Although Italy solved the Ottoman censure with the Armenian issue, the government still had huge pressure.

Because British Prime Minister Cecil issued a statement condemning Italy's actions in the Balkans.

As for why the British suddenly jumped out, it is more because after Italy seized a large amount of Ottoman territory, Italy has threatened the security of the eastern Mediterranean, especially the Suez Canal, which is crucial to it, and there are Italian colonies on both ends. .

This stance of the British is more of a knock. Although the British need Italy to contain France, they are not willing to see Italy's strength in the Mediterranean increase. Therefore, adding some obstacles to Italy's actions in the Balkans is not a good idea for Whitehall. , which is reasonable.

After the United Kingdom expressed its views, France, the United States, Russia and other countries issued statements of condemnation, condemning Italy's ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. This has left Italy with a bad reputation internationally.

But no matter what the outside world says, Italy's actions in the Balkans have not stopped at all.

While the Balkans are carrying out vigorous operations, the Libyan region, which also belongs to Italy, is not idle either.

Resuming the update, everyone has been waiting for a long time, and the two updates will not be missed.

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