Albanian minority in Greece

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CAMERIA: An Albanian Region Divided Between Greece and Albania
The Epirus, or Çameria, area in southern Albania and northern Greece has constituted the main focus of potential dispute between Athens and Tirana. The Greeks consider the southern extremity of Albania to be northern Epirus, while the Albanians consider the northwest corner of Greece to be southern Çameria. Although neither government has pressed for territorial revisions in recent memory, both regions are inhabited by minorities whose conditions and treatment have given rise to some concern and interstate discord. Claims over Çam numbers have ranged from 90,000 to over one million but are believed to be understated because Athens has not considered the local Albanians to be a separate ethnic group and has completely hellenized the majority of Orthodox Christian Albanians. They have not been entitled to any special minority rights and have been prevented from establishing any educational, cultural, or political associations inside Greece.

, are also used by the Greeks. Excerpted from

Denial of ethnic identity, brutal forms of assimilation, restrictions on the cultural rights and harassment against minority leaders are the main methods employed by Greece against its ethnic minorities. Ethnic Albanians are subject to these treatments as well.

- Official Greek allegations that both northern and southern Epirus are historically greek lands are in dispute with the historical facts. The famous King Pirro, who founded the Kigdom of Epir in III. Century AD is called “Barbarian”, namely “not Greek”, in the writings of many greek historians. As the Western sources confirmed, the Epirus region has always been ethnically Albanian.

- Even supposing that Cham people cooperated with Nazis during the second World War, the repatriation of the greeks who collaborated with Nazis during the second World War with general amnesties in 1970s as against the violent expulsion of 300.000 Cham Albanians from the lands that bequeathed to them from their forefathers, is bitter evidence of the chauvinist approach of the Greek government against ethnic minorities

Though the Greek government accepted the right of Albanians, Macedonians and Vlahs to establish their own autonomous Orthodox churches with the Sevres Treaty of 1920, today this is only on paper and the religious life of all orthodox communities in Greece is under the tight control of Greek Orthodox Church

Let every democratic citizen of Greece consider how he or she would judge similar behavior from another country acting against its Greek minority. Let us assume, for example, that the Albanian government forbids entry to one of its former citizens, a member of the Greek minority, who abandoned Albania in the course of the Greek-Italian war in 1940, was stripped of his Albanian citizenship and had his property confiscated by the state. Assume that person today resides in Canada or Australia and in his Canadian or Australian passport, his place of birth is not mentioned as 'Drach'(the Albanian name of a city in Southern Albania), but "Dirahio" (the name of the same city in Greek).

How would we judge such an action of the Albanian government? How would we judge the placement of other such citizens in a list of "personae non grata" by the Albanian Foreign Office, because in Melbourne or Toronto they participate in Greek and not Albanian cultural associations? What would we say if the Albanian government stripped them of their citizenship and forbade them as long as they lived to visit their families and their places of origin in Southern Albania? Would we not correctly characterize such behavior as racist and inhuman

The "New Democracy" Party:

We talked with Michael Papakonstantinu, Efstakios Paguhos, Nikola Martis, Joanis Vulfefis and Kaeti Papannastasion. Here are some of their answers:

"There is no problem of Albanian language in Greece. If we put linguistic problems on the table, we would create very great problems for the Greek state. If the Albanian language is spoken, it is spoken only in families. No opinion can be fully expressed on this issue. There has never been room for the Albanians in our problems. Your mission is very delicate. Do not complicate things. Watch out! Minority issues will lead to war in Europe. We can in no way help at these moments. Likewise, we do not want to give the impression of Albanian presence in Greece. This problem does not exist for us

The "PASOK" Party:

Questions were addressed to Dr. Jorgos Sklavunas and Manolis Azimakis. Their answers:

"We do not deem it necessary for the Albanian and other minorities to learn their mother tongues because the language they speak is not a language. There are no Albanian territories in Greece. There are only Greek territories where Albanian may also be spoken. He who does not speak our language does not belong to our race and our country

The Ministry of Culture:

Having listened to the questions, Doc. Athina Sipirianti said:

"To solve a problem, you have always to set up a commission. We do not have the possibility of dealing with the problem you are raising. Your experience will be necessary for what we shall do in the future. Your visit is a great stimulus to us."

The Pedagogical Department:

Dr. Trinnidafilotis’ answer was very cold:

"There is no teaching of Albanian. What you are saying is a political rather than a cultural problem. I have nothing else to add."

The Commission of the Independent Magazine Anti:

Answers:

"Borders between states are not fair. This interest in minorities in Greece can hide interests of domination by other states. Linguistic minorities, namely, the Albanian minority, have no right whatsoever. In Greece, there are only Greeks."

The above statements and the appeal to the Speaker of the Greek Parliament and the party leaders are clear evidence of the presence of Albanians, Turks and Macedonian Slavs in Greece, who still speak their mother tongues. According to research done by scholars, there are about 700 Albanian villages in Greece, whose Albanian ethnicity the Greeks deny. It is a well-known fact that national minority members in Greece have all been subject to intense, organized assimilation, which the Greeks, while ignoring their distinct ethnicity, justify by pointing to their Orthodox religion, as though religion were the criterion to determine one’s nationality. However, there are also Greeks who contradict the absurd claims of the Greek authorities. In a study on the subject, Professor of International Law and current Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, Christos Rozakis, acknowledges the ethnic character of minorities in Greece

It is also a pity that nothing has so far changed in Greece’s nationalistic and theocratic policies since the 1944-1945 period when the Greeks were the first in southeastern Europe after World War II to perpetrate genocide. They massacred and ethnically cleansed Albanians from Chamouria, an Albanian-inhabited region in the northwest of today’s Greek state.

It stands to reason that their religious brethren, the Serbs, would naturally draw on the Greek experience of the ethnic cleansing of Albanians and extensively use it against the Kosova Albanians in the year 1999

The way the Greeks respond to the national minority issue signifies the existence of a strong, unhealthy nationalistic trend, raised to state policy level, which runs counter to the general tendency in the other countries of the European Union. The official 1951 census in Greece indicated that ethnic minorities in the country constituted 2.6 to 3.8 per cent of the total population. Just as in the case of other non-Greeks, the number of Albanians, too had radically been reduced in the census. According to other sources, there were at least as many as 350,000 Albanians at that time. Slavic speakers in Greece today number up to 300,000 though the majority of them had to flee during and after World War and the Civil War. Facts are stubborn. Nevertheless, these figures that have been drastically reduced, have always been suppressed whenever they have been brought up. Worth mentioning are also the following facts, symptomatic of Greek intolerance in the area of national minorities: A few years ago, death threats against Anastasia Karakasidou, a Guggenheim Fellowship scholar at Harvard University, first came from the Greek community in the United States and then in Greece because she had described the presence of a Slavic speaking Macedonian community in Greece in her book "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Shrubs…" Almost at the same time, Christos Sideropulos, leader of "the Human Rights movement in Macedonia" faced trial on charges of "spreading false information that might cause disturbance in the international relations of Greece." His guilt had been a statement to the effect that the ethnic Macedonians faced curbs on their language and culture by a state, which denies their existence

Though there is no denying the fact that Greece is a full-fledged member of the European Union, its behavior, past and present, which has little to do with Western values, is helping an increasing number of people realize that the country is a far cry from the rest of the EU members as far as mentality, culture, as well as religious and national tolerance are concerned. Greece is also distinct from the other EU member countries as far as its domestic legislation is concerned. For instance, citizenship, ethnicity and religion are deliberately confused in Greece. The Greek Constitution outlaws proselytism. There are also provisions, especially Article 20 of the Greek Citizenship Law in Greece, under which sanctions, prison terms and denial of Greek citizenship are imposed on religious minority members, accused of involvement in so-called activities against Hellenism. Irrespective of the fact that Greece has repealed Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Law under international pressure, which entitled the government to deprive those regarded as allogenes [Greece’s natives of non-Greek origin] of Greek citizenship, it has not made the Article retroactive in order to restore citizenship to those who have unjustly lost it.

Financial Times quotes Takis Michas, social affairs specialist at the Athens daily Eleftherotypia, as saying: "Greece is an inward-looking society. Orthodox values reinforce that mentality. Orthodoxy sees the West as a threat, a place where conspiracies are hatched against it," a mind frame of both Greeks and Serbs, which draws its source from the ancient split between western and eastern Christendom. Whereas British historian Norman Davies writes in his book "Europe A History": "From the time of the Crusades, the Orthodox looked on the west as the source of subjugation worse than the infidel." This mindset is made manifest in the United States, too. According to recent news reports, Archbishop Spyridon, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, who has spent most of his life in Europe, has been accused of trying to keep the church inaccessible to members who feel more American than Greek. Spyridon, who is the first American-born leader of the Greek Orthodox church in this country, says he works to protect the church’s Byzantine traditions, proving to be one of those Greeks who are still living in the Byzantine empire. As Jeane Carthner of the newspaper Liberacion points out: "A few years ago, the Greeks were enemies of the Albanians, Macedonians and Bulgarians. They are constant enemies of the Turks, while now they have become enemies of the Americans, the British, the French, the Germans and the rest of the world." "The West is full of enemies," the president of Greece, Costis Stephanopolous, has been quoted as saying. Scholars consider such statements "a reminder of emotions that are deeply felt in the eastern Balkans. The common link is the Orthodox religious tradition. It is a tie that cements the alliance with Serbia …" Such a mentality that has been conducive to national and religious bigotry has prompted analysts to draw the logical conclusion that Greek presence in the EU and NATO, etc. is an anomaly and a paradox. Greece continues to be an awkward partner or indeed a black sheep in the European Union even today. Time and again, it creates false problems for Europe with its whimsical behavior towards its neighbors. This conclusion is not a thing of the past, of the early 1990s, as another Greek, Loukas Tsoukalis, of the European Institute of the London School of Economics, says

Such being the case, it is wrong, at least in the foreseeable future, to regard Greece as the bridge that will link the neighboring countries to Europe. This EU member country, which regards every criticism of its handling of domestic affairs, the minority and religious issues in particular, as a West-inspired, hostile step to destabilize the country, cannot play such a role unless it improves its image, which is still low by European standards, and gives up sowing the seeds of religious and national intolerance.

Far from trying to find the culprit abroad, Greece should mend its ways at home.

Northern Epirus: Autonomous Region
Georgios Kastriotis was A Greek Epirotian Warlord
Northern Epirus is home to 350,000 Ethnic Greeks whose human rights have been abused by the Albanian government for over 80 years. The Albanian government has refused to acknowledge it's obligations under the Corfu Protocol of 1914 which grants Albania's Greek minority of Norther Epirus AUTONOMY. This situation has to be corrected immediately and all articles of that protocol be implemented until such time as a referendum for the union of Northern Epirus with Greece can be held.

Anton said
"Greece is an inward-looking society"...
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less than Albania....

:)

Albania
Human Rights Concerns

Amnesty International remains concerned that torture and ill-treatment of detainees are common in Albania. Investigations into some complaints were started, but tended to be delayed and inconclusive. Detention conditions, particularly for remand prisoners held in police stations, remain harsh, although steps have been taken to reduce overcrowding. Domestic violence is widespread and significant reforms are needed to protect victims. The trafficking of women and children for forced prostitution and cheap labour continued, although arrests and prosecutions for trafficking markedly increased. The law, however, did not adequately protect victims, for whom there were limited support services provided by non-governmental organizations.
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http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/albania/i...

7 October 2003

Inquiry call after interior minister punches TV editor

20.10.2003 - Interior minister Luan Rama was dismissed on 17 October for hitting Gjeli Vision editor Ilir Babaramo.

Reporters Without Borders called for an investigation after the Albanian interior minister punched the editor-in-chief of a television station at a socialist party election victory celebration.

The minister, Luan Rama, attacked Ilir Babaramo at a restaurant in the capital Tirana on 14 October over criticism broadcast by the television Vision Plus. The minister’s bodyguards also maltreated the journalist, said the press freedom organisation, condemning the attack.

The minister denied hitting the journalist, in a letter sent 15 October to the general prosecutor Theodori Sollaku. The next day the Albanian association of electronic media spoke out against the assault and called for the minister’s resignation.

Referring to the assault as "highly symbolic", Reporters Without Borders said it was totally unacceptable for the country’s top law and order official to hit a journalist because of criticism. It appeared to pose a threat to all journalists who took issue with the government’s political line.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3...

PYRRHUS

Gender: Masculine

Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized), Ancient Greek (Latinized)

Pronounced: PIR-us [key]
From the Greek name Πυρ ρος (Pyrros) which meant "flame-coloured, red", related to πυρ (pyr) "fire". This was another name of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. This was also the name of a 3rd-century BC king of Epirus.

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php...