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This article, based on Italian archival material, reconstructs the battles between the Yugoslav and Italian armies that took place in April 1941 for Shkodër. The Yugoslav Zeta Division was the only major unit of the Yugoslav army that successfully went on the offensive. The war plans of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia envisaged an offensive against the Italian forces in Albania and a connection with the Greek army. The Italian defense was organized without a preliminary plan. The front near Shkodër was geographically demanding and suitable for defense. The attack of the Zeta Division began on April 8, 1941 and proceeded gradually, and the Italian commanders only later decided to actively defend Shkodër. The Zeta Division also tried to land across the lake. The first Italian defense line was near the state border and was breached on April 9, 1941. A day later, the Italian forces organized the main defense on the Proni Banush river. The Zeta Division tried several times to attack the main defensive line, but was repulsed with heavy losses, so it went on the defensive. On April 14, 1941, the Zeta Division received an order to start armistice talks. On April 15, 1941, the Italian forces received an order to carry out a breakthrough towards Montenegro, but they were stopped when carrying out a tank attack on the organized Yugoslav defense. The Zeta Division suffered heavy losses in these battles, and the Italian forces also lost several tanks and a large number of men. A day later, due to the disintegration of the Yugoslav army, Italian forces quickly penetrated across the state border. The commander of the Centauro Division, with the exception of the last day, successfully used tanks, the Yugoslav forces were not prepared for anti-tank combat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intervention of the Great Britain in the First World War represented a turning point for liberal Italy and for the Adriatic region as whole. That made the Italian participation to the Triple unsustainable and marked the beginning of the long path that would have led Italy to betray that Alliance, in return of the issue of the acknowledgement of the Italian hegemony in Adriatic by the Entente. Indeed, the war arose once again the problems the Ottoman Empire's retreat from the Balkans had already set, a longstanding question to whom the Powers, first of all the Great Britain, had tried unsuccessful to settle in a stable and peaceful way in the framework of the concert of nations before the outbreak of the Great War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the tradition of vendetta and the peace-making process that were a part of a customary legal tradition of rural kinship communities in Montenegro and Albania. The custom was preserved throughout the centuries as both Venetian and Ottoman administration acknowledged the existing legal customs. However, in some cases the customary peace-making custom proved itself to be more efficient than the diplomatic intervention in the dispute resolution. The Venetian authorities on several occasions ordered the rural kinship communities in the coastal area to make customary peace with their neighbours in hope of preventing vendetta and feuds from developing immense proportions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood revenge is a system of social control that regulates violence and leads towards reestablishment of social equilibrium through dispute resolution. The custom of blood revenge and peace-making within patriarchal egalitarian communities of Montenegro, Northern Albania as well as some other neighbouring areas was preserved in praxis at least until the end of the 19th century, the oral tradition regarding the customs, however, even longer. The tribal leaders who were the mediators and the arbiters in dispute resolution held the key role in dispute resolution in patriarchal egalitarian communities. With mediation of the leaders of the tribal communities the truce (besa) between the feuding parties was reached, that enabled the parties to enter the arbitration, where the assembly of arbiters deliberated on the sum of the composition and the number of the new family bonds between the parties; marriages and / or godfatherhoods and brotherhoods. The concluding symbolic gesture of peace is the kiss of peace between the parties. The peace-making consists of three phases and all phases include symbolic words, gestures and objects that indicate similar ritual structure as it was present in public contractual agreements in the Medieval Europe. The similarities indicate common origins of some European legal traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]