Talk:Northern Epirus

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Can we please maintain some neutrality about this article? It is ridiculous to mention Northern Epirus everywhere Albania is mentioned. There are Greek minorities in the region, but this does not make it part of the territory of Greece. As far as the treatment of the minorities goes, if the Greek minorities in Albania were treated like the Albanian minorities in Greece, Greece would probably declare war on Albania. I have friends who live in some of these villages of southern Albania and they would consider themselves to be of Greek descent. They do speak Greek and Albanian, and although they are not loved by the rest of the Albanians (due to relations with Greece), they are not mistreated. At the same time, there are many more Albanians (having been born in Albanian territory, who consider themselves such, are seen as such by the Albanian government, do not speak Greek, etc) and it would be entirely wrong to classify them as Greeks simply because the Greek government and population desires it. Dori 17:44 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

-It's only fair to take into consideration Greece's right to land claims in Epirus when Albanians do the same for land in Yugoslavia.(ie:Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia)

-I agree. If Albanians want a greater Albania, they should relinquish where the majority of people speak Greek or have a Greek conscience (in the case of many Vlachs). The current boundaries of the state of Albania, drawn by the Great Powers of the day to serve their interests, do not reflect the reality of today and need to be redrawn. ^^^^ptsourkas

- The fact that the number of Albanians living in Greece has increased from virtually nil in 1990 to nearly 1 million today shows that they are well treated and welcomed by Greece. Nearly all of them have jobs and, even though they are recent immigrants, they fully participate in Greece's generous social security system, and in the nearly free healthcare system. By contrast the ethnic Greek population of Northern Epirus (representing in 1990 some 20% of the total population of Albania) has dwindled in numbers in the past decade due represssion fueled by the nationalism of the Albanian government. Let us not forget that Albania is a country with a questionable human rights record and inconsistent application of the rule of law. By contrast, Greece is a full fledged democracy that earned EU membership 25 years ago.

Do the Albanians really use the expression "Northern Epirus"? It surprises me a bit, honestly.--Aldux 13:27, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

I removed it. i had not noticed it earlier. the Albanian government rejects the usage of that term, with the pretext that it implies territorial claims. quite the contrary, they use the term 'Tsamouria' for Epirus by implying nationalistic claims. since the term 'Northern Epirus' is the one used by the greeks and, in some cases, in the english-speaking world (not sure about other languages), the term in Albanian is not relevant here. About the citation u asked concerding the fact that the region is predominantly Greek Orthodox, i can't really understand if it can be disputed: the greek minority (whether it numbers 3% or 12%) is concentrated there. the Aromanian minority (also greek orthodox, and included in the 12% figure that i said above) is also there. the Tosk albanians (a great number of whom is greek orthodox) resides in the albanian south, while the predominantly muslim Ghegs live in the north... i doubt if someone can say the opposite. --Hectorian 13:45, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

About the Albanian name, OK. About religion, it remains unsourced, and could easily be untrue. Personally, I believe that the majority are atheist. I'll remove it until it is sourced. --Telex 14:00, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Hectorian, less than 2/3 of Albanians in Albania are Tosk. Orthodox accounts for 20% of the population, and Catholicism for 10% (mostly in the North), so please do not act as if you know something when you in fact know nothing. And by the way Albanians are not part of the Greek Orthodox Church, but The ALBANIAN Orthodox Church, founded by Fan Noli because a GREEK Orthodox priest refused to officiate at the burial of an Albanian in Hudson, Massachusetts on the grounds that, as a nationalist, the deceased was automatically excommunicated. --PG-Rated 22:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Isn't this article going a bit astray? 2 The Flag of Greeks in Albania 3 The Flag 4 Flag agin 5 Recent Edit

[edit] Isn't this article going a bit astray?

Don't misunderstand me, its much better than before, but it's also getting out of topic. Wouldn't it be better to reduce this articles and create a Minorities in Albania? Much of the content of the article goes well beyond Northern Epirus, as Greco-Albanian relations or the Greek minority in all Albania.--Aldux 22:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Flag of Greeks in Albania

Why is the Albanian two headed eagle randomly placed on the flag? They are Greeks right? --PG-Rated 22:33, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll remove the flag. What is often perceived as the flag of the Greek community in Albania (e.g. [1]) is in fact the flag of the government of Northern Epirus [2]. The double-headed eagle on the flag has nothing to do with Albania, but it is a popular symbol amongst Greeks (for example, it appears on the emblem of the Greek Army and used to be on the national emblem etc).--Tekleni 22:41, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Flag

The double headed eagle happens to be the old flag of the Empire of the Greeks or as it was known in western Europe Imperium Graekaorum. (Nowadays known as Byzantine Empire, a term never used by any "Byzantine"). So that's why the double headed flag is so important to Greeks, it's the national medieval symbol of Greece as a nation.

The Byzantine Empire persecuted specially the Greek and this well known, in the other hand the double headed eagle is very old pelasgic emblem more then 4 thousand years old found in Tepelena. The northern Epirus organization in reality is formed by arvanitas to protect their right in Greece then it turned agained their own people. The actual Greece flag is imported by the Germany for your artificial state. Dodona

[edit] Flag agin

To the anons who keep adding a makeup flag, please note the following: what you are adding is not the flag of the Greek community; the Greek community does not have a flag. What you are adding is the flag of the provisional state of Northern Epirus (see [3]) and it did not include the Albanian double headed eagle, it was the Byzantine eagle. I agree that the flag of the temporary state should be included if we include data on it. See also the other posts on this page. //Dirak 14:03, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

The Byzantine Empire persecuted specially the Greek and this well known, in the other hand the double headed eagle is very old pelasgic emblem more then 4 thousand years old found in Tepelena. The northern Epirus organization in reality is formed by arvanitas to protect their right in Greece then it turned agained their own people. The actual Greece flag is imported by the Germany for your artificial state. Dodona

[edit] Recent Edit

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Regards,

Φilhellenism 14:06, 7 March 2007 (UTC)