About Me
Our mission is to restore the governmental control of Northern Epiros back to Greece and to free the estimated 380,000 Epirotes from persecution in the southern region of Albania.
This southern region of Albania, better known as Northern Epiros, has been inhabited by Greek Epirotes since the 3rd Century BC. Since the attacks on Greece by the Roman Empire, Epirotes have successfully kept in tact their land, language, religion, and cultural traditions. We Epirotes will not stop now. Our current situation stems from the origin of the Turkish occupancy, which began with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. In 1821, the War of Independence began against the Ottoman Turks after 400 years of unsuccessful Greek uprisings and the failure of the Ottoman Empire to assimilate and convert the Greek culture because the faithful Hellenes living in their occupied homeland reacted to the Turkish oppression and resisted the attempts to deprive the Greeks of their heritage, their freedom, and their religion. During the dark years of the Ottoman occupation, thousands were killed and tortured for attending church or teaching their children culture, history, and language. It was the Greek Orthodox Church that helped to retain their very identity by the institution of Crypha Scholia (Hidden Schools). For eight years the fighting ensued, until 1829, when the Sultan Mahmud II, facing Soviet troops at the gates of Constantinople, accepted Greek Independence with the TREATY OF ANDRIANOPLE. Although Greece won their Independence in 1829, they had many problems with violent wars for 100 years. The wars which created the seperation of Northern Epiros from Greece was the Balkan Wars. In order to prevent the outbreak of the 2nd Balkan War in 1913, THE TERMS OF THE TREATY OF LONDON declared that (1) Turkey ceded to the Balkan allies her territory in Europe beyond a line drawn from Enos near the mouth of the Maritza River on the Aegean Sea to Midia on the Black Sea. (2) The status and boundaries of Albania were to be fixed by the great powers. (3) The Sultan of Turkey ceded Crete to the Balkan allies in whose favor all rights of sovereignty were renounced. (4) To the great powers was left the decision upon the fate of the islands in the Aegean Sea (excepting Crete) and the status of Mount Athos. Even though these decisions created the division of Northern Epiros from Greece, the speration was further torn when WWII came to a close and the 1947 TREATY OF PARIS required Italy to hand over the Dodecanese islands to Greece. These were the last Greek-speaking areas to be united with the Greek state, leaving only Northern Epirus, parts of Macedonia in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria the islands of Imvros and Tenedos and Cyprus, a British possession, under foreign rule. Greece's ethnic homogeneity was enhanced by the postwar expulsion of 25,000 Albanians from Epirus. Today, the Albanian Government still attempts to homogenize the Northern Epirotes population through restrictions on religious, cultural, educational, and linguistic rights of minorities. These individuals continue to face human rights violations and face restrictions on travel to their homeland and on their attempts to restore the cultural traditions of the region that dates back to the 3rd Century BC. The personal safety of ethnic Greeks in Albania are at risk by the intimidation of security forces that burn schools, churches, and businesses by lawless bands that the police allow to operate with impunity. The Greek government has given Greeks living in Albania the chance to cross the border in order to have a better life but they have been reluctant to leave behind their land, language, and cultural traditions they have practiced since the 3rd century. It has been reported that 150,000 ethnic Greeks from Albania will were granted the right to Greek citizenship in 2006.
