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During World War I, the Southern Adriatic, including the Albanian coast, witnessed a series of naval battles between the Allies and the Central Powers. Two pre-war Adriatic powers hastened to occupy two of the most important Albanian ports during the war: Italy occupied Vlorë, placing the Otranto Strait under Italian control, and Austria-Hungary occupied Durrës, from where the Central Powers attacked the Allies’ ships in the Mediterranean. Although the Central Powers held a superior position in the Adriatic at the beginning of the war, from 1916 the balance of forces started to change, and in spring 1918 the Allies were in a superior position. Major developments in the war, which was coming to an end, influenced the situation in the Southern Adriatic as well, and therefore the Great Powers became more attentive towards this part of the Balkans. In addition, they organised offensives and counter-offensives, such as those in April, in summer, and in October, the results of which showed the significance of Albanian ports in the war. They revealed the geostrategic importance of Vlorë, the possession or loss of which would change the naval situation in Adriatic. On the other hand, Durrës was not only an Austro-Hungarian naval base during the war, but also became a key port that the Central Powers relied on for supplies after the fall of Bulgaria. Therefore, the naval operation of Entente Powers in Durrës on 2 October 1918 and their victory was a step closer to the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The immediate reaction of Italy was to occupy two important ports in Albania, Durrës and Shëngjin., Južni Jadran u povijesti je, uključujući i Prvi svjetski rat, imao veliku geostratešku važnost. Prije rata interese u Albaniji imale su Austro-Ugarska i Italija, no tijekom rata, a napose 1918., sve su sile pozorno pratile događanja uz njezinu obalu. U ovom će se članku na temelju novih relevantnih historiografskih i arhivskih izvora istražiti ključne pomorske operacije u južnom Jadranu tijekom 1918., godine koja označava razdoblje ofenziva dviju zaraćenih strana. Napose će se obraditi talijanska ofenziva izvedena uz potporu njezinih saveznika u Albaniji u srpnju 1918., kao i protuofenziva Austro-Ugarske, čiji se rezultati smatraju posljednjim uspjesima Centralnih sila tijekom rata. Iznijet će se i informacije o pomorskoj operaciji saveznika u Draču u listopadu 1918. kao posljednjem pomorskom sukobu na Jadranu u Prvom svjetskom ratu.

Osmanlı Devleti, II. Meşrutiyet’in ardından peş peşe gerçekleşen olayların sonunda I. Dünya Savaşı’na yani kendi tabirleriyle “Harb-i Umumi”ye dahil olmuştur. Savaşın sonunda İttifak devletleri ağır koşullar içeren bir ateşkes antlaşması imzlamak durumunda kalmıştır. Mondros Ateşkes Antlaşması ismiyle anılan bu antlaşmanın bilhassa 7. ve 24. maddeleri İtilaf devletlerine güvenliklerini tehlikede gördükleri toprakları işgal hakkını tanımıştır. Nitekim antlaşmadan hemen sonra işgaller başlamış, Osmanlı coğrafyasındaki birçok bölge İtilaf devletlerinin işgaline uğramıştır. Bu husustaki en önemli işgal İstanbul’un 13 Kasım 1918’de fiili olarak işgal edilmesidir. İstanbul, denizden İtilaf devletlerinin savaş gemileriyle kuşatılırken aynı zamanda karaya da askerler çıkarılmış ve bu askerler İstanbul’daki çeşitli kurumlara ait binalara yerleştirilmiştir. Aynı zamanda İstanbul’un çeşitli bölgelerinin kontrolü de İtilaf devletleri arasında paylaşılmıştır. Fiili işgalin Osmanlı hükümeti ve İstanbul’un denetimi konusunda yeterli olmadığını düşünen İtilaf devletleri, 16 Mart 1920 tarihinde resmi bir bildiriyle İstanbul’u resmen işgal etmiş ve bu tarihten itibaren tüm kontrol İtilaf devletlerine geçmiştir.İstanbul’un resmi işgalinden 16 Nisan 1920 tarihine kadar olan süreç Hakimiyet-i Milliye, İkdam ve Tercüman-ı Hakikat gazeteleri özelinde incelenmiştir. Çalışmada biri Ankara diğerleri İstanbul kaynaklı olan bu gazetelerin işgale ve Kuva-yı Milliye’ye yaklaşımları, İtilaf devletleri, ABD ve çeşitli teşkilatların işgale ve barış antlaşmasına yaklaşımları, İstanbul hükümeti ve padişahın işgal, antlaşma, milli mücadele konularına yaklaşımları ile gazetelere uygulanan sansürler incelenmiştir. Ayrıca üç gazetenin 16 Mart-16 Nisan 1920 arasındaki yüzlerce sayfa içeriğin tümü taranmış ve işgalle doğrudan ya da dolaylı şekilde ilgili tüm Osmanlıca haberler Latin alfabesine çevrilerek günümüz Türkçesine uyarlanmıştır. Metinlerin orijinalliğini korumak adına kelimelerin günümüz Türkçesi karşılıkları metin içlerinde, parantez içinde verilmiştir. The Ottoman Empire joined the First World War following the Second Constitutional Monarchy, or, in their own words, the \"Harb-i Umumi\" at the conclusion of the successive events. The Allied Powers were forced to conclude an armistice with stringent terms at the end of the war. The Mudros Armistice Agreement's 7th and 24th provisions, in particular, granted the Entente states the power to seize any territory they deemed to be in danger. In fact, occupations began soon after the pact, and the Entente Powers took control of numerous areas of Ottoman geography. The actual occupation of Istanbul on November 13, 1918, is the most significant occupation in this regard. Soldiers were landed concurrently with the Entente states' battleships besieging Istanbul from the sea, and these soldiers were positioned in the buildings of various institutions around Istanbul. The Entente states simultaneously shared control of different areas of Istanbul. The Ottoman government and authority of Istanbul were deemed insufficient by the Entente countries, and they declared Istanbul to be formally occupied on March 16, 1920. As of that date, entire control was transferred to the Entente states. The newspapers \"Tercüman-i Hakikat\", \"Hakimiyet-i Milliye\", and \"Ikdam\" analyzed the events leading up to Istanbul's official occupation on April 16, 1920. The study looked at how these newspapers—one from Ankara and the other from Istanbul—reacted to the occupation and the Kuva-yi Milliye (National Forces), how the Entente Powers, the USA, and other organizations responded to the occupation and the peace treaty, how the government and Sultan responded to the occupation, treaty, and national struggle, and how the censorship of the newspapers was implemented. In addition, the hundreds of pages of the three newspapers' contents from 16 March to 16 April 1920 were scanned, and any Ottoman news items that had anything to do with the occupation—directly or indirectly—were translated into the Latin alphabet and transformed to reflect modern Turkish. The modern Turkish counterparts of the words are included in the text, in parenthesis, in order to retain the originality of the passages.

Unpublished sources and archival material can still shed fresh light upon the history of the evacuation of the Serbian Army and civilian refugees from the Albanian coast in 1915-1916. Among them are reports to the British Admiralty written in 1915 and 1916 by the commander of the British Adriatic Squadron, Rear Admiral Cecil Fiennes Thursby. These documents deposited in the National Archives in Kew Gardens have never been used in reconstructing the evacuation operation. Written on an almost daily basis, Thursby’s reports of 1915 and 1916 constitute a unique source not only for the history of the evacuation of Serbs but also for the history of the South-East Europe in the Great War. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177011: History of political ideas and institutions in the Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries]