Photo: Corpus of Cretan volunteers in Northern Epirus. Translation Petrit Latifi
Summary
This article states that the massacres in southern Albania in 1913-1914 were carried out by Greeks who came from Greece and Crete. So it was not the Greek national minority that lived and lives today with Albanians in neighborhood, brotherhood and brotherhood that arose, but the Greek paramilitary troops. The autonomy in 1914 was not sought by the Greek speakers of Albania, but by the Greeks of Athens.
Himara and the propaganda surrounding it – by Dilaver Goxhaj
The visit of the Greek Prime Minister, Mitsotakis, on 22 December 2022 was not coincidental. The date 22 December 1940 marks the day when, during the Greek counter-offensive against the Italian army (in the Italo-Greek War), the Greek army “occupied” Himara. After this Greek occupation of Himara, Benito Mussolini declared that “one of the reasons for the defeat was the high morale of the Greek troops”.
Meanwhile, the Greek forces command declared: “We liberated our Himara from Italy and from the Albanians.”
For this reason, Prime Minister Mitsotakis postponed his visit from the originally planned date of 7 December 2022 (during the EU Summit in Tirana) and was also advised to arrive by military helicopter, in order to symbolically recall the 1940 occupation of Himara. Naturally, this provoked reactions from many Albanian intellectuals, analysts, and some politicians.
Based on the developments of the last 2–3 decades in Albania, we can say that Albanian state policy has avoided the national issue with Greece. It has not demanded even the basic rights of the Cham population or the other Albanian population in Greece. In most cases, the national issue has been treated as primitivism, with declarations such as “We are civilized patriots, not nationalists” (F. Nano). This means that we do not defend the homeland with arms, but only with politics. That is why we have entrusted Greece with the control of our airspace.
All of this has led to a state of slumber and failure to notice the planned chauvinist activities of various Greek circles. These circles have dared to declare Himara a Greek minority area, and even the Greek Prime Minister himself came and openly proclaimed it in the middle of Himara!
For this purpose, they also activated one of the former Albanian athletes of Himara origin who has converted to Greek identity — Piro Dhima. He was born to Albanian parents and raised and trained as an athlete in Tirana. Prime Minister Rama, in the presence of Mitsotakis, thanked him in a somewhat humorous way for having declared himself Greek.
We know that during the 2000 local elections, this Mr. Piro Dhima financed around 700 economic emigrants from Himara to come and vote for a Himariote candidate. That candidate had declared that if he won as mayor of Himara, he would demand a referendum for the separation of Himara from Albania and its union with Greece. Indirectly, this was also expressed on 22 December 2022 by Prime Minister Mitsotakis himself when he called for Himara’s self-determination. However, the blind supporters of the Tirana government tried to convince us that it was a mistranslation!
It is no coincidence that Greece’s demand for an association of “Greek” municipalities in southern Albania (including Himara) coincides with Serbia’s demand for an association of “Serbian” municipalities in northern Kosovo. In politics, nothing ever happens by chance.
This silent acceptance by Prime Minister Rama also gave courage to Himariote Fredi Beleri — who participated in the killing of our soldiers in Peshkëpi (Gjirokastër 1993) — to declare the next day, on 23 December, on TV “SYRI” that he is the only candidate for mayor of Himara, even though he has been convicted by our courts.
But what is the truth about “Greek” Himara?
We present below, in summary and chronological order, some historical facts.
The Lab region of Himara consists of 7 Orthodox villages, three of which are bilingual (speaking both Albanian and Greek): Palasa, Dhërmi, and Himara. The clothing, folklore, and customs of Himara are identical to those of Labëria, with only very minor distinctive features. Many Himariote surnames, as Petro Marko also points out, are surnames of ancient Albanian tribes found almost throughout inner Labëria.
This proves that they belong to the same Illyrian stock — the Chaonians. This is also confirmed by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, born in Athens in 460 BC, who writes in his book The Peloponnesian War: “From the Greeks were these: the Ambraciots, the Leucadians, the Anactorians, and one thousand hoplites from the Peloponnese. From the barbarians (barbarians were all those peoples who were not Greek and did not speak Greek – D.G.) were one thousand Chaonians…” (p. 96).
The word “Epirus” comes from ancient Greek and means “Continent.” It encompasses all of southern Albania, from the Vjosa River to the Gulf of Ambracia.
The distinguished Greek historian Paparrigopoulos also states that the Pelasgians, established in the high lands of Epirus, Macedonia, and Illyria, had no racial relation or affinity with the Greeks. Likewise, Plutarch says that the Epirotes were a people distinct from the Hellenic people.
Princess Anna Komnene is considered by the Himariotes as their queen. Let us not forget that she was the sister of the Lab Gjergj Aranit Komneni from Kanina, who was Skanderbeg’s father-in-law.
We also know from history that Skanderbeg’s wars against the Turks did not end with his death but continued. In fact, the highlands of southern Albania (Labëria, which includes Himara) became a shelter and natural fortress for Skanderbeg’s fighters and their families who fled from the regions occupied by Turkey. Turkey sent three expeditions against Himara but failed to subdue it.
Therefore, in 1515, due to the resistance of the representatives of the Himara region in negotiations, Turkey was forced to release Skanderbeg’s son (whom they had taken prisoner) and grant Himara certain privileges (venome) as a reward for the Himariotes handing over Turkish prisoners they had captured, including a general. Himara enjoyed these rights until the Second World War.
In the years 1830–1848, when the centralizing Tanzimat reforms were proclaimed — which did not recognize the venome for the Himariotes — they joined the uprisings of Labëria.
In 1852, when the northern territories of Albania were threatened, along with the bands of Labëria under the command of Zenel Gjoleka, the bands of Himara under the command of Captain Gjik Thanasi from Qeparo also went to fight against Montenegro. Both fell as martyrs in that war.
One of the delegates from Labëria to the League of Prizren assembly was the young Himariote from the village of Vuno, Odise Nesturi — a comrade of Abdyl Frashëri and friend of Pashko Vasa.
When Albanian independence was proclaimed in 1912, the Himariote Thanas Beni — a brave fighter and folk poet from the village of Vuno in Himara — left his emigration in America and joined the bands of Labëria in the fight against the andartes (Greek criminal and bandit bands). He is the same fighter of the Vlora War in 1920 who created the popular pearl song of that war:
“Europe writes and says, / What is this we hear? / Rifles are firing in Vlora. / The Albanians are fighting / Against a king of forty million.”
During the Albanian National Liberation War, the majority of the young men and adults of Himara joined the partisan brigades, where more than one hundred fell as martyrs, many of whom are also Heroes of the Albanian People.
Why, then, does Greece seek to declare Himara a Greek minority?
The most accurate answer to this question is found in the folk song of the people of Himara, which begins with the verses:
“Himara by the seashore, / Seven villages in a row, / Is the flower of the province, / The whole world is in love with it.”
The propaganda claiming that Himara is “part of Greece” began after Greece itself gained independence in 1828. As Greece strengthened as a state, it exploited Turkish propaganda that all Muslims were Turks, and in turn proclaimed that all Orthodox and Bektashi Muslims were Greeks — a propaganda still trumpeted by Greeks today.
We know that in 1847 the largest uprising began throughout Toskëria, and in the same year the theory of “Northern Epirus” (Vorio-Epirus) first appeared from Greek politicians and historians. The aim was to exploit the Albanian uprising to annex southern Albania to Greece. During this period, seeing that the Ottoman Empire was weakening, Tsarist Russia became active in penetrating the Balkans and positioned itself as the protector of the Orthodox peoples of the peninsula.
The Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks exploited Tsarist support and turned a just war into a predatory war against Albanian territories. From this period begins their open chauvinist policy against the Albanian population, undermining the old traditional friendship among the Balkan peoples.
Continuing this policy, in 1854 Greece organized numerous bands and sent them into Albanian territory: Himara, Ioannina, Delvina, etc. The goal of these bands was to provoke a general uprising in southern Albania (Epirus) and, by exploiting the Russo-Turkish war, to annex southern Albania. At the head of this Greek band army was Greek army general Spiro Milo, of Himariote origin from Progonat in Kurvelesh. The people sang about him: “Spiro Milo from Progonat, / See where your spite has led you!”
The entire Albanian population of Toskëria, including Himara, immediately reacted against these bands. For this purpose, Turkey also released the captains of the Albanian uprisings in southern Albania whom it had imprisoned a few years earlier. “The Albanian captains,” writes the distinguished Greek historian J. Kordhatos in Volume III of History of Greece (p. 614), “organized the war against the Greek forces in Kalabaka and Metsovo and completely foiled the first Greek attempts to occupy southern Albania (Epirus).”
Nevertheless, Greek propaganda for the appropriation of southern Albania intensified even further. In the 1840s, the Albanian National Renaissance (Rilindja Shqiptare) emerged and countered Greek propaganda with the pen and through organization. It led to the creation of the Albanian Committee of Istanbul, headed by Abdyl Frashëri. Greece, seeing that Albanians had united regardless of religion or region, initially posed as an ally of the Albanians in the struggle against the Turks and began contacts with that committee.
But when it realized that the Orthodox representatives of the Renaissance in the Istanbul Committee held the same positions as Muslim, Bektashi, and Catholic Albanians, it secretly sent to Himara in August 1877 the Albanian renegade from Qeparo, Jorgji Stefani, to persuade the leaders of Himara to oppose the Albanian Committee of Istanbul.
Upon arriving in the village, Jorgji Stefani requested a meeting with the most authoritative captain of the entire Himara region, Sokrat Leka, and proposed the Greek plan to land in Qeparo. Captain Sokrat Leka, after listening to him, said: “I consider you family, but I do not want your shame because we are Albanians… This is not serving the homeland, but the devil… If you dare to land in Qeparo, know that blood will flow up to the knees — no Greek foot will step on this coast.”
Seeing that the Himariotes, like all other Albanians, could not be deceived, the Greeks made a second military attempt to forcibly annex southern Albania. On 12 February 1878, several battalions landed in Lëkurs of Saranda, because they could not land in Himara.
Orthodox and Muslim Albanians from Himara, Labëria, and Delvina organized and routed the Greek forces. The people immortalized this battle in song:
“As the Greek descends on Saranda, / Sokrat Leka with a silver sword, / In the name of the Coast, / Sends word to the province: / ‘We are all on our feet, / We have sent forces to Saranda, / We will leave no enemy foot / To step on our land.’”
Greece’s third attempt to forcibly annex Himara and the rest of Albania began on the eve of the declaration of Albanian independence, when our people had already been carrying out successive uprisings for more than two years.
We know that in October 1912 the First Balkan War broke out, which aimed at the union of the Balkan nations and was objectively progressive. It was supported by Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Italy. However, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece, which declared war on Turkey, waged that war under the banner of narrow national interests mixed with anti-Muslim religious tendencies, turning it into a predatory war against the Albanians and Albania.
Albanian representatives tried to join the Balkan League, but those states refused, because the Albanians would have been equal partners in the alliance and Albania could not have been partitioned. The Greek army, after defeating the Turkish forces in Thessaly, besieged Ioannina and occupied Himara. This was the first and only time in history that Himara was occupied by Greece.
Greece, after occupying southern Albania, called it “Northern Epirus” (Vorio-Epirus). However, the Great Powers, after giving Greece a part of Albania, recognized the Government of Vlora and ordered Greece to withdraw completely from southern Albania. Then, in the summer of 1913, Athens created the units of the “Hierolochites” (Sacred Companies), falsely declaring that Orthodox Albanian volunteers were part of these companies. These forces were led by the traitor, major in the Greek army, Spiro Spiromilo (son of the former Himariote traitor general Spiro Milo), who had proclaimed the “autonomy of Himara.”
This major, together with the traitor wealthy man Jorgo Zografi from Lunxhëria (at that time Foreign Minister of Greece), organized the congress in Gjirokastër and proclaimed the “autonomy of Northern Epirus.” To this traitor, the Himariote patriot, member of the committee of the southern uprisings led by Bajo Topulli, the doctor Foto Jani Rexha from Himara, said before the people of the city: “If you have come to Himara to take out the goods of your birthplace, we welcome you with all our hearts… but you have brought us some dogs of the rope and the gallows. You want to put us under the Greek yoke… A yoke, whatever color it may be, is still a yoke — whether Turkish or Greek.” (Zëri i Vlorës, 5.10.1980)
Why do the Himariotes speak Greek?
First, it must be said that there is no resident of Himara, of any age, who does not know Albanian. Second, not all Himariotes know Greek, but only three villages: Himara, Dhërmi, and Palasa. Third, not all Himariotes who speak Greek can also write it.
So how did Greek become a second mother tongue for the Himariotes?
This began when Turkey recognized and allowed the Greek Church in the Ottoman Empire, but it was systematically introduced during the period when the “autonomy of Northern Epirus” was recognized by the government of Prince Wied and the Great Powers.
The demands of Zografos and Spiro Milo were accepted, granting the Orthodox Albanian community certain rights defined in the “Protocol of Corfu” of 1914: the opening of Greek-language schools, with Greek taught only in the first three grades of primary school, while both languages were to be used in local administration.
The other reasons are explained by the great Albanian writer from Dhërmi in the Himara region, Petro Marko, in his 1997 book Interview with Myself. He writes: “So what are we (Himariotes)? Albanians! But why did we lose the language? I will say what I know: Why do the old mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers know Albanian better? It seems that from 1920 onwards, Hellenization was carried out with political intent by Greece itself, which gained its freedom with the blood of Albanians… Suli and Himara were always at war with the Turk.
The time came when Himara was divided: coastal Himara remained free and Christian, while inner Himara — Labëria, Kurvelesh, the Valley of Vlora, and Dukati — became Muslim and were separated. Even though they were divided into two faiths, they never lost the bond of blood and tribe.” He continues: “…When the punitive operations by the Turks took place, the coastal people no longer went to Labëria for protection, but fled by boat to Corfu…
They stayed there for many years until the punitive operations ended… Afterwards, the schools were Greek. The liturgy was sung in Greek. Trade was done with Corfu.” (p. 48) “Little by little, ties with Labëria were severed. Greece, which was liberated first, said that wherever there are Orthodox, they are Greeks; Muslims are Turks… Little by little, Greek propaganda grew stronger, claiming that Himara was the most heroic region of Greece.” (p. 49) “…Himara is and remains Albanian. We know where our blood comes from.” (p. 51)
With the beginning of democratic processes in Albania, as a result of Albanian politicians focusing only on their internal power struggles and forgetting the national issue — while becoming servile to neighboring governments — the national issue was pushed to second or third place. This has led to a Greek (Janullatos) being appointed head of the Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church, forgetting that Serbs and Greeks begin the education of national feeling from childhood in church and continue it through all ages.
Economic poverty has also influenced Albanian emigrants in Greece to change their names and declare themselves “Northern Epirotes.” For this purpose, Athens has introduced two types of documents: the “green card,” given to emigrants who have been in Greece for more than five years but refuse to call themselves “Northern Epirotes.”
This card allows entry and exit from Greece without a visa, but it is temporary and insecure, as even an ordinary policeman can tear it up. The second card is the one marked “Vorio-Epir,” which accompanies the passport, is issued by central administrations, and with both documents one can move freely in the European Schengen area. Thus, indirectly and silently, the “autonomy of the Northern Epirus state” has been legalized.
Albanian citizens who have accepted this type of document and who receive an old-age pension from the Albanian state have been granted an additional old-age pension of up to 150 euros per month by the Greek state. The same is done with minority teachers who teach in state schools in southern Albania.
