Exhumation of Greek soldiers killed in Albania to start on Monday

TornosNews  21.01.2018

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Greeks are very proud of their history and national heritage and are very eager to share both with the country's visitors

The process of officially exhuming the remains of thousands of Greek soldiers that fell in the mountains of southern Albania at the start of WWII is to begin on Monday, with the activation of a bilateral agreement signed by Greece and Albania in 2009, ANA reports.An estimated 6,800 to 8,000 Greek soldiers are believed to be buried in makeshift graves throughout the territory, killed in the pitched battles between Greek and Italian forces in 1940-41, during the Greco-Italian war that ushered Greece into the Second World War.

Their remains, once discovered and identified, are to be buried in two cemeteries set aside for the fallen soldiers, in Vouliarates and Kelcyre in southern Albania. The first exhumation is scheduled to start at 11:00 on Monday, with crews supervised by a bilateral committee of Greek and Albanian experts digging at locations that, according to old (mainly Italian) maps and the accounts of local residents were the hurried burial sites for hundreds of Greek soldiers.