[ALBSA-Info] From the archives

[Agron Alibali]

"Northern Epirus" between myth and reality
by Ardian Vehbiu

1. Questioning history
Northern Epirus is a mythic-geographical expression
that, during this century, has acquired some
pseudo-historical, and pseudo-cultural meaning, thanks
to the efforts of fanatic political, religious and
cultural groups and associations in Greece and in the
Greek Diaspora. It now offers the base to a
nationalistic doctrine, which represents the sum of
all Greek claims of Albanian territories. "Northern
Epirus" is the Greek name for those Albanian
territories lying between the river Shkumbin and the
country's Southern border, generally known as Toskëria
in broader sense (i.e., including Labëria). The
historical purport of this expression got the upper
hand on its descriptive meaning as soon as Albania
acquired the independence and had its southern border
recognized by the Great Powers. The core of the
Vorio-Epirote doctrine can be summarized as follows:
the population inhabiting the northern part of Epirus,
in spite of its speaking Albanian, is basically Greek,
as is positively Greek all southern Albanian
territory. The "true" Albanians, who are Muslim (or
Catholic) belong therefore to the north of Shkumbini
river. The doctrine, to justify its historical
absurdity, tries to minimize the Albanian contribution
to the history of the area. According to it, the only
light in Albania's historically perpetual dark age has
always come from the glorious Hellenic beacon.
Therefore the Albanians are not the descendants of
Illyrians, but simply nomad Middle Age invaders, who
later settled themselves as "mountaineer pirates," and
survived by raping "virgin" Greek Adriatic cities.
Most of southern Albanians are indeed "Albanian
speaking Greeks," who have not forgotten their
attachment to their Hellenic motherland. The ethnic
Albanians, i.e. the Moslems, through all their known
(short) history, have typically sided with Greece's
enemies and fought for the destruction of the Greek
nation, deeply ungrateful to that "historical" fact
that all Albanian major historic achievements are due
to the Greek territorial presence, religious
influence, and cultural glory. Throughout the ages,
Greece is supposed to have fought for the education of
these ungracious sons -- barbarous, illiterate and
without a history as they were. Allied to the infidel
Turks, they allegedly were among the cruelest in
suppressing with blood the Greek revolution. Allied to
the Italians and later to the Germans, they terrorized
Greece, and slain its best anti-fascist heroes ...

2. Crossroads

According to the Vorio-Epirote doctrinaires Northern
Epirus, as a part of Epirus, is fundamentally Greek,
because it has been Greek (Hellenic) since classical
times. This represents, because of the historical
nature of their claims, a main argument, although the
ethnic tableau of the ancient Epirus is far from being
established. Although a couple of ancient Greek and
Latin writers speak of Epirus as predominantly
Hellenic, other very important authors clearly
distinguish between Greeks and Epirotes. Moreover, the
criteria used by ancient scholars to determine the
ethnicity of an area are not homogeneous and fully
understandable. Often what they consider Hellenic
territories are simply lands touched by Greek
colonists, as it seems to be the case with Epirus. The
ancient Epirote tribes -- Molosses, Chaones, and
Thesprotes -- are believed to have spoken a language
different from Greek, though it is not an easy task to
establish their exact relationship to northern
Illyrian tribes. Some modern linguists think there is
a degree of kinship between the mentioned tribes and
the Messapes -- a people of strange and still
enigmatic inscriptions -- who had emigrated to
southern Italy (Salento) since proto-historic times
and have long been considered as related to Illyrians.

The character of Greek expansion during Antiquity was
not a classic ethnic expansion wave. Greek colonies
could not exist without prolific relations with local
tribes and populations, and the very fact of their
being founded here and not there is a proof for other
populations being already in place, to trade with.
Nevertheless, and thanks also to the benevolence of
Rome, the Greek influence and cultural primacy in
Epirus -- as in other areas of the Mediterranean --
remained important throughout the Antiquity. In the
early Middle Ages, with the disruption of political
balances created by the Roman empire, things start to
change, as Epirus received several unwanted "visits"
from barbarous tribes, which contributed in creating a
kind of "primordial soup," out of which the modern
Balkans ethnic map would be conceived. There is today
indisputable linguistic evidence of a significant
Slavic presence in the area, noticeable in the
numerous Slavic place names (mountains, plains,
valleys, rivers, cities, villages), though scholars do
not agree as to the origin of these names.

3. Tosk autochtony

The Albanian southern dialect -- the Tosk -- with some
of its basic phonetic features, was already in place,
as it is witnessed by the phonetic evolution of some
place names known to have been employed since the late
Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In fact, the
Albanian main dialectal division is rather old, and in
their most antique lexical strata both Albanian
dialects do not show any significant difference
regarding the phonetic treatment of old and Medieval
Greek loans. It has been satisfactorily shown that
even Greek Medieval (Byzantine) loans are often
cultural, and hardly due to immediate and intensive
population contact. On the other hand, the plentiful
Slavic place names in Epirus toponomastics might make
one think of the possibility of existence of isolated
southern Slavic tribes (old Bulgarians), serving,
concomitantly with Latin population (Aromanian)
enclaves, as a buffer between Greek- and
proto-Albanian-populated areas. 

It is indisputably evident, on the other hand, that no
Albanian dialect or sub-dialect presents nowadays
traces of a Greek substrate, and this constitutes a
valid proof that no Greek population in the territory
of the so-called northern Epirus has ever been
assimilated by Albanians, as the Vorio-Epirote
doctrine wants to make us believe. Even the tormented
Çams have probably been there since proto-historical
times, for geographical linguistics assigns to their
dialect a place right between the Labërishte and the
Arbërishte (the latter as a common denominator of the
dialects of the Arvanites), while historical
onomastics explains their ethnonyme as the direct
continuation -- within Albanian phonetic structure and
according to its phonetic evolution rules -- of the
name of the local river Thyamis. The scarcity of
contacts between Greeks and Albanians can also find
support in the established fact that ALL old Christian
terminology in Albanian is of Latin, not of Greek
origin. 

The same current dialectal structure of Albanian, with
its relative continuity and smooth passages between
various dialects, is a further proof of old stable
links between the above-mentioned dialects and the
territory where they are spoken. On both sides of
Shkumbin river -- considered by the Vorio-Epirote
doctrine as the upper border of Northern Epirus,
dividing Greek "Lebensraum" from the "genuine"
Albanian one -- a lot of transitional dialectal
phenomena are found, which witness territorial
stability of the dialects.

4. Tosks in Albanian culture

The Vorio-Epirote doctrine is born of the Greek
conservative cultural atmosphere. It is clear that any
attempt to enhance the Greek legacy in the so-called
northern Epirus is meant as an attempt to annihilate
the Albanian Tosk heritage in southern Albania, or to
attribute it to some obscure Ottoman and/or Islamic
superstrate. The undeniable fact that the Albanian
resurrection during the last century was also due to
the efforts of a brilliant elite of Tosk patriots of
Christian Orthodox faith -- among which Naum
Veqilharxhi, Jani Vreto, Nikolla Naço, Petro Nini
Luarasi, Papa Kristo Negovani, etc., whose work was
later brought forward by Fan Noli, Themistokli
Germenji, Mihal Grameno etc. -- constitutes for them
only a regrettable proof of "racially superior"
Vorio-Epirotes yielding their services to a culturally
lost and corrupt cause: the Albanian resurrection. The
Rilindja cultural patriotic movement in the South was
related to Southern Albania being the cradle of
Bektashism, a religious sect inspired by a philosophy
which, thanks to its syncretism and eclecticism, and
to its faith in enlightenment and tolerance, would
serve as a catalyst to the cultural awakening of the
entire region. The Frashëri brothers, Abdyl, Naim e
Sami, who are generally considered as the apostles of
the Albanian Rilindja, and who were born in a village
of Përmeti, i.e., in full "Vorio-Epirote" immersion,
could not have existed without their sound Bektashi
background and faith. Of course, the contribution of
southern Albanians to the making up of an Albanian
cultural koiné is not limited to the anti-Ottoman
efforts of Albanian Christian Orthodox communities and
individuals. Some Islamic cultural centers, the most
famous of which is Berat, were able to produce, during
the 18th century, a considerable "aljamiado"
literature, which for the first time in Albania dealt
directly with non-religious motives and themes. On the
other hand, it was the Greek religious obscurantism,
fully supported by the Ottoman establishment, which
would not allow the development of the Albanian script
and literature in the South, in a time when important
religious literature was being written and published
by Gheg Catholic writers in the North. 

5. The Byzantine legacy

>From a historical point of view, Epirus, in spite of
its being often under Hellenic influence, has always
been part of some multinational empire. After Pyrrhus
and his victories against Rome, Epirus had its second
moment of glory with the constitution of the
Despotate, after the crusaders took over
Costantinople, and the empire had a structural
breakdown. It is true that Byzance preserved for a
long time its Hellenic core, but it is also true that
it remained all the time a conglomerate of peoples,
languages, and cultures. The same holds true for the
Ottoman empire. If the Greeks succeeded in maintaining
a cultural primacy in both empires, thanks to a solid
dedication to their glorious past, other Balkan
peoples saw in them hope for getting rid of the
Ottoman yoke, at least culturally. The cultural center
of Voskopoja, multi-ethnic in its scopes and its
targets, flourished exactly thanks to these fruitful
multi-cultural contacts. It was savagely destroyed by
the Ottomans not because it was Greek, but because it
could become a model for an anti-Ottoman cultural
aggregation and alliance in the Balkans. We know of
the very complex ethnic structure of the Byzantine
empire. The Greek bureaucrats, soldiers, priests, and
merchants constituted most of its notorious
aristocracy, which is why we find today clear evidence
of Greek cultural presence in all important Byzantine
urban centers, to begin with Durrës. It is also
evident, however, that the pyramidal social structure
of Byzance mirrored its ethnic structure, that is,
different peoples occupied different social niches. It
might even be said that illiteracy, for which
Albanians have traditionally been blamed, probably
saved them from being entirely absorbed in the
imperial Hellenic mainstream.

The Vorio-Epirote doctrinaires draw their inspiration
from Medieval religious obscurantism, but very often
their delirious claims serve perfectly the efforts of
modern Greek chauvinism to create hotbeds of
instability in territories of Greece's neighbors.
Their use of historical and religious (pseudo-)
arguments speaks for the worst Byzantine legacy
reigning in their minds. It is unbelievable how in a
country like Greece, that pretends to be modern
European, one can still find such relics, survived
from old forgotten times, and nostalgic of a mythic
past that has never existed. The Vorio-Epirote
doctrinaires are ambassadors of a world that has
failed to pass through the European renaissance and
rationalism, but has jumped from medieval mysticism,
to extreme nationalistic romanticism. Retired in their
delusional world of ghosts, old national hatred, and
chauvinism, they keep on fighting with long-gone
enemies, while trying to keep burning their
anachronistic pan-Hellenic torch. Their Orthodox
religious background transforms them into lunatic
apostles of a rotten, medieval vision of Europe, while
their political activities, whenever have taken place,
have led to intolerance, fascism, and genocide.

As a matter of fact, the Vorio-Epirote doctrine often
appears as an extreme expression of the mainstream
nationalism in modern Greek culture. It seems that a
non-negligible part of it seems incapable of
overcoming the inferiority complex due to
confrontation with that cultural giant of Ancient
Classical Greece. Because of this inferiority complex,
some people erroneously believe that modern Greek
culture is the truly legitimate heir of this glorious
past, while other people indulge in a ritualistic use
of tradition, being unable to distinguish between
symbol and meaning, religion and ethnicity, present
and past.

6. Illusions and delusions

The big illusion of Greek nationalism is that Greek
Christian Orthodoxy and the Orthodoxy-related
structure constitute evidence of a population being
basically Greek. They will never accept the idea of a
nation whose roots for a long time have lain on common
language orality. A culture for which ethnic roots are
to be sought in religion and script will certainly
fail to understand that for an Albanian, to belong to
the Albanian nation, very often means first of all to
have been born and raised by an Albanian-speaking
family, with no religion and other conventional
mythology involved. To the Vorio-Epirote doctrinaires,
instead, the Church represents a sacred place where
not only a contact with God is established, but also
the essential "grecity" is constantly reproduced. That
in Albania there is no religious institution dedicated
to the task of establishing ethnic communion -- the
role being long since entrusted to the laic school --
makes them believe that the full grecity of
Albanian-speaking Orthodox population needs to be
fundamentally restored. Therefore a frontal attack is
needed, against the Albanian school and aiming at the
introduction of Greek (private or Athens-subventioned)
schools in Albanian communities, as an
efficiency-proven way or readjusting a "fundamentally
wrong situation".

7. A comedy of adjectives

Moreover, the blind obsession with names and symbols
-- the same that led Greek foreign policy to that
futile campaign against the name and the national flag
of the ex Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- has made
some of the Vorio-Epirote self-proclaimed leaders
retain that even the Albanian national hero Gjergj
Kastrioti was a Vorio-Epirote ante litteram, since he
used to call himself "Epirote". It is well known,
instead, that in the Middle Ages the name "Epirote"
was employed simply as a prestigious title, whose
purpose would be not only to stress the nobility of
the bearer by relating him to a glorious (and mostly
mythical) past, but also to point out his being
essentially different from Greek or Hellenic. Such
denominations, as "Epirote" and "Macedonian" were
frequently employed, in those times, to design
Albanians and Albanian language, thanks to their
"antique" resonance, and indisputable cultural
prestige. It is absurd to extrapolate and find in them
proof of Hellenic descendancy and blood relationship.
At that time no one had yet associated Albanians with
Illyrians, and the "Epirote" choice seemed quite
reasonable, because of geographical and historical
resonance, and since it was highly fashionable and
almost obligatory to be called with an old classical
name. 

Moreover, various Western European encyclopedic
publications during the 16th and 17th centuries
continued to call "Illyrian" the Slavic language
spoken in Dalmatia, according to a principle of
geographic continuity. In fact, in the epistemological
context of the epoch, "lingua illyrica" meant simply a
language spoken in the territories once inhabited by
the Illyrians, which territories very often were
identified with the Roman province of Illyricum. It is
well known, in addition, that one of the first
Renaissance scholars to have shown an interest in
Albanian language, the great Italian humanist Joseph
Scaliger in 16th century, says of it that it is spoken
"in mountains of Epirus". The first Albanian writers,
like Budi and Bardhi, while writing in Latin, always
called Albanian "lingua epirotica," and the very title
of Bardhi's Latin-Albanian vocabulary, "Dictionnarium
latino-epiroticum," leaves no doubt about that.

8. Minorities and forgotten minorities

One might ask how it is possible that the evident
Albanian character of modern southern Albania is being
systematically denied by a bunch of visionaries,
fanatics, renegades, provocateurs and spies,
objectively isolated in their claims, but still
successful in seeking and often obtaining the support
of public opinion in Greece. In any southern Albanian
area you will choose to visit you will find a highly
homogeneous, but still tolerant Albanian community,
made up of Moslem, Christian Orthodox and agnostic
sub-communities, which look at Greece as their natural
economic and cultural partner, and which consider the
Greek minoritarian presence as a good omen for further
expansion of cooperation and friendship.

The all too frequent mentioning, by the Vorio-Epirote
doctrinaires, of Italy and Turkey, as the two regional
powers which traditionally have endorsed the Albanian
national cause, and which were mainly responsible for
the "dismemberment" of Epirus, betrays these people's
true belief that every political development in
countries surrounding Greece (maybe even in Greece
itself) is fueled by the old controversy between
Catholicism (Italy) and Orthodoxy on one side, and
Islam (Turkey) and Orthodoxy on the other. In their
words, Albania appears therefore to be not only a
natural enemy of Greece's historical integrity, but
also a simple instrument, or weapon, in the hands of
two countries, Italy and Turkey, which have
traditionally scared the conservative Greek Orthodox
world, as political incarnations of Satan. This
ghostly vision finds support, however, in true
historical facts, for it is known that Greece has more
than once been threatened by these more powerful
neighbors. Incidentally, the Vorio-Epirote
doctrinaires fail to realize that, in spite of
differences, incompatibilities, and misunderstandings,
Albania and Greece share most of their recent and less
recent history. Both countries today represent
centuries of efforts for survival by two ancient
Balkan peoples; both have faced the same enemies, the
same disgraces, and the same fortunes. This could be,
and often has proved to be a good basis for a
long-term relation of friendship and complete
understanding between the two peoples.

>From a historical point of view, the small Greek
minority in Albania was probably created when southern
Albanian (Moslem) land-owners called for workers for
their land-properties in the valley of Drina and other
adjacent territories. Its counterparts in Greece,
ethnically speaking, are the Arvanites, whose
migration to Greece is thought to have taken place
through 14th and 16th centuries, and who, along with
the Çams, constitute by far the truly forgotten
minority in the region. The analysis of their dialects
shows that their place of origin, geographically, is
to be found, very probably, south to the territory
historically inhabited by the Çams, i.e., the current
Çamëria in northern Greece. Their existence confirms,
again, that the Albanian Tosk territory is the result
of a slow RESTRICTION process, not of an expansion, or
demographic explosion. Some of the Arvanites have
apparently endorsed the worst expression of Greek
nationalism, but their dialects speak for them better
than transient opportunistic faith.

9. The Himara case

As for the so-called "grecity" of Himara -- a small
bilingual community on Albanian Ionian coast -- there
is strong historical and linguistic evidence of
Himariotes being no more than half-grecized Albanians.
Because of their geographic isolation, the difficulty
of having commerce with Albanian hinterland, and the
pressure put on them by the Ottoman administration,
they used to look at Greece as their natural
protector. Especially Corfu, thanks to its being
highly accessible, because of geographic vicinity,
became extremely attractive for them, as more and more
Himariote families started sending their sons to study
in schools on that island, and merchants to trade with
the local population. The Greek patois that is
currently spoken in Himara and in some other adjacent
village seems to be closely related to the Greek
dialect spoken in Corfu, and several ethnologists have
pointed out how the Himariotes make use of Albanian
for special ritualistic purposes. Linguists dealing
with the Albanian dialect spoken in Himara, have found
in it traces of vocal nasalism, which, along with the
use of archaic last names, such as "Gjoleka, Gjipali,
Gjidede" (analysable in "Gjon Leka, Gjin Pali, Gjin
Deda"), constitute proof for a very old Albanian
presence in the area. [See also: Ethnic Legacy in
Himara]

10. The myth revealed

If it were not for its being absurd, anachronistic,
and often ridiculous, the Vorio-Epirote doctrine would
have represented the most pernicious attack ever made
against the very existence of Albania as a nation, and
of Albanians as an ethnic community. Its major threat,
however, is now directly related to its emotive impact
on an already sensitive Greek public opinion, inside
and outside Greece. It can and will gain credibility
from the highly preoccupying political instability of
Albania. On the other hand, it has profited, and will
profit in the future, from a higher international
awareness concerning minorities' rights. It might as
well be gaining further ground thanks to repeated
provocatory attempts, inside Albania, of transposing
political controversies into geographic ones, and of
associating southern Albania with communism,
totalitarism, and anti-democratic subversion.

Since its creation, the doctrine has always functioned
as a historical and linguistic makeup for the true
anachronistic face of Greek ultra-nationalist
fanaticism, and their diehard expansionist dreams. By
making use of often distorted and even deliberately
falsified historical, archeological and linguistic
evidence; by employing the obsolete argumentative
technique of infinite inclusion, implication and
assumption; by the systematic confusion between
geography and history; by the methodical mystification
of reality and the paranoid refusal to recognize
truth; by the manicheistic interpretation of history
and foreign relations; by extensively relying on the
notorious Greek egocentrism, the Vorio-Epirote
doctrinaires have succeeded in including even their
own theory in the global myth of Greek racial
supremacy in the Balkans.

The fact is that they have taken the old and often
folkloristic distinction between Greeks and
"barbarians" and have overburdened it with racial
connotations, though, from a strictly physical
anthropologic point of view it is difficult to find a
more mixed people the modern Greeks, who -- simply
because of the geographic exposure -- include, in
their genetic pool, Slavic, Albanian, Turk, Aromanian,
Arab and Gypsy elements.

Their insisting on the necessity of opening Greek
schools and of providing adequate education for the
Greek minority in southern Albania can be explained
with the special role attributed to Greek language
inside the Greek global myth. Greek language, to them,
is the sacred weapon by which old Greek supremacy and
glory will return to the modern "barbarous" Toskëria.
This language, especially in its written form, will
work like a set of cabalistic formulas capable of
awakening the Greek soul still dormant in every
"Vorio-Epirote". And since they strongly believe that
all these "Albanian speaking Greeks" (this absurd
expression is theirs) lost their language because of
historical vicissitudes, the proposed schools will be
meant to operate like Greek rehabilitation centers, in
a to-be-recovered territory. Incidentally, it is even
more disturbing the fact that similar attempts are
reportedly being made also by some offshoots of
Orthodox Church in Albania, with the silent approval
of Bishop Janulatos, and in clear contravention with
the rules and by-laws of the Albanian Orthodox Church.

There is more: the Greek Orthodox church, which has
always thought of itself as a body in which the
sublunary sacrality of Greek language joins the divine
sacrality of pure Christian religion, and which has
always tried to bring the gift of the Word --
literally and metaphorically -- to the "barbarians"
next door. The true Greek Orthodoxy needs the magic of
the letter shapes of the Greek script to come alive,
for it lives through the written word, in the written
word, and with the written word. Therefore it is not
fortuitous that the Vorio-Epirote doctrine has been
welcome within the ranks of the Greek Orthodox church,
which traditionally professes Orthodoxy not only in
religious matters, but in written language matters as
well. It is a strange myth, that equally, and
ambiguously, adopts ethnic intolerance and love for
the next, nationalism and Christianity, proselytism
and genocide. Its superb historicism let it absorb
everything that has taken place in the past, due to
the assumption that -- so far as the Balkans are
concerned -- only the elected people, i.e., the
Hellenes, have been capable of transforming incidental
events into History. There is, objectively, no direct
link between problems related to Greek minority in
Albania, and the Vorio-Epirote myth. The former are
real problems, whose solution might be delayed if the
myth gains terrain among Greek minority
representatives and associations. The latter is a
collection of dreams, fantasies, and deliberate lies,
by people willing to use the Greek minority in Albania
as a basis for the cancellation of southern Albania
from the map. Of course, in so far as the economical
gap between Albania and Greece will persist, the Greek
minority will always be the focus of irrational
disruptive forces, tendencies and impulses.

[previously published under a pseudonim in the
Albanian newspaper "Illyria", in New York]

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