Authored by Petrit Latifi

In 1912, during the Balkan War, Greek troops committed many atrocities against Bektashi, Turks and Albanian civilians. Similar atrocities occurred in the 1920s.

“Argyrokastro and Delvino districts. Everywhere, without exception, the end of the old regime had awakened hope for Albanian national development among the Orthodox, and to the Albanian question, deliberately asked often and often in Kakodiki, Lefterohor, etc., etc.: “Are you Greeks?” I invariably received the answer: “We are Christian Albanians.”¹

Greek war crimes in 1912-1922:

“The Greeks, in great numbers and equipped with everything they needed, drove the more or less defenseless Muslim population from their homes, burned down the Muslim villages, so that, for example, the population of the Akrokeraunian Alps, except for the sea, was completely Muslim, very nationally minded, and famous from time immemorial for their moral purity, bravery, and efficiency.

They fled in large numbers towards Vlora after their ancient, beautiful, and characteristic villages had been destroyed by flames and their flourishing prosperity had been destroyed by the sword and the torch of the Greeks were annihilated More than 70,000 of these unfortunate refugees flooded Malakastra and the area around Vlora in unprecedented distress. However, a radical means to free southern Albania from a large part of its Albanian population and to be able to be replaced by Greek colonists…”²

Greek atrocities against the Bektashi

“During the unrest and conflicts of the Second Balkan War, Greek soldiers destroyed a Bektashi tekke in southern Albania and killed the Bektashis living there. During the First World War, there were also repeated attacks by Greek rebels against Bektashis in places like Ioannina, Korça, and Gjirokastra, which resulted in the destruction of the tekkes.

Similar accounts have also been handed down in the context of the Turkish Wars of Independence: In 1922, a letter arrived in Istanbul stating that some of the most highly respected figures in Thessaloniki’s society had been murdered by Greek insurgents—including the head of the Thessaloniki Tekkes, Hasan Baba.

Ultimately, the Bektashis in Epirus largely lost their tekkes, which were destroyed during the 1910s and 1920s. Apparently, despite their proximity to Christianity and discursive distance from mainstream Islam, the Bektashis were fought by nationalist militias with the same vehemence as other Muslim groups at the time. The fact that Bektashis were associated with the Albanian national movement was also an important factor in these anti-Bektashi actions by Greek nationalists and militias”³

Greek army advancing into Ankara and atrocities against civilians

This violence continued as the Greek army advanced eastward into Asia Minor. In 1921, the Greeks nearly conquered Ankara, triggering the flight of a million Muslims. Not only pro-Turkish German observers spoke of “atrocities” that “the Greek army committed against thousands of defenseless inhabitants, men, women, and children, during both its advance and its flight, in addition to the incineration of towns and villages.”

Not only the Turkish government published a report on “Greek Atrocities in Asia Minor,” which reported mass rapes, the burning of villages without military necessity, and the destruction of Koranic manuscripts, and accused Greece of having always pursued a “policy of extermination” against the Turks. The British government also criticized “grave excesses” by the Greeks against Muslim civilians.”⁴

Greek assimilation of Orthodox Albanians

“Even before the collapse of European Turkey, Athens had worked as skillfully as it had purposefully toward the Hellenization of southern Albania. This propaganda was aided by the fact that southern Albania was largely of Greek Orthodox faith, albeit ethnically, with the exception of a very few immigrant Greek traders.

Especially the so-called Kurvelesh, that is, the hinterland of Himara, has the most solid, bravest, and cleverest population in Albania. If these tribes are denounced today in the anti-Greek press for a very transparent purpose as bands of robbers and even as nomads, while their homes, now destroyed by the Greeks, were among the most beautiful in the entire Balkans, then every Albanian, every Turk, every expert on Albania knows that the Akrokeraunian Alps, the Laberie, are the heart of Albania in the same sense, and perhaps even to a greater extent, as the March was the heart of Prussia.

Recently, a leading newspaper stated that the annexation by Greece does not mean too painful a misfortune for southern Albania because Greece has already proven its ability to Hellenize the southern Albanians in recent decades. At least the newspaper speaks of Hellenized southern Albanians and not of Greek Epirotes. That is a consolation. But Greece has only Hellenized the Albanian Orthodox, as I have already explained, and these too only partially.”⁵

Hellenization of Albanians of Gjirokastër

“The superficiality and ignorance of these researchers are to be regretted. The Hellenization process of the Orthodox Albanians in Argyrokastro was interesting, and fortunately, thanks to my particularly precise knowledge of the facts, I was able to assess it very well. Forty years ago, nobody in Argyrokastro spoke Greek. I know several Albanians from there who moved to other parts of the country at that time.

They do not understand a single syllable of Greek and assured me without exception that in their time in Argyrokastro, no one inhabitant understood Greek. Then the work of the Greek school began among the Orthodox, and today everyone in Argyrokastro speaks Greek, although alongside Albanian, which until the Greek occupation was the language spoken in the bosom of families, even among the Orthodox, without exception.

In Korcha, the situation is completely different. About twenty years ago, an excellent Albanian school was founded there by American missionaries, which was under the protection of the consulates. thus did not dare to feel for the gate. The Christians, who were free to choose between the Greek and Albanian Christian schools, sent their children predominantly to the latter, so that the Orthodox Kortschas were not Hellenized but, filled with ardent patriotism, were among the most zealous and self-sacrificing supporters of the Albanian national movement”⁶

Greek assimilation of Albanians of Shpat mountain, Akro Keraunion, Himara, Vuno, Kurvelesh and Smokthina

“At that time, and up until 1912, a whole series of Orthodox Albanians in the Shpat Mountains joined Rome to escape Hellenization by the priests. Only the outbreak of the Balkan War put an end to the further expansion of this movement. For the same reason, decades earlier, the villages in the interior of the Akro Keraunian Alps had converted to Islam.

The remaining Christian villages on the coast, Himara, Vunô, etc., increasingly succumbed to Hellenization. When the Greeks, mainly Cretans, landed in Himara in the First Balkan Wars, the Muslims of the interior, the so-called Kurvelesch, put up such strong resistance at the Llogora Pass that they had to content themselves with occupying the coast.

Today, the people of Himara and, for example, Smokthina are closely related in the interior. Although some are Hellenized to a certain degree and Christian, others Muslim and Albanian nationally minded they call themselves cousins ​​they speak Albanian to each other without exception and very often refer to members of the same clan residing on either side when asked they always mention the common ancestor who usually dates back only two generations”⁷

References

1. Osteuropäische zukunft zeitschrift für Deutschlands aufgaben in Osten und Südosten, Volume 1. 1916 ↩︎
2. Osteuropäische zukunft zeitschrift für Deutschlands aufgaben in Osten und Südosten, Volume 1. 1916 ↩︎
3. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Grenzen_%C3%BCberschreitende_Derwische/QsDkEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=greueltaten+der+Griechische+soldaten&pg=PA176&printsec=frontcover ↩︎
4. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Ethnische_S%C3%A4uberungen_in_der_Moderne/EcvpBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=greueltaten+der+Griechischer+soldaten&pg=PA399&printsec=frontcover ↩︎
5. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Osteurop%C3%A4ische_zukunft/14EXAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=griechischen+Epiroten+gegen+die+albanische+Bev%C3%B6lkerung&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover ↩︎
6. imbid ↩︎
7. imbid. ↩︎

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