Protocol of Corfu

May 17, 1914 

 99th Anniversary

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_of_Corfu

 

The Protocol of Corfu (Greek: Πρωτόκολλο της Κέρκυρας, Albanian: Protokolli i Korfuzit), signed on May 17, 1914, was an agreement between the representatives of the Albanian Government and the Provisional Government of Northern Epirus, which officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an autonomous self-governing region under the sovereignty of the prince of the newly established Principality of Albania.^[1] This agreement, granted to the Greeks of the districts of Korytsa and Argyrokastro, which form Northern Epirus, wider religious, educational, cultural and political autonomy, inside the borders of the Albanian state.
After the end of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), the subsequent peace treaties ceded the region to Albania. This turn of events catalyzed an uprising among the local Greeks which lead to the Northern Epirote Declaration of Independence, at February 28, 1914. Finally on May 17, the International Commission of Control, an organization responsible to secure peace and stability in the area, intervened and the Protocol of Corfu was signed. However the protocol’s terms were never implemented because of the politically unstable situation following the outbreak of World War I and it was eventually annulled in 1921 in the Conference of Ambassadors.^[2][3]