Elusive tribute to Albania’s ethnic Greeks

It’s been 32 years since I first set foot in Albania. Ramiz Alia, the country’s last communist president, was still in power. Albania was a country in serious depression; its authoritarian regime was crumbling. People were trying to escape the heaven of paranoia bequeathed by Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, often risking their lives.

Passing through the Kakavia border crossing with Albania last week, I stared at the imposing mountain range rising up from the plain of Dropoli (Dropull) and Vourkos (Vurg) and, further away, of Korytsa (Korce). The view brought to mind the dramatic stories of minority Greeks who struggled to make a way through the electric fences along the mountain border in a bid to free themselves from the shackles of the regime. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died on these slopes and ravines in their effort to escape.

The vast majority of the victims were ethnic Greeks living in southern Albania. These people lived closer to the border and knew the trails well. More importantly, their souls were moved by the desire to live freely in the mother country. With the passage of time, however, those martyrs and heroes of the borders (who were, at the time, labeled enemies of the state) risk fading from collective memory.

The visit will present Mitsotakis with an opportunity to lay a wreath at Alyko

On the occasion of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ planned tour of southern Albania, the minority community in Finiki (Finiq) municipality had arranged a visit to the village of Alyko (Aliko) where on December 11, 1990 four ethnic Greek youths were shot to death while trying to cross into Greece.

The killings were the last straw amid the accumulated indignation and sparked an unprecedented uprising in the ethnic Greek villages. Protesters carrying the coffins with the dead youths led an impromptu march to Agioi Saranta (Sarande). They stopped at the outskirts of the town to avert bloodshed.

Mitsotakis’ visit to the minority villages was eventually rescheduled for December 22. Sure, he will come across a very different picture to what his father, then prime minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, did in 1992. Things have certainly improved. At stake, however, is the return of the ethnic Greek population so that the minority will be able to survive. That said, Greece must pay tribute to those who lost their lives along the mountain border, in its name. The visit will present Mitsotakis with an opportunity to lay a wreath at Alyko. Apart from the Greek soldiers who died on Albania’s mountains in 1940, who we certainly deservedly honor to this day, neither should we forget those who fell on the same border, also for Greece.