For sale is a Rare Pre WW1 First Balkans War Independent Albania 1912-1914 Double Sided Flag.

This flag is in mostly good condition, fading to one side of the flag, also some staining. This flag measures 77cm height x 96cm in length.

This flag is of independent Albanian between the years of 1912 and 1914.

Independent Albania was a parliamentary state declared in Vlorë (at the time part of Ottoman Empire) on 28 November 1912 during the First Balkan War. Its assembly was constituted on the same day while its government and senate were established on 5 December 1912.

The success of the Albanian revolt sent a strong signal to the neighbouring countries that the Ottoman Empire was weak. Besides, the Kingdom of Serbia opposed the plan for an Albanian vilayet, preferring a partition of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire among the four Balkan allies. In the meantime it was agreed that the conquered territory was to have the status of a condominium.

Albanian leaders, including Faik Konitza and Fan Noli, organized a large meeting on 7 October 1912 in Boston. They decided that Albanians should "unite fully with the Ottoman government against the enemies of the Empire" because "if Turkey is defeated, the Balkan states would shred Albania." That decision was risky, because if the Ottomans were defeated, Albanian participation in the Balkan war on the Ottoman side would serve as justification for the Balkan allies to partition Albania as an Ottoman province. Albanians who were mobilized in the Ottoman army fought for their country rather than for the Ottoman Empire.

During the First Balkan War the combined armies of the Balkan allies overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success. They occupied almost all the remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire including the territory of the Albanian Vilayet.

At the beginning of November 1912, Albanian leaders appealed to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, explaining the difficult situation in their country because parts of the four vilayets were also claimed by the Balkan League who were present on the disputed lands. Austria-Hungary and Italy strongly opposed the arrival of Serbian army on the Adriatic Sea because they perceived it as a threat to their domination of the Adriatic and feared that a Serbian Adriatic port could become a Russian base. Ismail Kemal, who had been an Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, secured the support of Austria-Hungary for the autonomy of Albania within the Ottoman Empire, but not for its independence.

This is a very rare flag with very little of them available for sale.

This will be sent via Royal Mail tracked 24 and dispatched within two working days.