Isa Boletini

"The Turk is cruel, but he is perfectly stupid , and is no match for the sagacious Albanian."

""When the spring comes, we will manure the plains of Kosova with the bones of Serbs, for we Albanians have suffered too much to forget." — Isa Boletini, Albanian leader 1913"

"In March 1913, Boletini accompanied Ismail Qemal bey Vlora to London to seek British support for the new country. Historian Edwin Jacques reports the anecdote that “upon entering the British Foreign Office building to plead his nation’s cause, the security police asked him to remove the pistol from his belt and check it in the vestibule. He complied with no objection. Following the interview, the foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, accompanied Boletini to the vestibule where he put the pistol back in his belt. The foreign secretary remarked with a smile, ‘General, the newspapers might record tomorrow that Isa Boletini, whom even Mahmut Shefqet Pasha could not disarm, was just disarmed in London.’ Boletini replied with a broad smile, ‘No, no, not in London either,’ and he withdrew from his pocket a second pistol.”"