CRASH BETWEEN ALBANIAN DEMAGOGY AND GREEK CIVILISATION HISTORY
(Photo: The Greek School in Koritsa, "Omiros")
Again the Albanian Press is raising the tension against Hellenism. A head article of Newspaper “Gazeta Shqiptare” under the title “The children of Greek School in Korista, learn to referring Southern Albania, to be Greece" is printed today on albanian press. There has been open again a “marathon telenovele” as anti Hellenic rhetoric from Albanian media, underground with Albanian nationalist, who seeing not only the Albanian emigrant process to integrate in Greek society, but also the Greek culture heritage influence as the“ Greek school opened in 2005 in Koritsa.
The polemics between Athens and Tirana has been coming since in 1999, when the Greek government, had propose to Tirana to join specialist and historians to build a history for the children system scholarship between tow countries, seeing to peace atmosphere of Albania to EU. The proposal Culture Minister of Greece M. Gianakoy addressed to Tirana in the end of 2005 as: "the tow countries must build an only history to have perspective and not demagogy and hypocrisy", has been ignored from Albanian authority’.
Wherefore, Athens after the protocol firmed with Tirana in field of culture Albanian emigrants, have opened Albanian schools in Greece, but unfortunate the Albanian children preferred Greek schools. The Albanian dictature has falsified the Albanian history periodically since Albanian state founded in 1912 particularly in relations with Greece. The history books of Albanian children, has been falls about the World War Second ignored the invasion of Italian fascists to Greece in 1940 . Often the albanian historians, referred the counter offensive of Greek troops army against Italians as the invasion of Greeks against Albanian independent state, and never known as factor in WWS fighting against the axes forces.
Anyway, on the Peace Conference in Paris in 1946, Greece has requested to reunite the lost province of Epirus known as Northern Epirus from Albanian state conquested in 1913. Early, in 1919, the Organization of Pan Epiriotic for Koritsa and Kologna Region, sent a letter to US Congress and the President Wilson, to enjoy their territory inside Epirus Province of Greece. In 1946, Tirana has supported thousands of Greek communists to enter in Albanian territory illegal helped from soviet mission in Tirana. Since this year until 1991, has been closed the Greek schools in province of Koritsta and reopen in 2005. According to "Corfu Protocol" May 1914, Korista Prefecture has been including as Greek autonomy inside Albanian borders from decision of Great Powers.
In 2004, the Greek American Lobbyist Nicholas Gage, visited Koritsa with USA ambassador James Jeffrey, to inaugurate the construction of the New Greek School “Omiros”. In addition, according to agreement between Albania and Council of Europe, Albanian State must respect any voluntarism when community people historically claim their culture and their origin.
Also Tirana had refused systematically a general population counting, because it has afraid to personal declaration, to large number of Greeks that live in Albania including Koritsa, liberated from Greek army both in tow War World of 20 Century. One week ago, a Greek orthodox church in Koritisa Region has been violated. There are hundreds of Orthodox Church must part are Byzantine period which are in propriety of Greek old origin people and orthodox community of Koritsa region.
In Greece live about 950 thousand Albanian emigrant, must part of them from Northern Epirus, taken the greek citizenship.
Wherefore, Athens after the protocol firmed with Tirana in field of culture Albanian emigrants, have opened Albanian schools in Greece, but unfortunate the Albanian children preferred Greek schools. The Albanian dictature has falsified the Albanian history periodically since Albanian state founded in 1912 particularly in relations with Greece. The history books of Albanian children, has been falls about the World War Second ignored the invasion of Italian fascists to Greece in 1940 . Often the albanian historians, referred the counter offensive of Greek troops army against Italians as the invasion of Greeks against Albanian independent state, and never known as factor in WWS fighting against the axes forces.
Anyway, on the Peace Conference in Paris in 1946, Greece has requested to reunite the lost province of Epirus known as Northern Epirus from Albanian state conquested in 1913. Early, in 1919, the Organization of Pan Epiriotic for Koritsa and Kologna Region, sent a letter to US Congress and the President Wilson, to enjoy their territory inside Epirus Province of Greece. In 1946, Tirana has supported thousands of Greek communists to enter in Albanian territory illegal helped from soviet mission in Tirana. Since this year until 1991, has been closed the Greek schools in province of Koritsta and reopen in 2005. According to "Corfu Protocol" May 1914, Korista Prefecture has been including as Greek autonomy inside Albanian borders from decision of Great Powers.
In 2004, the Greek American Lobbyist Nicholas Gage, visited Koritsa with USA ambassador James Jeffrey, to inaugurate the construction of the New Greek School “Omiros”. In addition, according to agreement between Albania and Council of Europe, Albanian State must respect any voluntarism when community people historically claim their culture and their origin.
Also Tirana had refused systematically a general population counting, because it has afraid to personal declaration, to large number of Greeks that live in Albania including Koritsa, liberated from Greek army both in tow War World of 20 Century. One week ago, a Greek orthodox church in Koritisa Region has been violated. There are hundreds of Orthodox Church must part are Byzantine period which are in propriety of Greek old origin people and orthodox community of Koritsa region.
In Greece live about 950 thousand Albanian emigrant, must part of them from Northern Epirus, taken the greek citizenship.
A RESPONSE
ReplyDeleteHow many Albanian language schools are in Greece? It is estimated that there are nearly 1 million Arvanites in Greece. The Arvanites of Italy have schools of their own. Greece does not resepct minorit rights. Also, there are more than 400 thousand Albanian migrant workers in Greece. Do you have any Albanian language schools for them?
WHAT ABOUT CHAMERIA?
Chameria, the Albanian territory which was given to Greece
by the Conference of London (1912-1913) is composed of Janinna,
Kosturi, Preveza, Arta, Konitza, Follorina. "Viscountess
Strangford, who travelled in the neighbourhood of Janinna in 1863,
wrote of the difficulty she experienced in making herself
understood, since the inhabitants spoke only Albanian; and the
Hon. R. Curzon's account of his travels around Janinna and Mezzovo
is confirmation of the inherently Albanian character of the land
and its inhabitants" (see The Rise of a Kingdom by J. Swire, Arno
Press and the New York Times, 1971, p. 165). The Albanians of
Greece had influenced even the Greek national dress; Prince
Lichnowsky has written: "the so-called Greek national dress itself
is of Albanian origin" (Swire, p. 11). And Lord Byron, who
travelled through Greece, upon coming into contact with the
Albanians of Chameria and South Albania, wrote:
Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack
Not virtues, were those virtues more mature.
Where is the foe that ever saw their back?
Who can so well the toil of war endure?
Their native fastnesses not more secure
Than they in doubtful time of troublous need;
Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure,
When gratitude or valour bids them bleed,
Unshaken rushing on where'er their chief may lead.
--Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; Canto the Second. Verse
LXV.
These territories of Chameria, portrayed in the writings of
Viscountess Strangford, Hon. R. Curzon, and Lord Byron, have been
completely evacuated by the Greek government. Its indigenous
people, the Albanians, were either expelled or killed. This
process of eradicating the Albanians of Chameria had started even
before Greece had annexed that territory in 1912. After 1912,
there were different waves of expulsions and exterminations. The
Albanians of that region were Moslems; therefore, Greece treated
them as Turks. The historian Joseph Swire wrote that Albanian
Moslems "were advised to emigrate before it was too late, and
terrified refugees poured into Valona with tales of Greek threats
and brutalities" (Swire, p. 188).
When the Greco-Turkish War terminated in 1922, the Greeks
realized that a large number of their population remained within
the Turkish borders. Hence, Greek and Turkish leaders convened on
30 January and signed a Treaty in Lausanne for the exchange of
Greek and Turkish populations. Not many Turks lived in Greece;
therefore, Greece massively expelled Chams (Albanians of
Chameria) to Turkey. The Muslim Albanians of Chameria were forced
to go to Turkey by compulsion, and they were send there not as
Albanians but as Turks. Joseph Swire wrote that the Chams were
"subjected to every indignity and injustice"; they were persecuted
and terrorized "with the intention to drive them out from their
flourishing properties in Epirus to the remote regions of Anatolia
Turkey|, and Greece| replace d| them by Greek immigrants from
Turkey" (Swire, pp. 414-415).
Concerning the tragic plight of the Chams, the chief of the
Permanent Albanian Secretariat accredited to Geneva, Mr. M.
Blinishti complained in front of the Council of the League of
Nations on December 17, 1924 by stating that "the property of the
Moslem Albanians was confiscated, their harvest was requisitioned,
they were prohibited from sowing their corn or from selling or
letting their property to forestall its expropriation, Greek
refugees were installed in their houses, and their right to vote
was suppressed" (Swire, p. 415).
To document that there were thousands of Albanians even in
the Greek army, we shall provide a quote taken from the Greek
newspaper Parnassos of February 1916, stating: "The majority of
our soldiers speak to one another in the Albanian language...a
very deplorable habit.... It is expedient that this habit be
destroyed by all necessary and vigorous means," quoted by
Constantine Chekrezi in his book Albania, Past and Present
(Macmillan, N.Y., 1919), p. 206.
After these hell years of expulsions and exterminations,
some Chams who survived up until the end of World War Two, were
either killed or forced to go to Albania in 1944 by General
Nopoleon Zervas of Greece.
Minority Rights in Greece and Albania: A Comparison
In this part, I shall provide a comparison of the rights of
minority groups in Albania and Greece so that my fellow readers of
Pace University--and the Greek Student Associations-- will have a
clear understanding of the issue.
1. In Albania, all minority groups are fully recognized.
They enjoy the right to vote and be represented in the Albanian
Parliament.
Greece does not even recognize minority groups. To document
this, we shall refer to what one Greek Foreign Deputy Minister,
Ionannis Kapsis, had told the journalist, Robert Kaplan.
According to Kaplan, Kapsis has declared: "No Turks live in
Greece. There are only some Greeks who happened to be Muslim and
who happened to speak Turkish to each other. Nor are there any
Macedonians..." (Balkan Ghosts: a journey through history, by
Robert Kaplan, Vintage Departure Ed., 1994, p. 240).
2. In Albania, the Greeks have 73 elementary schools, one
high school, and a department of Greek studies at the University
of Gjirokaster. Two other high schools are in the process of
opening.
In Greece, the Albanian minority known by the Greeks as
Arvanitas, which comprise a number of more than one million
people, do not even have the right to say that they are Albanians.
One may find large communities of Arvanitas (Albanian) population
in Attica, Boetia, Eastern district of Locris, Southern half of
Eubea, Northern side of Andros, entire islands of Salamis, Hydra,
Spetzae, Poros, Aegina, Corinthia, Argolis, Northern district of
Arcadia, Eastern part of Archea, Laconia, and Messenia. They do
not even have the right to exist as people.
Other minority groups in Greece such as Vllachs,
Macedonians, Turks, Jews, and Tzintzars suffer just the same.
The Helsinki Human Rights Watch reported that, "Although
ethnic Macedonians in Northern Greece make up a large minority
with their own language and culture, their
internationally-recongnized human rights and their existence are
vigorously denied by the Greek government" (see Denying Ethnic
Identity: The Macedonians of Greece by Human Rights
Watch/Helsinki, 1994, IBSM 1-5432-232-0).
3. In Albania, there are six ethnic Greeks, members in the
Albanian Parliament.
In Greece, there are no Arvanitas (Albanians) in the Greek
Parliament. In the past, there used to be only two Turks in the
Greek Parliament.
4. In Albania, the Greeks have a political party (Unity for
Human Rights Party) and enjoy the rights to exercise political
activities throughout Albania.
In Greece, no minority is permitted to create a political
party.
5. In Albania, the Greeks have two newspapers with the name
"Liko Vima", published since 1945, and "Zeri i Omonias".
In Greece, the Arvanitas (Albanian) people have no right to
publish anything in Albanian.
6. In South Albania, Greece has consular offices.
In Greece, no consular offices exist among any areas
populated by Arvanitas (Albanians).
7. In South Albania, a local radio broadcasts in Greek
language.
In Greece, minority groups have no right to broadcast in
their own language. They have no right to exist.
Albania has treated its minorities better than in any other place. During communism, everyone suffered in Albania.
I challenge you to go and measure the standard of living among the Greek minority in Southern Albania and among towns in Northern Albania. You will be surprised that the Greek minority has always had a better standard of living, even under communism.
Do not be a hypocrit. Be honest. The truth will always prevail.