Balli Kombëtar

File:Map of Albania during WWII.png

Although Këlcyra and Frashëri had initiated opposition actions against the Italian authorities almost from the beginning of the fascist occupation in 1939, they had practically not developed any military organization for open struggle against the invader. Albanian nationalists from the end of 1942 began an irregular fight against the Italian garrisons.{{Cite book|last=Elsie|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=haFlGXIg8uoC&pg=PA30|title=Historical Dictionary of Albania|publisher=Scarecrow Press|date=30 March 2010|isbn=978-0-8108-6188-6|pages=30|language=en}}

The Balli Kombëtar was officially founded in November 1942 by joining the efforts of a series of nationalists. It tried to find an agreement with the Albanian partisans of communist affiliation, led by Enver Hoxha and grouped in the "Movement of National Liberation" (LANÇ, for its acronym in Albanian), trying to attract them to the nationalist cause. However, the Balli Kombëtar condemned any cooperation of the LNC with the Yugoslav partisans, whom it considered natural enemies of Albania, which would soon be a deal breaker.

With Italy on the brink of defeat in 1943, the Albanian National Liberation Movement (LANÇ) and the Balli Kombëtar organized a meeting in the village of Mukje. The Balli Kombëtar entered into a fragile alliance with the communist-led LANÇ, and acted as a resistance group against the Italians.{{sfn|Fischer|1999|pages=132–133}} Following the Mukje Agreement, the vague mutual tolerance that had existed between the Ballists and LANÇ quickly evaporated. The Allies too could not guarantee that Kosovo would be a part of Albania,{{sfn|Vickers|1998|pages=132}} because they stood for the restoration of occupied nations under their borders as they existed prior to World War II.

Despite their lukewarm attitude towards the Allies, the Ballists feared that an Allied victory in the war might well result in LANÇ victory and communist control of Albania.{{sfn|Pearson|2006}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} Their lukewarm attitude towards the British was also fostered by their desire to preserve the occupied united Albanian state under the borders drawn by the Italians in 1941, for they bitterly opposed and dreaded the loss of Kosovo and Debar to Yugoslavia once again, and feared that the Allies in their support of the Greeks might prevent them from claiming Chameria and deprive them of their southern provinces of Korçe and Gjirokaster, the heartland of their liberation movement.{{sfn|Pearson|2006}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} They regarded the Yugoslavs and the Greeks as their real enemies.{{sfn|Pearson|2006}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}}

The Mukje Agreement immediately triggered a hostile reaction from the Yugoslav representative in Albania, Svetozar Vukmanoviċ. He denounced the agreement and put pressure on the LANÇ to repute it immediately,{{sfn|Vickers|1998}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} and Yugoslav Communist leader Milovan Đilas subsequently described the Balli Kombëtar as "Albanian Fascists".{{sfn|Fischer|1999|p=274}}

The Balli Kombëtar, which had fought against the Italians, were threatened by the superior forces of the LANÇ and the Yugoslav Partisans, who were backed by the Allies.{{sfn|Roberts|1987}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} In the autumn of 1943, Nazi Germany occupied all of Albania after Italy was defeated. Fearing reprisals from larger forces, the Balli Kombëtar made a deal with the Germans and formed a "neutral government" in Tirana which continued its war with the LANÇ and the Yugoslav Partisans.{{cite book|author=Richard Morrock|title=The Psychology of Genocide and Violent Oppression: A Study of Mass Cruelty from Nazi Germany to Rwanda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZtnAbKkOmIC|date=11 October 2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5628-4}}{{cite book|author=Peter Abbott|title=Partisan Warfare 1941–45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z1CNJitx5RkC&pg=PA27|year=1983|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-0-85045-513-7|pages=27–|quote=Balli Kombetar, however, preferred German rule to Italian and, believing that only the Germans would allow Kosovo to remain Albanian after the war, began to collaborate.}}{{cite book|author=Tom Winnifrith|title=Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dkRoAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Duckworth|isbn=978-0-7156-3201-7|page=26}}

File:Mithat-Frashri---1880---1949.jpg was the leader of the Balli Kombëtar.]]

Safet Butka, a hardline Albanian nationalist, tried at various times to cooperate with the Communist-dominated Liberation Front (LANÇ). By January 1943, in Southern Albania, some Partisan units fought alongside the Balli Kombëtar during the Battle of Gjorm where they defeated and routed the Italian troops.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|page=230}} In February 1943, he organized a meeting with communist-led LANÇ representatives and an agreement for cooperation was reached in March 1943. He also made another local agreement in August 1943 and was one of the initiators and supporters of the Mukje agreement.{{cite news|url=http://www.lajmishqip.com/?p=568|last=Dezhgiu|first=Muharrem|title=Safet Butka, Luftetar per Mbrojtjen e Idealit Kombetar|date=28 May 2006|work=Lajmi Shqip|language=sq|access-date=3 August 2011|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014222/http://www.lajmishqip.com/?p=568|url-status=dead}}{{better source needed|date=March 2016}} The communist-led LANÇ had demanded that Kosovo be ceded to Albania after the war. The LANÇ met with the Ballists in August 1943, agreeing upon the establishment of Greater Albania.{{cite book|author=Gordana Filipović|title=Kosovo—past and present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TC5AAAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Review of International Affairs|pages=134–142|quote=When he realized he would not obtain the consent of the Central Committee of the CPY for the creation of a Great Albania, Enver Hoxha organized a conference with representatives of the pro-fascist nationalistic Balli Kom- betar in Muka on ...}}{{cite book|author=Dušan T. Bataković|title=Kosovo and Metohija: living in the enclave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGM_AQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Balkan Studies|isbn=9788671790529|quote=Albanian communists joined forces with the Balli Kombetar, an active Kosovo Albanian nationalist organization. Nevertheless, the agreement reached in the village of Mukaj on 2 August 1943 turned out to be a short-lived one.}} The agreement was however short-lived. The agreement was the denounced by Albanian communists. In the south of Albania, the rivalry between the Communists and the Balli Kombëtar heated up. The Communists almost immediately repudiated the Mukaj agreement, and fearing the British might open a second front in the Balkans and lend their support to the Ballists, they issued orders that the Balli Kombëtar be eliminated wherever it was found.{{cite book|author=Frances Trix|title=The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyF_-9TtoUsC&pg=PA72|year=2009|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-1-934536-12-4|page=72}} These factors contributed to members of the Balli Kombëtar forming a strong hatred for the Communists.

After forming the collaborator government, the Ballists pressed hard against the Communists.{{sfn|Pearson|2006}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} They destroyed a fairly large Communist partisan group southwest of Tirana.{{sfn|Pearson|2006}}{{page needed|date=March 2016}} By the Fall of 1943 the Ballists, assisted by German forces, were also involved in vicious fighting against the Northern Epirus Liberation Front in Southern Albania. This Greek Nationalist group was destroyed during these clashes and was eliminated as a fighting force.{{cite web|title=The Greek Minority in Albania in the Aftermath of Communism|url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/38652/2001_Jul_2.pdf}}

With the Grand Alliance established, the Germans began losing the war. This also affected the situation in Albania as the Germans could not supply the Ballists.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} With the current situation favouring the Communists, the partisans began a full-scale attack on the Balli Kombëtar. British liaison officers in Albania noted that the Communists were using the arms they received to fight fellow Albanians far more than to harass the Germans.{{better source needed|date=September 2022}} The west noted that the Communists could not have won without the supplies and armaments from the British, America and Yugoslavia, and that the LANÇ were not afraid of murdering their own countrymen.{{cite book|author=Irene Grunbaum|title=Escape Through the Balkans: The Autobiography of Irene Gr_nbaum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSzUvxV0WVQC&pg=PA187|year=1996|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-7082-8|page=187}}

File:BK Prizren 1944.jpg]]

The Ballists in Kosovo and Vardar region rose to prominence following the capitulation of Italy in September 1943. They seized Struga and Debar from the Italians on 9 September 1943, taking much of the military equipment left behind.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|p=271,272}} Following the establishment of the Albanian Kingdom, leading members of the Balli Kombetar from Kosovo became involved in forming the new government. On 6 November 1943, Berlin announced that the regents and the assembly had formed a government headed by Kosovar Albanian Rexhep Mitrovica,{{sfn|Fischer|1999|p=262}} who had joined the Balli Kombëtar resistance movement in 1942 and spent much of the Italian period in prison in Porto Romano near Durrës.{{cite book |title= A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History |last=Elsie |first=Robert |year=2012 |publisher= ib tauris & co ltd |isbn=978-1-78076-431-3 |pages=314 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pgf6GWJxuZgC&pg=PA108}} Mitrovica's cabinet, most of whom had credentials as nationalists as well as some German or Austrian connection, included Xhafer Deva.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|pp=301–302}} Deva, a leading Ballist also from Kosovo, was appointed Minister of the Interior in the Government of Rexhep Mitrovica and collaborated with the Germans to oppose the spread of Communist forces in the north,{{sfn|Elsie|2012|p=109}} effectively giving him direct command over the forces of the new government.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|pp=302}} The fighting in Kosovo took on an ethnic and ideological basis with the Albanian Balli Kombetar forces fighting the predominantly Serb Partisans.

File:Xhem Hasa Tetovo 1944.jpg 1944 (centre left Xhem Hasa)]]

In Vardar Macedonia, when it was a part of the independent state of Albania, the German and Ballist forces had occasional skirmishes with Yugoslav partisans. Kicevo, which remained in the hands of Macedonian and Albanian Partisan units following the capitulation of Italy,{{sfn|Pearson|2006|p=271,272}} was attacked by the Ballists of Xhem Hasa in early November 1943. After 7 days of fierce fighting, the Partisans were defeated and forced to retreat from the city.{{cite book|author=Vojnoistorijski institut (Belgrade, Serbia)|title=The National Liberation War and Revolution in Yugoslavia (1941-1945): Selected Documents|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFwNAAAAIAAJ|year=1982|publisher=Military History Institute of the Yugoslav People's Army}}{{page needed|date=May 2023}} Fiqri Dine, Xhem Hasa and Hysni Dema, as well as three German Majors, also directed military campaigns against the Albanian and Yugoslav partisans.{{cite book|author=Owen Pearson|title=Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4wx7kQp4bgC&pg=PA228|year=2006b|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-84511-105-2|page=228}} When Maqellarë, midway between Debar and Peshkopi, was recaptured by the Fifth Partisan Brigade, the Germans with the assistance of the Ballist forces of Xhem Hasa launched an attack from Debar, defeating the partisans.{{cite book|title=Albania in the twentieth century: a history, Volume 2|author= Owen Pearson|year= 2004|publisher= Centre for Albanian Studies|isbn= 9781845110130|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JWppAAAAMAAJ&q=Xhemal+Gostivari}} The main centres of the Balli Kombëtar in these regions were Kosovska Mitrovica, Drenica and Tetovo. It was noted that the Balli Kombëtar in these regions were more aggressive than the Ballists of Albania.{{sfn|Ramet|2006|p=141}} With the tables now turned in their favour many Ballists saw an opportunity to take their revenge upon their Serbian neighbours for the suffering they had endured over previous two decades, burning perhaps as many as 30,000 houses belonging to Serbs and Montenegrins.{{sfn|Ramet|2006|p=141}} Most vulnerable to these attacks were Serbs who had settled in Kosovo in the interwar period.{{sfn|Ramet|2006|p=141}}

File:Balli Kombetar Debar.jpg.]]

In October 1944, as the German Army began retreating through Kosovo, fierce battles between the Germans and the Partisans broke out. After the Germans had been driven out, Tito ordered the collection of weapons in Kosovo and the arrest of prominent Albanians. The order was not well received and, combined with passions felt about Kosovo, inflamed an insurrection.{{Cite book|title = The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918–2005|last = P. Ramet|first = Sabrina|year = 2006|pages = 156| publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn = 0253346568|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC&q=balli+kombetar}} On 2 December 1944, anti-communist Albanians from the Drenica region attacked the Trepca mining complex and other targets. Numbering at most 2,000 men, these anti-communists managed to hold off a Partisan force of 30,000 troops for two months. Similarly in Kičevo, Gostivar and Tetovo, the remaining Ballists tried to remain in control of the region after the Yugoslav Partisans announced victory.{{Cite web|title = Zemra Shqiptare|url = http://www.zemrashqiptare.net/article/Personalitete/11309/?highlight=Mefail+Shehu&match=|website = zemrashqiptare.net|access-date = 31 October 2015}} Now "an armed uprising of massive proportions" broke out in Kosovo led by the Balli Kombëtar (which still had around 9,000 men under arms at the time), which aimed to resist incorporation of Kosovo into communist Yugoslavia. It was only in July 1945 that the Yugoslav Partisans were able to put down the uprising and establish their control over Kosovo.

Parts of Montenegro and the Sandžak were annexed into Albania in 1941. The cities included Bijelo Polje, Tutin, Plav, Gusinje, Rozaje and Ulcinj. Some of the Yugoslav Muslims that lived in these regions sided with the Albanians. Acif Hadziahmetovic, former mayor of Novi Pazar and member of Nexhip Draga's party, and Ballist forces under Shaban Polluzha successfully repelled the combined Chetnik-Yugoslav Partisan forces back from Novi Pazar, and crushed their stronghold in Banja.{{cite web

|title=Nezavisna revija Sandzak

|url=http://www.bosnasancak.net/forum/showthread.php?2754-Heroji-Sandzaka-Acif-Hadziahmetovic-%281887-1945%29

|access-date=24 November 2011 |url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426001607/http://www.bosnasancak.net/forum/showthread.php?2754-Heroji-Sandzaka-Acif-Hadziahmetovic-%281887-1945%29

|archive-date=26 April 2012

}} Novi Pazar remained under the control of Acif Hadziahmetovic who was a member of the nationalist Balli Kombëtar movement, right up until December 1944. During this time the region between Ballist held Novi Pazar and Chetnik controlled Raška, witnessed constant fighting between the Albanians, Yugoslav Muslims and Serbs in the narrow valley that separates the two towns.{{cite web|title= SERBIA'S SANDZAK: STILL FORGOTTEN|author= International Crisis Group|url= http://old.crisisgroup.org/_/media/Files/europe/162_serbia_s_sandzak_still_forgotten.pdf|access-date= 15 December 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171216034807/http://old.crisisgroup.org/_/media/Files/europe/162_serbia_s_sandzak_still_forgotten.pdf|archive-date= 16 December 2017|url-status= dead}}

Balli Kombëtar was also active in northwestern Greece, in particular in a region referred to by Albanians as Chameria. Administration of the Thesprotia prefecture was handed over to the Albanians, although this region was not officially annexed into the Albanian kingdom. The "Balli Kombëtar Çam" (Cham National Front), founded in 1943 by Nuri Dino, received full German support since they were willing to fight both Albanian and Greek Communist Partisans.{{Cite book|title = Ethnologia Balkanica|pages = 178|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-ebpDLhkVWcC&q=cham}} These units were used in anti-partisan operations in Greece codenamed Augustus. By the time Operation Augustus ended, a larger number Chams were recruited for armed support. Their support was appreciated by the Germans: Lt Colonel Josef Remold remarked that "with their knowledge of the surrounding area, they have proved their value in the scouting missions". On several occasions, these scouting missions engaged EDES units in combat.{{cite book |last= Meyer|first= Hermann Frank |title=Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg [Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII]|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag |language=de |year=2008 | pages =464, 467, 476 | ref=Meyer |isbn=978-3-86153-447-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Hpr-PK39UkC}} On 27 September (1943), combined German and Cham forces launched large scale operation in villages north of Paramythia: Eleftherochori, Seliani, Semelika, Aghios Nikolaos. In this operation the Cham contingent numbered 150 men, and, according to German Major Stöckert, "performed very well".{{cite book |last= Meyer|first= Hermann Frank |title=Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg [Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII]|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag |language=de |year=2008 | pages =469 | ref=Meyer |isbn=978-3-86153-447-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Hpr-PK39UkC}}

Under the idea of creating a racially pure Greater Albania, the Balli Kombëtar enacted campaigns of terror against Serb civilians in Kosovo and Montenegro.{{sfn|Jankowski|2014}}{{Page needed|date=December 2022}}{{sfn|Johnstone|2002|page=188}}{{Better source needed|date=December 2022}}. Following the founding of the Second League of Prizren, the Balli Kombëtar combined with the SS Skanderbeg division massacred thousands of Serbs and expelled between 10,000 and 100,000 Serb civilians from the region.{{sfn|Lampe|2000|p=228}}{{sfn|Clark|2000|p=29}}{{sfn|Blamires|2006|p=31}} In October 1943 during a large-scale German offensive in southern Albania, the Balli Kombëtar in conjunction with German troops attacked Greek villages and committed numerous atrocities including burning villages and executing civilians.{{sfn|Mangerich|2010|p=6}}

Between 1941 and 1944, 20.000 ca. Macedonians due to Ballistic atrocities, fled from Western Macedonia, especially from Reka and Tetovo region, to Skopje and Bitola, then Bulgaria.{{Cite book |last=Райчевски |first=Стоян |title=Бежанците от Западна Македония и Албания |publisher=Захарий Стоянов |year=2021}}{{pn|date=January 2025}}{{qn|date=January 2025}}

The Balli Kombëtar was revived in Albania as a political party in the early 1990s. Founded under the leadership of Abas Ermenji, a surviving Ballist, who escaped from Albania when the communists declared victory in 1945.{{cite web|author=Robert Elsie|title=Historical Dictionary of Albania|url=http://dualibra.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Historical_Dictionary_of_Albania__Second_Edition.pdf|url-status=dead|access-date=3 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006083419/http://dualibra.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Historical_Dictionary_of_Albania__Second_Edition.pdf|archive-date=6 October 2014}} In 1996 it won 5 percent of the popular vote and two seats in parliament. It has since declined. In the 2001 elections it was part of the Union for Victory (Bashkimi për Fitoren) coalition which received 37.1% of the vote and 46 members of parliament.

The National Front has chapters in Kosovo, led by Sylejman Daka & in North Macedonia, led by Vebi Xhemaili.

Midhat Frashëri believed that Albanian provinces under the Ottoman Empire were unfairly partitioned during World War I amongst Yugoslavia and Greece.{{cite web|title=Balli Kombëtar: The Ten-Point Programme |author=Robert Elsie |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1915_2.html |access-date=17 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717004908/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1915_2.html |archive-date=17 July 2011}} After World War II, Midhat Frashëri began advocating for a Greater Albania. When Midhat Frashëri formed the Balli Kombëtar, it was based on his nationalist ideas and the old ideologies of his father Abdyl Frashëri, Ymer Prizreni and Pashko Vasa, and the natural progression of the Albanian Vilayet. The works of Franz Nopcsa, Johann Georg von Hahn and Milan Šufflay, helped strengthen the nationalists' cause.{{cite web|title=Milan von Šufflay: Mediaeval Albania|author=Robert Elsie|url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1912_4.html|access-date=16 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811035740/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1912_4.html|archive-date=11 August 2011}}{{cite web|title=Baron Franz Nopcsa|author=Robert Elsie|url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_9.html|access-date=16 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111029002602/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_9.html|archive-date=29 October 2011}} The Balli Kombëtar believed that Albanians were "Aryans of Illyrian heritage".{{cite book|author=Cyprian Blamires|title=World Fascism: A-K|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&pg=PA31|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-940-9|pages=31–32}} This helped gaining support by the Nazis. The party had also a strong agrarian socialist wing, which gained the leadership of the party after the war with its leader Abaz Ermenji, and also Zef Pali, Halil Maçi and Vasil Andoni.{{Cite web|url=https://sot.com.al/dossier-politike/cia-zbardh-p%C3%ABr%C3%A7arjet-brenda-ballit-komb%C3%ABtar-hasan-dosti-ishte-njeri-i-d%C3%ABshtuar-p%C3%ABr|title=CIA zbardh përçarjet brenda Ballit Kombëtar, Hasan Dosti ishte njeri i dështuar për amerikanët, ja përplasjet mes konservatorëve dhe socialistëve, roli i dyshimtë i Ali Këlcyrës dhe lëvizjet e Abaz Kupit|date=5 July 2016|website=Agjencia e Lajmeve SOT NEWS|language=en}}

The original objectives of Balli Kombëtar were set out in 1942 in the following ten-point program, also known as the "Decalogue":{{cite web|title=Mid'hat bey Frashëri:The Epirus Question – the Martyrdom of a People |author=Robert Elsie |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |access-date=16 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010338/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |archive-date=23 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}

{{cquote|The Decalogue states:{{cite web|title=Balli Kombëtar: The Ten-Point Programme |author=Robert Elsie |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |access-date=17 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010338/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |archive-date=23 July 2011}}

1. We are fighting for the red and black flag, for the defence of the rights of the Albanian people
2. We are fighting for a democratic, ethnic and free Albania with a modern society
3. We are fighting for an Albania in which freedom of speech and thought will prevail
4. We are fighting for an Albania with a proper economic and social balance so that there will be no more exploiters and exploited, that is to say, so that no one will live at the expense of his fellow man, so that there will be no farmers without enough land to live on, so that there will be no blue and white-collar workers without housing and security, i.e. we are fighting for a stable Albania with a thoroughly reformed economic system in accordance with the wishes and needs of the Albanian people
5. We are fighting for an Albania in which the suppressed talents of all strata of the population will come to light, be supported and flourish with the help of Albanian schooling
6. We are fighting for an Albania in which all positive contributions will be properly appreciated, independent of age, region or faith
7. We are fighting to create an Albania run by people who have not been compromised, by Albanians who have done their utmost at every time and under all conditions for the salvation and welfare of their country, by competent and honest working men
8. We are fighting for an Albania that, in a strict and exemplary manner, will punish all anti-patriots, traitors, lackeys, troublemakers, speculators and spies; for an Albania in which there will be no place for hypocrites, sycophants, feudal oppressors and anyone who hinders the development and progress of our renascent country
9. We are fighting to harmonize and unite the creative energies of the nation, to create an intellectual and spiritual union of all Albanians
10. We are fighting to mobilize all the vital forces of the nation against the occupiers in order to realize the ideals of Balli Kombëtar}}

After World War II ended, the Balli Kombëtar were defeated by Yugoslav and Albanian communists. The Ballists were so thoroughly discredited by their collaboration with the Nazis that there was no chance of them having a role in postwar Albania, though it took until 1945 to finish them off. Ironically, the Ballists' decision to work with the Nazis brought about the one thing they had sought to prevent – a Communist-dominated government. Balli Kombëtar fighters fled the Balkans to Austria, the United States, Australia, Switzerland and South America. The Ballists who did not escape were executed. An organization was set up in exile.

Many Ballists that managed to escape Albania subsequently set up the CIA backed Free Albania Committee, aimed at organising the Albanian diaspora to overthrow Enver Hoxha's Communist regime in Albania. Starting in 1949 British and American trained Albanian fighters (consisting of men from Balli Kombëtar and the monarchist movement, known as Legaliteti) were parachuted into Albania with the aim of organizing a popular revolt against Hoxha, marking the start of the Albanian Subversion.{{cite web|title=CIA released documents |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/OBOPUS%20BG%20FIEND%20%20%20VOL.%201%20%28COUNTRY%20PLAN%20ALBANIA%29_0028.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122221108/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/OBOPUS%20BG%20FIEND%20%20%20VOL.%201%20%28COUNTRY%20PLAN%20ALBANIA%29_0028.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 January 2017}} The operation failed, thanks in no small part to infamous double agent Kim Philby, who leaked crucial details of the plan to the communist authorities who were consequently able to intercept many of the fighters upon arrival.{{cite web|title=Overthrowing the Communist Regime |author=Robert Elsie |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/1983_Ermenji/index.html}} The subversion cost the lives of at least 300 men and for a long time was one of the most carefully concealed secrets of the Cold War.

In 1950, the Balli Kombëtar (in-exile) was divided into two wings, one Agrarian headed by Abas Ermenji, and one headed by Ali Këlcyra.{{cite book|title=JPRS Report: East Europe|issue=59–66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PITAQAAMAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Foreign Broadcast Information Service|page=22}}

Tetovo was once the largest Balli Kombëtar base in Albania and still has strong ties with the name. The Tetovo-based football club KF Shkendija has a large support firm called the Ballistët. They are known in the media in North Macedonia for their use of hardline nationalistic rhetorics in football matches.{{cite web|title=Shkendija fined, their fans can't go to away games |author= Filip Zdraveski|url= http://macedonianfootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2469:shkendija-fined-their-fans-cant-go-to-away-games&catid=1:domestic&Itemid=63|access-date=16 June 2011}} The most notable Ballist leader in Macedonia was Xhem Hasa from Gostivar. A statue of him has been erected in Simnica, just south of Gostivar, by local Albanians.{{cite web|title=PËRMENDORJA E BALLISTIT TË NJOHUR XHEM HASA – GOSTIVARI|url=http://gostivari24.com/permendorja-e-ballistit-te-njohur-xhem-hasa-gostivari/|access-date=15 March 2016|archive-date=16 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316013131/http://gostivari24.com/permendorja-e-ballistit-te-njohur-xhem-hasa-gostivari/|url-status=dead}}

• Albanian Fascist Party
• 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian)
• Vulnetari
• Këshilla
• Greater Albania
• History of Albania

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Blamires|first=Cyprian |title=World Fascism: A-K|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=1-57607-940-6}}
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• {{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P. |title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918–2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC|year=2006|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-34656-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Vickers|first=Miranda |title=Between Serb and Albanian: a history of Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S41pAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Hurst & Co.|isbn=9781850652786}}

{{refend}}

{{Collaboration with Axis Powers}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Albanian militant groups

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balli Kombetar}}

Category:1942 establishments in Albania

Category:1945 disestablishments in Albania

Category:Organizations established in 1942

Category:Organizations disestablished in 1945

Category:Modern history of Kosovo

Category:Epirus in World War II

Category:Albanian nationalist organizations

Category:Albania in World War II

Category:Paramilitary organizations based in Albania

Category:Parties of one-party systems

Category:Anti-communist organizations in Albania

Category:Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)

Category:Collaboration with Fascist Italy

Category:Collaboration with Nazi Germany