Written by Besnik Imeri, Vlorë, March 24, 2022. Translated by Petrit Latifi.

We continue further. It is known that after the decline of the cultural splendor of antiquity, the overthrow of the pagan gods from the pedestals where they stood, the corruption of the Pelasgian civilization and its successor, the Greco-Roman civilization; all of Europe was invaded by the cultural twilight, which over the centuries turned into a deep darkness. In these conditions, Christianity (mainly Catholic) gathered in its hands all the human knowledge up to that time, which was saved from destruction and extinction, and used this for its own purposes.

A large part of this saved knowledge was concentrated in the objects of Christian cult, especially in the monasteries (where a good part of them were built on the ruins and walls of pagan temples and shrines), which turned into libraries of important scientific, artistic and cultural documents inherited from antiquity, but even deeper. The fact is that the Vatican to this day has in its libraries treasures of human culture.

But what happened in the East? The Satanic platforms of the Patriarchate of Constantinople sought the disappearance of every trace of culture and civilization of the peoples of the Balkans. Therefore, in the Orthodox monasteries affiliated with the Western church, where ancient documents of extraordinary value for the history of the peoples of the Balkans, but also for culture and science, a Satanic order was given to burn them. Faveiriali speaks of this with pain:

“There were precious documents in the monastery of Saint Naum, but they were destroyed by order of the Greek patriarch in 1850…the monk Seraphim, the author of this vandalism, told Bishop Popov and his three companions, a deacon and two French priests, that the patriarch had ordered him three times in a row to destroy the archives…Finally he told me that this is the last time I will order you, and if by this time all the archives have not been burned, you will be replaced, and what you will not do, others will do…

…It is not only the archives of the Primacy of Ohrid and Saint Naum that were destroyed by the Greek patriarch. The Russian historian Venelin also shows that those of Veliko Tarnovo were also destroyed by order of the Greek patriarchate. Finally, it is said that once on Mount Athos there were many manuscripts in Latin…but they were all burned…”[1]

The fall of Byzantium in 1453, the epicenter and political and state materialization of the Eastern Church, was experienced as a catastrophe by the Patriarchate. It remained like a disembodied spirit, and it was in search of a new body, in which to materialize and resurrect itself again.

If since 1054, after the schism, and earlier, in search of a new identity, vis-à-vis the Western Church, it had achieved the discovery of the language through which in the future the Eastern Church would address the faithful, as they call it today in Greece, the new Greek, the language of God; After 1453, it was also in search of a political and state body. For this reason, he thought that the best idea would be to gather in a single state all those who would prefer to speak this language.

For this project, which he called Megal-Idheja, he endured until his greatest enemy, the Ottoman Empire, fell ill and languished in bed, and stuck a knife in his side. This was the greatest disloyalty of the Eastern Church to the Sublime Porte and the Caliph; who with their religious tolerance allowed it to survive in the heart of Istanbul. They even supported it by not touching its properties and churches, as if leaving the population of the empire free to practice the Orthodox religion. This was a noble and enlightened attitude of the Ottoman Galatians.

In the middle of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was discussing the future of the Ottoman Empire and who would replace it in the Balkans. So not only the Patriarchate was being dealt with, but also Europe. Politicians were dealing with this problem, but also academic circles. One of them is Fallmerayer, who had addressed these problems in his work “Fragments”. His friend, Prof.Dr.phil. Peter Bartl in the preface to Fallmerayer’s work “The Albanian Element in Greece” says:

“…then Fallmerayer continues with the question of who could take the place of the Ottoman Empire, which was threatened with collapse. A restoration of Byzantium was impossible. For him, a Russian solution to the Eastern question could be imagined: “the restoration of Byzantium, this axiom, could only be a “Slavic-Greek”, non-Byzantine restoration. At least it could be a Hellenic restoration”.

The main active force of the Slavic-Byzantine movement was a religious idea, the hope for “an emperor from Moscow”… A regime of Western countries in Constantinople could only be resisted by force, that is, by the same means that the Turks had used. “On the contrary, successful rule in these countries, internal peace and the flourishing of the nation were possible only through the Russians, who resembled them in mentality and religious belief”[2]

This idea of Fallmerayer was a European idea. The fact that the so-called “Greek Revolution” was strongly supported by the Great Powers; France, England and Russia, members of the “Holy League”, proves this. The fact that Russia, in rivalry with England and France, saw the Balkans as its domain since the 18th century proves this.

Catherine II’s Russia with Orlov made the first attempt. Catherine’s agents moved from Himara, to Sul, but also to Voskopoja. Russia agreed to connect with the Himariots. She also agreed to connect with the Suljots. It is also said that she tried to connect with the Vlachs of Voskopoja. Then it is known that the “Filiqi Eteria” was created in Moscow and from there the Greek uprising was planned.

The coordination with the Patriarchate of Istanbul was in complete synchrony. Perhaps the Patriarchate also wanted Russia to replace Byzantium. An Orthodox Empire went well with the axiom: One state, one religion.

But the Patriarchs of Constantinople had other ideas, a Slavic empire that spoke Slavic was not suitable, since they, the Phanariots, could not lead, command and manipulate a Slavic Byzantine mini-empire, even worse, if behind it was Great Russia; therefore they needed a small state in the Balkans, but with great ambition, which, in addition to being one hundred percent Christian, had to also speak Greek.

But for this, a large part of the neighboring peoples of Greece had to be Greekized. Thus, Greece would be created, a “pilot” project of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (and perhaps also of the Illuminati that was hiding behind it). But for this, another action had to be taken, the patriarchates of these peoples, in which Greek was not spoken, had to be suppressed and the head of the ecclesiastical leadership of the Balkans had to be only the patriarchate of Constantinople, which spoke Greek.

Here is how Faveiriali recounts this:

“…On February 3, 1767, Samuel, the Greek patriarch, and Ypsilant, the grandfather of the one who would make the revolution of 1821, managed to wrest from Sultan Mustafa II the suppression of the patriarchate of Ohrid. A year earlier they had succeeded in suppressing the patriarchate of Peja. The aim of Samuel and Ypsilant was to lay the foundations of a new Byzantine empire… Let us recall in passing that the patriarchate of Ohrid-Justiniana was founded by Popes Saint Agapius and Vigilius, at the request of Emperor Justinian (year 535), while the patriarchate of Peja by Pope Honorius III, at the request of the Serbian kings…”[3]

These actions carried out by the Greek patriarchate of Constantinople, the elimination of three opposing primacies and especially those of Ohrid and Turnovo, where the Hellenization of the Bulgarian-Vlach-Albanian population would be preceded by the removal of the ecclesiastical head who protected them, are not accidental.

The Greek patriarchate removed the national church from these peoples with the aim of placing them under the rule of the Greek church, where the slogan would be proclaimed that only those who were Greek and frequented the Greek church were Christians; and then to take away their national language, leaving them without a language through the spread of Greek.

After the spread of Greek in these territories, they would be claimed as Greek territories before Europe, and would be annexed by Greece by enlarging it, always in function of the creation of a Byzantine mini-empire. Everything was planned in detail and perfection, just like in a macabre crime.

Surprisingly, in an interesting and unimaginable historical parallel, the creation and aggressive expansion of the Greek state at the expense of the Albanian people and the Vlach and Bulgarian ones, these last 200 years; resembles like two drops of water with the creation and aggressive expansion of the Israeli state at the expense of the Palestinian people and the Arab ones these last 100 years.

In a historical parallel, the Albanian and Palestinian people are martyred peoples violated in their ancient Pelasgian lands since prehistory. We recall here the occupation by the Jews in antiquity of the territories of the Pelasgian peoples: the Canaanites, the Peleshtees (today’s Palestinians), the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites, the lords of that city, Jebusia, which after the occupation, would be called Jerusalem by the Jews. Witness to this occupation are the Pelasgian stones and walls in the ancient foundations of this city.

Greece

But who was Greece on the verge of gaining independence? Or more precisely, the question should be asked: What were the territories inhabited by the Greeks in the Balkans, which it should have demanded and should have been given to Greece with the creation of an independent state by the Great Powers of the time? There are many authors who have said that the real Greece was located south of the line drawn from west to east: The southern part of the Ambracian Gulf in the west to the mouth of the Peneus River in the east.

Jean-Claude Faveirial tells us that: “…England itself, as early as 1830, did not want the new kingdom to cross Mount Parnassus. This, she said, is because there are no more Greeks beyond. From Parnassus to Pindus (in the north), the inhabitants are almost all Greeks, Shqiptars and Vlachs. Since the Greek, or Hellenized, race did not exceed 350 thousand, it was deemed advisable for this small kingdom to extend to the Pindus, that is, to the bay of Preveza in the west and Lamia in the east. Even so greatly enlarged at the expense of the Albanian-Vlachs, the new kingdom with its 45 small islands, had in 1836, with only about 700,000 inhabitants, says Cantu (vol. 18, p. 168)…In 1840 England gave it the Ionian Islands…”[4]

So this was the true, real and natural Greece, from the 7th century B.C. until the Roman conquest of 146 B.C. The Greece that was created later, and what it is today, was nothing more than virtual Greece, or the Greece dreamed of by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Church. The Greek kingdom accepted by the Congress of London in 1830 did not exceed 350,000 inhabitants, since the borders of this minor kingdom did not include: Acarnania, Aetolia, Phocis, Phthiotis, Thessaly and Epirus, which did not have a Greek or Hellenized population, territories that, even in antiquity, were not Hellenic territories.

So Greece, just as in antiquity, extended from the Gulf of Corinth to the mouth of the Peneus in the Aegean, and what was above this imaginary line, or to the north of it, was not part of Hellas. So Europe, initially, created the Greek state within the borders that it had had in antiquity. But the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Church, which wanted to create a Byzantine mini-empire, did not agree with this. And Europe, then, became a pawn in the “world’s goods”.

After 1846 and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1853 and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Greece’s appetites increased, seeking Thessaly and especially Agrafa in 1867. The story is quite interesting: After every war that Russia waged against Turkey to expand its territories southward, initially to reach the shores of the Black Sea, and then towards the western and southern shores of the Caspian, i.e. the Caucasus; as well as with Peter the Great’s aim to capture the Bosphorus and reach the Mediterranean; the Orthodox of the Balkans, like those hounds that sense the scent of prey, attacked and sought the territories inhabited by Albanians.

This also happened after the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. Where the Greek representative at the Congress of Berlin, Deliani, demanded that territories inhabited by Albanians and Vlachs be annexed to Greece:

“…Delijani demanded “for the moment” Crete, Epirus and Thessaly, and did not hide that Greece considered all the regions where Greek was spoken as its own, namely Thrace, Macedonia, and part of Albania…”[5]

But, the Europe of that time, the Great Powers, satisfied Greece’s initial appetites, giving it a part of Epirus (Chameria), which was inhabited mostly by Albanians, and Thessaly, which was inhabited mostly by Vlachs.

It is no coincidence that after a full 100 years of this feverish Hellenizing activity of the Greek Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, at the Congress of Berlin Mr. Deliani would demand these territories. So, neither less nor more, all those territories where the respective patriarchates of the Bulgarian, Vlach and Albanian peoples had been suppressed, and where the opening of Greek schools had begun feverishly a hundred years ago. So everything on the basis of a platform and project tens and hundreds of years old implemented with scrupulousness and precision.

It is no coincidence that in the same period around 1770, Russia under Tsarina Catherine II began to burn anti-Ottoman bridges among the Christians of the Balkans through her agents and friend, Count Orlov, where, as we have mentioned above, she sent agents to Montenegro, Sul, Thessaly, Himara, Voskopoja, etc.

It is interesting that it was precisely during this period that Cosmas the Aetolian began his activity in Epirus. His mission was to spread the Greek language through the opening of Greek schools, since Greek had to be spoken throughout the territory of the new empire. The mission of the hieronomist Cosmas was to spread Hellenism, the bedrock of the new Byzantine Empire. Therefore, the mission of Cosmas was not religious, but a political mission; just as the mission of Anastasios Janullatos in Albania is today.

The fact that a century later, the Treaty of St. Stephen and after it, the Congress of Berlin, were in favor of the Orthodox and Slavic-Greek element in the Balkans, also confirms this fourfold. Russia’s dream, to bring the Balkans into vassalage of the Tsarist Empire, has been and remains a continuous agenda to this day in its European policy.

Is not an Orthodox axis Moscow-Belgrade-Athens being observed today. Is it not seen that the state policy of these states is in sync with religious policy; where the ambassadors of Moscow openly coordinate actions with the Greek and Serbian metropolitans and patriarchs. Karpushini in Tirana (former Russian ambassador), openly contacts Anastas Janullatos. Karpushini goes to Shënavlash and openly meets with the wasps of Hellenism.

And, recently (April 29, 2018), the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, himself visited Albania, met and “set the clocks” with Anastasios Janullatos and the heads of the Albanian state, as if to say, that we are here, in the Balkans and Albania. So, the “Megal-Idea” has had and still has the approval of Moscow.

The scholar G.F. Hetzberg in his study “Storia dei Bizantini e dell’Impero ottomano sin verso la fine del XVI secolo” (Milan, L.Vallardi Editore, 1894, p, 617) states regarding this situation:

“Since the 17th century, mutual tolerant relations began to be established between the Turkish rulers and the subjugated peoples…Thus the Greeks, who due to their cultural superiority, had gradually occupied the highest functions in the bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire and dominated the ecclesiastical policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, supported also by special political and religious circumstances and emboldened by the ever-growing weakness of the Turkish Government, taking advantage of the social confusion that reigned in the Balkan Peninsula, since the 17th century and especially in the 18th century, were able to penetrate all the regions to open schools and churches there and to to practice trade”. The church and the school in the hands of the Greek clergy became fruitful tools in the work of Hellenization of Epirus.[6]

Continue reading Part three here.

Reference

Besnik Imeri (taken from the book “The Hellenization of Epirus”)

[1] Jean-Claude Faveirial, “History of Albania”, Plejad Publishing House-2004, French translation Gent Ulqini, p,334-335

[2] J.Ph.Fallmerayer, “The Albanian Element in Greece”, Saraçi Publishing House-2003, German translation Nestor Nepravishta, p, 15

[3] Jean Claude Faveirial, “History of Albania”, Bot.Plejad-2004, Transl.Fr.Gent Ulqini, p, 370

[4] Jacques Claude Faveirial, History of Albania, Bot.Plejad-2004, Transl.Fr.Gent Ulqini, p.435-436

[5] Jacques Claude Faveirial, History of Albania, Bot.Plejad-2004, Transl.Fr.Gent Ulqini, p, 456

[6] Gaetano Petrotta, “Continuity and Preservation of the Albanian Language in Epirus”, Real Accademia D’Italia. Rome-1941, Bot.Shqip.ICEBERG.P.H-2013, Transl.It.Anila Omari, p, 47