Balli Kombëtar

Balli Kombëtar
Participant in World War II
The forces of the Balli Kombëtar
Active	1942–1945
Ideology	Albanian nationalism Republicanism Greater Albania
Leaders	Midhat Frashëri
Strength	35,000–50,000
Became	"Free Albania" National Committee
Allies	Nazi Germany (from late 1943)
Opponents	Chetniks Albanian Partisans Yugoslav Partisans National Republican Greek League
Battles and wars	World War II in Yugoslavia World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia Albanian Resistance of World War II

The Balli Kombëtar (literally National Front), known as Ballists, was an Albanian nationalist, anti-communist organization established in November 1942. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and Midhat Frashëri. The motto of the Balli Kombëtar was: "Shqipëria Shqiptarëve, Vdekje Tradhëtarëvet" (Albania for the Albanians, Death to the Traitors). Eventually the Balli Kombëtar joined the Nazi established puppet government and fought as an ally against anti-fascist guerrilla groups.

With Italy on the brink of defeat in 1942, the Albanian National Liberation Movement (LNC) and the Balli Kombëtar organized a meeting in the village of Mukje. The Balli Kombëtar entered into a fragile alliance with the communist-led LNC, and acted as a resistance group against the Italians. Following the Mukje Agreement, the vague mutual tolerance that had existed between the Ballists and Communists quickly evaporated.The Allies too could not guarantee that Kosovo would be a part of Albania, because they stood for the restoration of occupied nations under their borders as they existed prior to World War II.

Despite their hatred of the occupiers, the Ballists feared that an Allied victory in the war might well result in Communist control of Albania. Their lukewarm attitude towards the British was also fostered by their desire to preserve the ethnically 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. They regarded the Yugoslavs and the Greeks as their real enemies.