Leskovik
Town
Leskovik, with the Melesini Mountain in the background
Leskovik
Coordinates: 40°9′N 20°36′E / 40.150°N 20.600°E / 40.150; 20.600
Country	Albania
County	Korçë
Municipality	Kolonjë
• Municipal unit	3.64 km2 (1.41 sq mi)
Elevation	913 m (2,995 ft)
Population  (2023[1])
• Municipal unit	939
• Municipal unit density	260/km2 (670/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal Code	7402
Area Code	(0)871

Leskovik (Albanian: Leskoviku) is a town in Korçë County, in southeastern Albania. Historically, until 2015, it was a municipality, after which it became a municipal unit of Kolonjë. The town is located close to the Greek-Albanian border. The population as of the 2023 census is 399.^[1]

The name comes from the Slavic word leska ("hazel" or "hazel river"), together with the suffix ik(ë). The name of the town was shown as Lexovico in an 1821 map by the French writer and traveller François Pouqueville, and as Leskovik in an Ottoman document produced in 1851.^[2]

Leskovik was created as a summer resort by the Ottomans, when the region came under their control in the 15th century. It was within the Sanjak of Ioannina.^[3] The town was home to several feudal wealthy landowners with large estates (now located in modern Greece) and Leskovik emerged as a centre of Islam in the local area.^[4] It was an important town on a main road linking to Përmet and Korçë.^[4]

It was recognised as a town in the early 1800s. It was elevated from a kaza (subdistrict) into a sanjak. Leskovik kaza (subdistrict) was located within Ioannina sanjak, and was part of Yanya Vilayet (province) until 1912.^[5]

Leskovik and the nearby mountain Melesin was the site of a battle in 1831.

Ottoman Albanian spahis and landowners from 19th century Leskovik owned estate properties (chiftlik) in parts of the Balkans and in particular the Thessalian plain, until its loss to Greece in 1881 leading to local economic decline and increasing reliance on agriculture.^[6]

Leskovik was an important centre for the Sufi Bektashi order,^[7][8] and it was strongly established in the surrounding area.^[9] The Sufi Halveti order^[8] and Sa'di order of dervishes^[10] was also present in the town, while the Sufi Hayatiyya order had a tekke dating from 1796.^[11] In Leskovik, a Bektashi tekke was founded in 1887 by Abedin Baba, a town native and religious figure.^[11][12] The tekke housed a small number of dervishes and Abedin Baba's gravesite, later destroyed by war.^[13] Another religious building was the Pazar (Bazaar) mosque of Leskovik.^[14]

In the late Ottoman period and on the eve of the Balkan Wars, the population of Leskovik was mostly Muslim Bektashi.^[8][15][13] A few Muslim Albanians from Leskovik were employed in the Ottoman bureaucracy as administrative officials governing some districts in parts of the empire.^[16] Greek education was present in Leskovik at the 1898–1899 school year with one boys' and one girls' school and a total of 100 pupils attending them.^[17]

During the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Ottoman rule came to an end and Leskovik briefly came under the control of the Greek forces. In the conflict, Greek forces destroyed Leskovik.^[18] Shortly after the town was visited by an international commission who was responsible to draw the precise borders between the Kingdom of Greece and the newly established Principality of Albania.^[19] There was some difficulty in drawing the new border by the international demarcation border commission as the area around Leskovik and nearby Konitsa contained mixed populations of Albanians and Greeks.^[20] After the partition of Leskovik kaza (1913) along demographic lines, its Greek settlements went to Greece and its Albanian settlements became part of Albania, with Leskovik itself placed in the Albanian province of Kolonjë.^[21]

Leskovik was finally ceded to Albania under the terms of the Protocol of Florence (17 December 1913). In March, 5 [O.S. February, 20] 1914 the town officially joined the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.^[22]

During World War I in the summer of 1916 the town was occupied by Italian troops due to the pretext that the Greek forces could not resist the advance of the Bulgarian army in the Balkan front.^[23]

At 21 November 1940, during the Greco-Italian War, units of the II Army Corps of the advancing Greek forces entered Leskovik after breaching the Italian defences.^[24] The Greek positions, including Leskovik, were abandoned after Albania was invaded by Germany in April 1941.^[25]

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania, being an ally of the Soviet Union, was involved in the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) by supporting the communist led Greek Democratic Army. Leskovik became for a period its headquarters. The town also hosted a training, a supply center, as well as medical facilities for the communist guerrillas, who mounted several invasions from Albanian soil into the Greek region of Grammos and fled back to Albania once an operation was completed.^[26]

In 2000, some Bektashi Muslims from Leskovik who lived in Greece began restoration works on the Durbalı Sultan Tekke in Thessaly, a monument with past historical links to the town, mentioned in local ballads and songs and a place where certain town notables are buried.^[27]

Part of the Eastern Orthodox community consists of Aromanians that are found in mixed neighbourhoods in the town.^[28]

In the wider area, the religious composition is distributed between Islam: (Bektashis and Halvetis) such as in nearby Gjonç and Gline and Christianity (mostly Orthodoxy)^[29] with some converts to Orthodoxy,^[8] others to Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as some irreligious people.

The local government of Leskovik was reorganised during the 2015 local government reforms, when it became a subdivision of Kolonjë.^[30]

Leskovik is located 0.7 miles (1.1 km) from Melesin mountain, inside Ersekë-Konitsa-Çarshovë triangle.

Leskovik's population during the General Census of 1881–1883 was recorded as consisting entirely of Albanians and 'Greeks":^[3]

The population has decreased after the 1990s, due to emigration. In the modern period, the town of Leskovik is religiously mixed, composed of Muslim Bektashis and Eastern Orthodox Christians.^[31][8] The population of Leskovik the 2011 census was estimated as being 1,525.^[32]

• Jani Vreto (1822–1900), Albanian rilindas and a founding member of the Central Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Albanian People, was born in the village of Postenan, near Leskovik.^[33]
• Abedin Baba of Leskoviku (born before 1867 – 1912) – Bektashi religious figure and poet.^[7]
• Hafize Leskoviku [sq] (born c. 1870), singer and instrumental musician
• Nezir Leskoviku [sq] (1876 – c. 1970), diplomat and Ottoman administrator
• Ahmed Vefiku (born 1882), Albanian politician.^[34]
• Mustafa Qulli [sq], better known as Muço Qulli (1887–1915), Albanian patriot, publicist, publisher of the Shkodër-based newspaper Populli
• Ajdin Asllan (1895–1976), musician, record label owner, Vatra activist, composer of Vatra's hymn;^[35]
• Naim Frashëri, actor, (1923–1975), born in Leskovik.^[36]
• Asllan Rusi (1944–1983), volleyball player, the main volleyball arena in Tirana bears his name
• Ibrahim Sirri Leskoviku, Albanian politician.^[37]

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• Clayer, Nathalie (2005). "The Albanian students of the Mekteb-i Mülkiye: Social networks and trends of thought". In Özdalga, Elisabeth (ed.). Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy. Routledge. ISBN 978-04153-4-164-6.
• Clayer, Nathalie (2007). Aux origines du nationalisme albanais: La naissance d'une nation majoritairement musulmane en Europe [The origins of Albanian nationalism: The birth of a predominantly Muslim nation in Europe] (in French). Paris: Karthala. ISBN 978-28458-6-816-8.
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• Elsie, Robert (2001). A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture. London: Hurst & Company. ISBN 1-85065-570-7.
• Elsie, Robert (2019). The Albanian Bektashi: History and Culture of a Dervish Order in the Balkans. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-17883-1-571-5.
• Hartmann, Elke (2016). Die Reichweite des Staates: Wehrpflicht und moderne Staatlichkeit im Osmanischen Reich 1869-1910. Krieg in der Geschichte (in German). Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 978-36577-8-373-1.
• Hasluck, F. W. (1916). "Geographical Distribution of the Bektashi". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 21: 84–124. doi:10.1017/S0068245400009631. JSTOR 30102759. S2CID 180796755.
• Kaphetzopoulos, Ioannis; Flokas, Charalambos; Dima-Dimitriou, Angeliki (2000). The Struggle for Northern Epirus. Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate. ISBN 978-960-7897-40-4.
• Karpat, Kemal H. (1985). Ottoman Population, 1830-1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-09160-6.
• Kiel, Machiel (1990). Ottoman Architecture in Albania, 1385-1912. Islamic art series. Vol. 5. Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture. ISBN 9290633301.
• Kiel, Machiel (2009). "Durbali Sultan Revisited". Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi [Turkish Culture and Hacı Bektas Veli Research Quarterly] (52).
• Kokolakis, Mihalis (2003). Το ύστερο Γιαννιώτικο Πασαλίκι: χώρος, διοίκηση και πληθυσμός στην τουρκοκρατούμενη Ηπειρο (1820–1913) [The Late Pashalik of Ioannina: Space, Administration and Population in Ottoman-ruled Epirus (1820–1913)] (in Greek). Athens, Greece: EIE-ΚΝΕ. ISBN 978-960-7916-11-2.
• Matanie, ivor (1994). World War II. Godalming, UK: CLB Publishing. ISBN 978-18583-3-182-9.
• Nitsiakos, Basilēs G.; Nitsiakos, Vassilis (2010). On the Border: Transborder Mobility, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries Along the Albanian-Greek Frontier. Münster, Germany: LIT Verlag. ISBN 978-36431-0-793-0.
• Nitsiakos, Vasilēs (2011). Balkan Border Crossings: Second Annual of the Konitsa Summer School. Berlin: Lit. ISBN 978-3-643-80092-3.
• Norris, Harry Thirlwall (1993). Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-87249-977-5.
• Pusceddu, Antonio Maria (2018). "Dealing with boundaries: Muslim pilgrimages and political economy on the Southern Albanian frontier". In Flaskerud, Ingvild; Natvig, Richard J. (eds.). Muslim Pilgrimage in Europe (PDF). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-09108-0.
• Shrader, Charles R. (1999). The Withered Vine: Logistics and the Communist Insurgency in Greece, 1945–1949 ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-96544-0.
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• Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands-borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7.

• Condit, D. M. (1962). Richardson, Erin M. (ed.). Case Study in Guerrilla War: Greece during World War II (PDF) (Revised ed.). Fort Bragg, North Carolina: United States Army Special Operations Command. pp. 211–212.

• Carte générale de la Grèce moderne au 1,000,000e (1828) – Leskovik shown on a map by Pierre Lapie, from the Bibliothèque nationale de France
• Photograph of the damaged Muslim quarter at Leskovik durint World War I from the French Ministry of Culture website