League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece.
The 1878 Treaty of San Stefano (Russian: - ; Peace of San-Stefano, - ; Peace treaty of San-Stefano, Turkish: Ayastefanos Muahedesi or Ayastefanos Antlamas) was a treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. It was signed at San Stefano, then a village west of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), on 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1878 by Count Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev and Aleksandr Nelidov on behalf of the Russian Empire and by Foreign Minister Saffet Pasha and Ambassador to Germany Sadullah Bey on behalf of the Ottoman Empire.According to the official Russian position, by signing the treaty, Russia had never intended anything more than a temporary rough draft, so as to enable a final settlement with the other Great Powers.The treaty provided for the establishment of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria following almost 500 years of Ottoman rule in the Bulgarian lands. Bulgarians celebrate the day the treaty was signed, 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1878, as Liberation Day. However, the enlarged Bulgaria envisioned by the treaty alarmed neighboring states as well as France and Great Britain. As a result, the enlargement was never implemented, being superseded by the Treaty of Berlin following the Congress of the same name that took place three months later.
The League of Prizren (Albanian: Besëlidhja e Prizrenit), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation (Albanian: Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave te kombit Shqiptar), was an Albanian political organization which was officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of Prizren in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, and suppressed in 1881.
The treaties of San Stefano and Berlin both assigned areas inhabited by Albanians to other states. The inability of the Porte to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced Albanian leaders not only to organize their own defense, but also to consider the creation of an autonomous administration, like Serbia and the other Danubian Principalities had enjoyed before their independence.The league was established at a meeting of 47 Ottoman beys. The initial position of the league was presented in the document known as Kararname. With this document Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to establish autonomy within the Ottoman Empire by supporting the porte, and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". Although it said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet, under the influence of Abdyl Frashëri, this initial position changed radically and resulted in demands for an independent Albanian state and open war against the Ottoman Empire.