Written by Petrit Latifi.
On May 12, 1879, the Albanian delegates sent a signed letter to the Marquis of Salisbury oppossing Greek imperialist desires to invade Epirus and the hellenization of Albanians. The document was signed by Mehmed Ali Vrion and Abdul Phrachari.
“Ever since the declaration of its independence the Greek nation has devoted all its efforts to preparing the means for seizing Epirus and Hellenizing the Albanian nation. The Greek Government has unceasingly employed for this object all the means in its power. In particular, up to a certain time, it protected brigands and maintained the mat its own cost, in order to excite the Christian inhabitants of Thessaly to insurrection against the Imperial Ottoman Government. It is well known how General Grivas crossed the Greek frontier in 1854, accompanied by a numerous band recruited in Greece, and these partisans did not shrink from any crime in order to compel the Christian inhabitants to join them.
Nevertheless, these criminal attempts remained without effect. They were unable to shake the fidelity of the inhabitants towards their legitimate Sovereign. They were renewed in 1866 with as little success. The Greek Government organized Revolutionary Committees in different parts of Epirus and Thessaly, which distributed great quantities of arms and ammunition to the inhabitants.
Moreover, on this occasion the Hellenic bands were commanded by officers of the Greek army, and supported by Greek regular troops. Nevertheless, it was a remarkable fact that, in the affair at Licurzi in 1878, the Christians of Epirus were the first to repulse the aggressors by force of arms. When the Greek Government saw again on this occasion that it was powerless to shake the fidelity and devotion of the inhabitants it adopted other tactics, the effect of which we now perceive.
It seeks to gain its end by means of diplomacy, and in the Memorandum presented to the Congress of Berlin M. Delyanni has ventured to claim all Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace, and even Constantinople, maintaining that all these countries belong to Greece.
Although the Congress did not take the pretensions of Greece into consideration it nevertheless recommended that the districts of Prevesa, Narda, Margarita, Paramitia, Parga, and Janina, as far as the River Calamas, should be ceded to Greece, without paying any regard to the rights of the Albanian nation. Fortunately, this opinion expressed at Berlin was not invested with a decisive character.
Nevertheless, the rights of the Albanians were seriously misunderstood, and in spite of numerous protests telegraphed to the Congress, several districts of Albania were detached and incorporated in Servia and Montenegro. A glance at ancient and modern history, or at a treatise of geography, will show clearly the injustice with which Albania has been treated.
It is notorious that the Albanian nation is more ancient than the Greek. It is well known that in ancient times Epirus formed an integral part of Albania, and that that country has never been occupied by Greeks in any degree whatever. The testimony of the most celebrated historians of antiquity-Herodotus, Thucydides, and Strabo-fully confirms this historic truth, and in this respect the works of the greatest modern geographers fully corroborate ancient authors.
One of the absurd pretensions advanced by the Greeks is, that since the inhabitants of Janina and Narda use the Greek language, they ought to be considered as being of Greek nationality. Now the population of Epirus amounts to about 650,000 souls, and the fraction of the inhabitants stated to speak Greek scarcely attains the relatively insignificant number of 74,000; and besides this peculiarity is explained, not by their Greek origin, but by the fact that up to a certain epoch there was no Albanian alphabet, and particularly by the inevitable effect of neighborhood, and the daily relations of commerce.
Practically, everyone knows that whatever language they may speak, the inhabitants of these districts are Albanian by origin, and, besides, if the principle of conformity of language were to be taken as a rule, it would be necessary to change the map, not only of Europe and Asia, but of every part of the globe. So that the greatest Powers would be considerably diminished, and some would even be in danger of total suppression.
To begin with, more than 200,000 of its inhabitants, who speak Albanian, would have to be detached from Greece, 170,000 would have to be detached from Italy, 150,000 from Servia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Dalmatia. It is plain to what the logic of such a principle would lead. Although the districts adjudged to Servia and Montenegro-such as Spuz, Podgoritza, and Vranja are Albanian, we thought it right not to resist this cession, as it would have been contrary to the respect due to a formal decision of the Congress. Besides, the loss of these territories was not as important or such a serious matter to us as the triumph of Greek pretensions would be, since the latter tend to destroy the Albanian nation by absorbing it entirely.
At the same time, it is impossible to forget that the handing over of the above mentioned localities to Servia and Montenegro has given rise to difficulties of various kinds; and the unsettled condition in which these territories still remain clearly shows the total absence of harmony and good understanding between the two elements of dissimilar populations. The region of Epirus cannot be compared to the parts of Albania ceded to the two Principalities. Its importance is increased by the fact that the principal ports of Albania, such as Prevesa, Narda, Goumenitza, and Parga, are situate in that region.
There is no other safe shelter in Albania where a vessel can cast anchor. On the other hand, the only natural fortifications which Albania possesses are those of Prevesa, Janina, and Narda, and the country has no other strategic positions. To let Greece take the localities which she claims in this country would be to fail in the duty, which belongs to every nation, of defending their country and nationality, for it would be giving henceforth the keys of Albania to a foreign people, whose efforts only tend to obtain the entire domination and possession of it. It would be allowing all our strategic positions and military works to be placed in the hands of a hostile nation, and, in fine, it would be a weakness which a people, animated by patriotic sentiments, could not allow themselves to commit.
It is generally known that the other parts of Albania are mountainous and arid, and that the inhabitants of these countries live only by their sheep, which they keep during the summer in their mountains, and lead in the winter to Narda, Prevesa, Parga, Margarita, Paramitia, and Janini. If these localities pass over to Greece, the Albanians, having no other winter pastures, will be reduced to selling their herds.
Have the consequences of such an extremity been considered? It would simply be to condemn a million of men to have no longer any means of existence, for these same localities are the only parts of the country which produce the cereals from which the inhabitants of the mountains draw their subsistence.
This is the true reason of the persistence which is shown by the Greeks in their attempt to obtain possession of these localities. None of the facts we have just set forth are unknown to them, and they are perfectly aware that, from the day that they can lay their hands on the points now most particularly coveted by them, it will become easy for them to absorb all the rest of Albania.
The Albanians have preserved their country, their nationality, their language, and their customs by repelling the aggressions of the Romans, the Byzantians, and the Venetians, in barbarous times. How can it be permitted, in a century of light and civilization, that a nation so valiant and attached to its soil should be sacrificed, given up to a covetous neighbor without any legitimate reason?
The Albanian people number 2,300,000 souls. In view of the reckless covetousness of their neighbors, and the dangers which menace them, these patriotic populations have bound themselves together by solemn oaths to devote all their efforts to preserve, under the protection of the Imperial Ottoman Government, their country, their nationality, and their language; and they consider, moreover, the introduction into their country of the reforms judged necessary, and particularly that of public education, as one of the means best fitted to attain this object.
With this purpose, all the Albanians, without exception, have sworn to die to the last man, rather than cede to the Greeks the territories of Prevesa, Narda, Janina, and other districts of Albania which the latter covet. If they must be absorbed by the Greeks, the inhabitants of Albania prefer to die with arms in their hands!
The Government of Her Majesty the Queen is just and enlightened, and we are convinced that it will consent to take our humble observations into its serious consideration. It will appreciate our motives as being well founded and in conformity with the principles of equity and justice. It will not allow the path of progress, which we are determined to follow, to be closed to us, or that we should be driven from it by being forced to cast ourselves into the path of bloodshed and destructive struggles.
Such is the hope which we place in the sentiments of justice and generosity which are in the highest degree characteristic of the English nation.
London, May 9, 1879. The Delegates of the Albanian People,
(Signed) MEHMED ALI VRION. ABDUL PHRACHARI.”
Source
Balkan Academia 