Northern Epirus

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Northern Epirus (Greek: Βόρειος Ήπειρος Vorios Ipiros) is the name by which the Greeks call the region of southern Albania which is home to Tosk Albanians, Greeks, Aromanians and other ethnic groups. The fustanella, a significant component of traditional Greek and Albanian dress, originated in this region and the ancestors of the Arvanites – an Orthodox Christian Albanian-speaking Greek-identifying community in Greece – migrated from this region to present-day Greece in the Middle Ages. The region is traditionally considered terra irredenta by Greek nationalists, and usage of the name "Northern Epirus" may be found offensive by Albanians.

[edit] Greek and Aromanian minorities

In Albania, Greeks are considered a "national minority", and Aromanians (referred to as Vlachs) a "linguistic minority".^[1] In Albania, many Aromanians (sometimes referred to by Greeks as Arvanitovlachs) self-identify as Greeks, and after the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, links were established between the Vlachs of Albania and the Vlachs of Greece, especially those among the former who claim a Greek identity: they are invited by Vlachs of Greece to their festivals, and receive help from them to rebuild churches or in the form of other necessary assistance to Vlach villages in Albania.^[2]

There are no reliable statistics on the size of any ethnic minorities in Albania, although conducting a satisfactory census of ethnic minorities is one of Albania's commitments to the European Union. According to data presented to the 1919 Paris Conference, the Greek minority numbered 120,000,^[3] and last census to include data on ethnic minorities conducted in 1989 under the communist regime cites only 58,785 Greeks,^[1] although the total population of Albania had tripled in the meantime.^[3] The last census to include data on linguistic minorities held in 1955, recorded 4,249 Vlachs/Aromanians.^[1] Sources from the Greek minority have claimed that there are up to 400,000 Greeks in Albania, or 12% of the total population at the time (from the "Epirot lobby" of Greeks with family roots in Albania).^[4]

In a 1995 ethnological study the number of Greeks in Northern Epirus alone, the Greeks are estimated at 40,000 with a 15,000 strong Aromanian population, while in the rest of the country there are further 20,000 Greeks and 35,000 Aromanians.^[5] The UNPO estimates the Greek minority at approximately 70,000 people.^[6] Other independent sources estimate that the number of Greeks in the whole of Albania is 117,000 (about 3.5% of the total population) ^[7] a figure close to the estimate provided by The World Factbook (2006) (about 3%).^[8]^[9]

A number of villages of Northern Epirus use Greek as the predominant language. There have been many small incidents between the Greek minorities and Albanian authorities over issues such as the alleged involvement of the Greek government in local politics, the raising of the Greek flag on Albanian territory, and the language taught in state schools of the region; however, these issues have for the most part been non-violent. The crisis in Greek-Albanian relations reached its peak in late August of 1994, when an Albanian court sentenced five members (a sixth member was added later) of the ethnic Greek political party "Omonia" to prison terms on charges of undermining the Albanian state. Greece responded by freezing all EU aid to Albania, sealing its border with Albania, and between August-November 1994, expelling over 115,000 illegal Albanian immigrants, a figure quoted in the US Department of State Human Rights Report and given to the American authorities by their Greek counterpart.^[10] In December 1994, however, Greece began to permit limited EU aid to Albania, while Albania released two of the Omonia defendants and reduced the sentences of the remaining four. Today, relations have significantly improved: Greece and Albania signed a Friendship, Cooperation, Good Neighbourliness and Security Agreement on 21st March 1996. Additionally, Greece is Albania's main foreign investor, having invested more than 400 million dollars in Albania; Albania's second largest trading partner, with Greek products accounting for some 21% of Albanian imports, and 12% of Albanian exports coming to Greece; and Albania's fourth largest donor country, having provided aid amounting to 73.8 million euros.^[11]

The Society Farsarotul (Aromanian: Societatea Fărşărotul) of the United States, is one of the oldest and most known associations of Aromanians, founded in 1903 by Nicolae Cican, an Aromanian native of Albania.