Albanian minority in Greece

The Greek name Epirus originates from the word 'apeiros', meaning 'infinite'.'Epirus' signifies "mainland" or "continent", to distinguish it from the Ionian islands off the Epirote coast.

http://experts.about.com/e/e/ep/epirus_ (region).htm

Under Enver Hoxha's dictatorship Albania ........

was the most isolated and paranoid European state,
..........

where life could only be lived in complicity with its tyranny, or in clandestine resistance. The villa of state hero Zanum Radjik on Tirana's Elbesan road is a house of many secrets. On one wall hangs the portrait of Zanum's absent wife, whose name was never heard within the house. She was the mother of his two very different sons, and the image of her gaze bears silent witness to her mysterious death of many years before, when Ismaíl, the youngest, was only five. Into this house without women Viktor—the elder son, his father's favorite—has brought as his bride a beautiful young peasant girl, Helena. But the Radjik brothers have chosen opposing paths of honor, painfully measuring the growing distance between them. And when an irresistible passion for Helena overwhelms Ismaíl, he is compelled to exhume at last the long-hidden truths and duplicitous crimes that poison all of their lives. The Albanian Affairs is a gripping exposé of psychological oppression, a sensuous yet wrenching story of forbidden love, and an archetypal tragedy that echoes inexorably as if from the hand of the Greek playwright Aeschylus.
Splendidly lated from the Spanish by Leland H. Chambers, The Albanian Affairsis the first of Susana Fortes's six novels to be published in English.

https://www.mcphersonco.com/cs.php...

The atrocities were deliberate, part of a plan to create a Serb-free "Greater Albania". In June 1942 the fascist puppet president of Albania, Mustafa Kroja, declared his goals candidly before his followers in Kosovo:
"The Serbian population of Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible ... All indigenous Serbs should be qualified as colonists and as such, via the Albanian and Italian governments, be sent to concentration camps in Albania. Serbian settlers should be killed." (13)
Similar sentiments were expressed by a Kosovo Albanian leader, Ferat-bey Draga:
"time has come to exterminate the Serbs ... there will be no Serbs under the Kosovo sun."(14)
The anti-Serb pogroms intensified after Italy's collapse in September 1943. The German Nazi's assumed control of Albania, including Kosovo. Italian military units pulled out and were replaced by three divisions of the German XXI Mountain Corps. The German presence freed the Albanians of restraint.
Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the "Balli Kombëtar" (or "Ballistas") carried out a campaign of deportation and murder of Serbs in 1943 and 1944. Then, on Hitler’s express order, the Germans formed the 21st "Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" - the Skanderbeg Division. With German leaders and Kosovo Albanian officers and troops, Hitler’s hoped that using the Skanderbergs Germany could "achieve its well-known political objective" of creating a viable (i.e., pure) "Greater Albania" including Kosovo.(15)
In general, German policy was to organize volunteer military units among Nazi sympathizers in occupied countries.

Of all the occupied nations only the Serbs, Greeks and Poles refused to form Nazi volunteer units. Rather than joining the Nazis, as the Albanians in Kosovo did, the Serbs organized the largest anti-Nazi resistance in Europe. Both the Communist Partisans and thee Royalist Chetniks were mainly Serbs and both groups fought the Germans and their local allies throughout Yugoslavia.
The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to fight these resistance groups But the Skanderberg's Albanians had little interest in going up against soldiers; they mainly wanted to terrorize local Serbs, "Gypsies" and Jews. Many of these Kosovo Albanians had seen prior service in the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian SS divisions which were notorious for slaughtering civilians.
What explained this passionate hatred for non-Albanians? A big factor was militant Islam. The Fundamentalist "Second League of Prizren" was created in September 1943 by Xhafer Deva, a Kosovo Albanian, to work with the German authorities. The League proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against Slavs. They were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin Huseini, who was pro-Nazi and had called for getting rid of all Jews in what was at that time British-occupied Palestine. Albanian religious intolerance was shown by their targeting Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries for destruction.(16)

Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 Serbs murdered. At least 100,000 were driven from Kosovo and replaced with "immigrants" from Albania proper.(17)
In justifying current Kosovo Albanian demands to secede from Serbia, the media has repeated, like a mantra: 90% of the population is Albanian. While this figure is most likely exaggerated (nobody knows for sure because Kosovo Albanians boycotted the census for years!)- the province has been largely Albanian. But a major cause of the current demographic imbalance: was the Albanians' success as Hitler's willing executioners during World War II.(18)
And their attention was not limited to Serbs. Unknown numbers of Roma ("Gypsies") were liquidated. And Kosovo Albanians, acting alone as well as under German direction, eliminated many of Kosovo's Jews.
The definitive work on Hitler's "Final Solution" in Yugoslavia (19) estimates that 550 Jews lived in Kosovo Hitler took over Yugoslavia. 210 of them, or 38 percent, were murdered in Kosovo, mainly by Albanians. In fact, the Skanderbeg division's first operation was to act as an "einsatzgruppen" against the Jews, and its second was a similar extermination foray against the Serb village of Velika where more than 400 Serbians were murdered.(20)
Ceda Prlincevic, head of the Jewish community in Pristina and an executive of the provincial archives, has explained to Emperors-Clothes that the Jews who were not murdered outright were sent by the Skanderbeg division to the German death camps Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen. One train, on its way to the latter camp, took the wrong track and was intercepted by advancing Russian soldiers. According to Mr. Prlincevic, were it not for that fortunate detour, the entire Jewish population of Kosovo would have been eliminated.
http://globalresistance.com/analysis/revenge....
CRIMES OF FASCISM, CRIMES OF LIES
The Myth of Albanian Revenge
by George Thompson (posted 12-17-99)
Introduction by Jared Israel

During World War II, the Italians who occupied Albania in the post-1939 period encouraged the creation of a Greater Albania in an effort to attract Albanian support for their occupation. In fact, the Albanian government asked for the "unification" of Chameria, Kosovo, and western Macedonia into a single Albanian state. During the occupation of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, the Italian government arranged to have Kosovo united with Albania. When Italy surrendered to the Allies, the Germans took over from the Italians and followed a similar policy of fostering Albanian independence and nationalism in Kosovo. They also armed close to 15,000 Kosovo Albanians and even recruited a Waffen SS Division known as the "Skanderberg Division." During the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, the Albanian minority in Chameria campaigned for the annexation of the region into the Albanian state and enrolled in armed units sponsored by the Italians. Armed Chams joined the German forces in burning Greek villages.. These attacks are mentioned repeatedly in reporting by British and American Special Operations units operating behind enemy lines. For a background on the role of the Albanian fascists in Epirus (including Northern Epirus/ Southern Albania) during WWII, I recommend the personal account of Nikolaos A. Stavrou, Professor of International Affairs, Howard University, Washington D.C. According to Professor Stavrou: "On Easter week 1944, German forces and their fascist ally Balli Kombaetar (Albanian National Front), commanded by Gen. Hubert Lanz conducted a sweep of Epirus to clear the way for German army units to move north after the anticipated Allied invasion. This operation was commenced just weeks after the Nazis deported the ancient Jewish community of Ioannina, the capital of Epirus. In less than three days, Nazis and Ballists would wreak havoc in the pastoral life of my village." According to a report by Gerasimos Priftis, a founding member of ELAS (left-wing Greek Resistance group),dated February 20,1944: "The overwhelming majority of Chams in the area of Epirus have sided, in no uncertain terms, with the occupation forces; they have launched murderous attacks against Greek villages and have carried out looting and confiscation of properties. The high point of their collaboration with the fascists was their assault against Fanari in August,1943 where they burned down 30 villages, killed 500 Greeks and held another 500 as hostages." [From "Apokalypto (I Reveal)" by Retired General Nikolaos Gryllakis.]

A vivid account of the devastation inflicted by German, Albanian and local Albanian Cam forces is spelled out in the March 13, 1944 issue of the Albanian newspaper Bashkimit Kombit (the official publication of the then pro-German Tirana regime). The publication proudly announced the success of the February, 1944 campaign and documented the degree of destruction: 25,000 homes were set ablaze and 100,000 Greeks were left homeless.

Zervas of course was directed by C.M. Woodhouse, the officer in charge of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) to push the Muslim Chams out of the area because they had overwhelmingly supported German attacks on Slavs, Greeks, and Jews and anti-Nazi guerrilla units in the region. Reading the accounts of the various British officers working in Greece at the time provides ample documentary proof of the horrific destruction and mass murder by the Cham groups, as well as the British strategy of pushing them over the border.

"Albanians of all ideological persuasions joined Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in their Balkan adventures. For a short four years, matters looked promising and Albanian enthusiasm for fascism was unabashed. Hitler's U-Boats and Mussolini's air force were routinely referred to by Albanian leaders as "our forces", and banner headlines in the press heralded their victories. For example, the Albanian fascist newspaper, Tomori, in April 1942, joyfully announced "our navy destroyed an American armada in the Atlantic"; Bashkimi i Kombit headlined the "Successes of our air force in Malta and the Corinth Canal" with the subheading "Greece cut in two." Sixty-two thousand Albanians eagerly marched into Greece with Mussolini's blue shirts. In their enthusiasm, the commanders of the Albanian brigades, Drini and Dajti, requested the "honor" of crossing the Greek borders first. Many prominent communists, among them Ramiz Alia,(secretary general of the Communist Party) started their careers as fascists. Omer Nishani, first president of communist Albania, had fashioned himself as the theoretician of fascism.

If the ethnic cleansing of 400,000 Serbs from Croatia during the 1990s hardly registers on the radar of world public opinion, then the expulsion of 25,000 Chams from their homes in 1946, is hardly worth a second thought, given the historical record. Considering the recent developments in Kosovo and Macedonia I can understand Greece's sensitivity on the issue. Who wants to be seen as ready to give any concessions with such precedents around?

Kosovo clashes 'ethnic cleansing'
Nato peacekeepers in Mitrovica
Nato troops are out in force in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica
The Nato commander in overall charge of Kosovo has likened the recent violence in the province - in which at least 28 people have died - to ethnic cleansing.
Admiral Gregory Johnson said almost 1,000 Serbs had been driven from their homes after attacks by ethnic Albanians
It is the worst outbreak of violence since Nato forces entered Kosovo in 1999 to end years of ethnic unrest.
Meanwhile, reinforcements for Nato peacekeepers have started arriving in Kosovo following the deadly clashes.
'Attempted pogrom'
Admiral Johnson also said he believed that some of the trouble had been orchestrated.
He added that Nato peacekeepers were investigating whether the violence had been organised by ethnic Albanian militants.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has himself described the attacks as "planned in advance and co-ordinated... this was an attempted pogrom and ethnic cleansing" against Kosovo's Serbs.
Click here to see a map of Mitrovica
Serbia has also has accused both the UN and Nato of failing to protect Kosovo's Serbs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3551571.stm

17 Kosovo churches, monasteries and convents looted or set ablaze

300 Albanians were trying to enter a church protected by Finnish U.N. peacekeepers. Some threw hand grenades and Finnish troops fired back

The Sunday Times Magazine

The Sunday Times July 23, 2006

Feature

The land that time forgot
AA Gill
It was a communist state for nearly half a a century. Now it has organised crime and the worst-dressed teenagers in Europe. Will the world ever take Albania seriously?.........

All across Albania there are decrepit concrete bunkers, thick beehive constructions that smell of mould and foxes. They run in little redoubts up hills, along coverts and through gardens. There are millions of them. Hoxha started building bunkers at the end of the war, and they became a lifelong paranoid obsession that cost a hubristic amount of Albania’s wealth. The bunkers follow no coherent battle plan. There would never have been enough soldiers to man them; they are simply the solid pustules of mistrust and fear. Albania has always been surrounded by enemies, but it has also been divided against itself.

There is no trust in this landscape: it is the place of vendetta and vengeance. There are still families here where the fearful men never leave their windowless homes, where male babies are born to die. The rules of being “in blood” were laid down in the 15th century in the Canon of Lekë, an ancient murderer’s handbook. That is one of the reasons Albanians are so good at organised crime. The distinctions of religion are nothing compared with the ancient honour of families; everything is secondary to family honour and to making money. Everything is excusable to sustain those.

There is also a divide between north and south Albania. The north is called Gheg, the south Tosk. Gheg is tough, uncouth, aggressive; the south, educated, civilised, Italianate

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-...

Cocaine bust

Police said yesterday they arrested two men in Thessaloniki after they found in their possession 2.5 kilos of cocaine. Authorities also found in the apartment shared by the two suspects, a Greek and Albanian national, nearly 50,000 euros in cash and a notebook in which they had recorded their drug transactions.

Human trafficking

Four Albanian nationals were arrested in Thessaloniki early yesterday accused of smuggling 11 illegal immigrants into Greece, police said. The suspects were found transporting the illegal immigrants, who are all from Bangladesh, in three separate vehicles in the northern Greek city.

November 11, 2006