On the eve of the declaration of independence, the Albanian ethnic geospace covered an area of ​​75,000 km and was divided into fourvilayets: in the vilayets of Shkodra, Kosovo, Manastir and Ioannina. In 1912, a population of 2,354,200 lived in these vilayets. The majority of the population of the four western provinces of European Turkey were Albanians.

On this basis, the platform of the revivalists was born, who demanded the inclusion of these vilayets in the future Albanian state.As a result of the historical conditions experienced by the Balkan peninsula, during the centuries of Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian and Ottoman rule, colonists and members of other nationalities had penetrated the periphery of the Albanian lands.

In the peripheral side zone, in addition to Albanians, there were Montenegrin populations in the North-West (Podgorica, Shpuzë, Zhabjak, Moraçë), Bosnians in the North (Kolashin, Rozhaj, Novipazar), Serbs in the Northeast (Vranjë, Leskovc, Nis), Macedonians in the east (Skopje, Prilep, Manastir) and Greek in the south (Artë, Preveza, Ioannina).

As a result, in the vilayet of Manastir, where the province of Kosturi was located, apart from the Albanians who made up the majority of the population, Macedonian, Vlach, Turkish and Serbian minorities also lived.Until 1912, Kazaja e Kosturi was under the jurisdiction of the Sanjak of Korça (Vilayet of Manastir).This sanjak was divided into 7 kazas: Kazaja of Korça, Starova, Bilishti, Opar, Kolonja, Kostur and Hrupishti.

These kazas were mostly populated by Albanians. In Sanjak of Korça, there was no settlement with a Greek population.With the unjust decisions of the Conference of Ambassadors, at the end of 1913, the province of Kostur as well as the province of Çameria, the region of Ioannina, Konica, Grebene, Follorina, etc., were separated from the ethnic trunk and annexed to it.

With these events, the Greek colonization of these southern Albanian territories begins.WHERE IS THE GEOLOGICAL SPACE LOCATED?To the east of the plain of Devolli, after passing the hills of Kapshtica, Braçanji, Vidohova, Çeta, etc., beyond today’s Albanian-Greek state border, lies the region of Kosturi. This geospace, from the size of the territory, is approximately the size of the Devolli field.

In the north and east of the region lie the mountains of Kostur (Mali i Guri, i Brezhnica, i Poliku, i Bloçishti, i viçi mountain, etc.); while in the south the alpine mountain system of Pinde. Within these natural boundaries lies the Kosturi plain, which is formed by the alluvium of the Shag, Llumbanicë, Belicë, Zhelovë and Slivanj rivers. These rivers are branches of Vistrica river.

Since most of the plain lies between the rivers Belica, Shag and Slivanj, it is also called the plain of Mesopotamia. The region of Kostur has an average continental climate and fields with fertile soils suitable for the development of agriculture. The surrounding mountains are covered with forests and pastures, which have been used by the population traditionally for the development of livestock and forest economy.Lands, forests and pastures, until 1912, were assets owned by the indigenous Albanian population.

Thus, the field of Kirçishti was the property of the Pasha of Bitinska, Ismail Pasha, whose fiefdom extended to Bellocërka. The inhabitants of the village of Vishovicë and Trestenik (Devoll) owned all the forests and pastures of the Bloçisht mountain. Residents of the village of Kapshticë had their properties on Mount Polik.After the violent displacement of the Albanian population, the Greek government nationalized all the lands, forests, pastures and other properties of thelegal Albanian citizens.

Toprackë, Tuholi (Albanian Christians and Muslims), Viçishe (Albanian Muslim), Vidohovë (Albanian Muslim), Zeberden, Zagar (today Ajozaharia -Albanian Muslim), Zelegozhd, Zelegrad – Slavic, the green city (Albanian Muslim), Zhelen (Albanian with some Macedonian families).After the tragic separation of the Kosturi region from the ethnic Albanian trunk and the annexation of the Greek colonization, only 4 villages of this three remained within the borders of the Albanian state: Kapshtica, Tresteniku, Vi-shica or Vishovica and Vidohova.

38 villages remained outside the political borders of Albania, of which 30 villages with a homogeneous Albanian population, 6 villages populated by Albanians and Macedonians, 1 village populated by Albanians and Vlachs and 1 village populated by Vlachs. Until 1913, there was no settlement with a Greek population in the Kosturi castle and in 6 other castles of Sanjak of Korça.

Ethnic cleansing of the region

With the annexation of the province of Çamëria and other regions in the south of Albania, the districts of Ioannina, Konica,Kostur, Grebena, Follorina, etc., begins a systematic policy of the Greek state and various ultra-nationalist forces for the denationalization of these territories and their Hellenization.The strategy of colonization was implemented through the implementation of three routes:

1) Ethnic cleansing through a savage genocide against the Muslim Albanian population.

2) Changing the demographic structure of the population, through colonization with Greek and Vlach immigrants, who came from different parts of Greece and Asia Minor.

3) The assimilation of the Albanian population of the Orthodox religion (belief), through the denial of identity.

Ethics

its national identity, banning the use of the Albanian language, teaching it at school, banning the use of national symbols, etc. Since the beginning of the century XX, Greek statistical sources for political purposes considered the entire Orthodox Albanian population to be of Greek ethnicity, thus identifying the Orthodox faith with the Greek nationality.

With manipulated statistical data on the ethnic structure of the population, the Greek nationalist circles have used the religious criterion to justify the annexation policies of the Albanian lands of Southern Epirus (province of Chameria) and in our days of Northern Epirus or of Vorio Epirus. (Korca and Gjirokastra provinces). Today’s political pressure pursued by Greek nationalist-chauvinist segments also serves this purposeto impose a population census where nationality and religion are self-declared.

The Albanian population in the south, which remained outside the borders of 1913, began to be forcibly moved by the Greek government authorities. In the years 1913-1914, bands of thieves and criminals (andarts) and later the Greek army, began to attack, kill and rape the Albanian Muslim population.Greek army, passingeven the newly set limits of Albania, killed, burned anddestroyed many settlementsrural and urban in the districtsof Korça, Kolonje, Permet,Skrapar, Tepelena, Kurveles, etc.

The Muslim population was especially subjected to these massacres.In 1913, in the region of Kostur, the Greeks completely burned the Albanian village of Luadhi, together with all the inhabitants. From the entire village, only 2 people were able to escape from the burning. In these conditions, the emigration of the Albanian population to Albania and Turkey began.

The First World War (1914-1918) and, later, the military adventure and complete Greek defeat in Asia Minor (Turkey), in the years 1921-1922, brought a new period of political tension in Greece, which was accompanied by with aggressive military actions against Albanianethnic groups. After the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and with the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey (Andallaia), the rate of expulsion of Muslim Albanians outside of Greece increased and reached tragic proportions.

Government measures against Muslim Albanians, who were unjustly subjected to population exchange, were implemented with great ferocity. Gangs of Andarts and professional Greek criminals massacred the population, robbed and expropriated it to force it to leave for Turkey. The illegal exchange of the Albanian Muslim population of Kosturi and other Albanian territories in Greece was made despite the promises given by the Greek government officials:

“… there is no intention to exchange Muslims of Albanian origin”. “Albania-tars”, declared the Greek representative Kaklamanos, at the Lausanne conference between Turkey and Greece, “they live in a well-defined province, Epirus. If they are co-believers with the Turks, they are not their compatriots at all”.

This Greek declaration formally excluded from the exchange the Muslim Albanians living in Epirus (Çameri), but the problem of Albanians outside Epirus, in Greek Macedonia (Kosturi, Follorina, Grebene, Konica, etc.), who were expelled completely and mercilessly.On August 31, 1925, Mit’hat Frashëri, Minister of Albania in Athens, announced that “Muslim Albanians in Greece inin 1922 they were close to 100,000.

Of these, 35,000 people were evicted from the two prefectures of Kostur and Follorina and almost 20,000 from Ioannina, Preveza, Parga, etc., evicted openly or indirectly against the will of the population, as well as often with claims, with coercion by Greek officials (Gindarme and the mufti), or, worse still, with wood and the stick of the ginder”.To escape the Andallaia (exchange), in 1924 about 100 families from the villages of “Shag, Breshten and Zelegrad, left at night for Albania.

They came and took shelter with their friends in Bilisht, Kolonje and Devoll. The motive for leaving is clearly expressed in a letter from the refugees, who, in order to escape Greek persecution and rape, prefer to settle in the mother country. “Since, according to an unjust decision of the Greek government, we were forced to leave our homes to go to Turkey, because they call us Turks, and since we did not accept in any way to live in a foreign country, where neither our custom nor our blood agree, only with the aim of being in our country, we ran away from our homes and hearths at night”.

Further, in this letter it is emphasized: “Since we are Albanians and with our mother tongue, it was not right in any way for us to undergo the change” (andallaise), however, since we could not oppose such a decision of the government Greek, not wanting to come to Turkey, we came to the Albanian state.”Not only the Muslim elements, but also the Albanian Christians who remainedin the Albanian years beyond wherefirit, they found themselves before the pressurefind us a place in Albania, where we can, under the shadow of the national flag, work with honor and thus live more freely, and from our work, from our arms to live and our families as well as our homeland to benefit”.

Despite the protests of the Albanian government at that time, near the League of Nations, in the years 1920-1926, 35,000 Albanians, residents of 24 villages of Kostur and 14 villages of Follorina, were forcibly sent to Turkey. These villages, with the departure of the Muslim Albanian population to Anatolia, began to assimilate. Driven from their lands by force, the Muslim Albanians of Kostur, in the province of Anatolia, failed to acclimatize to the new natural and social conditions.

As a result, many children, old men and women died en masse. Aof denationalization. themthey were forbidden any show oftraditional national spiritnal expressed in docks, za-cones, in language and culture.In such a state, un-acceptable to them, a part-they flocked to the mother countryor in any other place,where they would be cheaper for confirmation of their values.

So they didabout 200 village familiesBellkamen, Negovan, Lehnov, from the Prefecture of Follorina who lived in their lands beyond the political border and settled in their homeland. (In 1912, there were 22 villages with Christian Albanians in the Follorina basin.In a letter sent to the Albanian authorities, they write:

“As you know, the Albanian villages: Bellkamen, Negovan and Lehova, have remained today far from the Albanian border… These Albanian villages have been surrounded by foreign elements, yet we have conserved our Albanian identity and have always affirmed it , when it came to Albania… Today our villages have remained under the political rule of a foreign state, whose policy can denationalize us.We have worked hard and we like to work and live with our honest work. We cannot stay where we are today, because the foreign elements that surround us, as well as the government, have an evil eye on us.”

As you know, the Albanian villages: Bellkamen, Negovan and Lehova, are today far from the Albanian border… These Albanian villages have beensurrounded by foreign elements, nevertheless we have conserved our Albanian identityand we have affirmed it every time, when it came to Albania…a very small part of those who left could return to Albania, while others began to adapt to the desert lands of Anatolia.

Today, their descendants live in the districts of Izmir, Kayser, Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin, etc. The part of the Albanian population of Kosturi that came to Albania settled mainly in the villages of Devolli, Kolonja, as well as in the districts of Tirana, Durrës, Lushnje, Vlorë, etc. and a minority immigrated to the US.The Kosturi Albanians who live in the mother country preserve their traditions, customary law, songs, dances, their characteristic clothing and, as a whole, their Albanian ethno-cultural provincial identity.

In addition to the Cham issue, as the main unresolved national issue, part of the great national issue of the Albanians in the century. XXI, is also the issue of Albanians from the south of Gramoz, in the areas of Kostur, Follorina, Konica, Grebina and those who live in the mother country. The struggle for a dignified status of the Albanians in their ethnic lands and wherever they live is related to the Albanian national unity.

In order to keep national unity intact in the face of nationalist reminiscences in the Balkans, in the conditions of globalization and European integration, the issue of the Chams and the Albanians of the south of Gramoz should be treated, not only as a national aspiration, but as a problem that requires an immediate solution.

Reference

Shqiptarët e krahinëS Së kosturit, Gjeohapësira, vendbanimet dhe spastrimi etnik, Prof. dr. Selman Sheme. Etik. p.18. 2011.