Northern Epirus Liberation Front

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The Northern Epirus Liberation Front (MAVI: Metopo Anexartisias Voriou Ipirou, Greek: Μέτωπο Ανεξαρτησίας Βορείου Ηπείρου, ΜΑΒΗ) is a far-right Greek paramilitary organisation that operates in Albania.[citation needed]

It states that it is fighting for the rights of the Greek minority in Albania which is concentrated in the southern part of the country (what is commonly called Northern Epirus in Greece). On 10 April 1994, it killed two people from a border post on the Greek-Albanian border.[1] After a car bomb which killed the Albanian ambassador to Greece in 1991 the group claimed responsibility.[2]

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  1. ^ MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base - Albania: 1994 Overview On 10 April several gunmen crossed into Albania from Greece and stormed a border guard facility, killing two persons and seriously wounding three others before returning across the Greek border. A group calling itself the "Northern Epirus Liberation Front" (MAVI) claimed responsibility for the incident. It accused the Albanian Government of violating the rights of the ethnic Greek minority in Albania and berated Athens for not doing enough to support the minority. MAVI also issued a pamphlet last fall announcing the commencement of an "armed struggle" against Tirana and demanding, inter alia, the cessation of the alleged "colonization" of "Northern Epirus" -- the Greek name for southern Albania, which has a large ethnic Greek population -- by Albanians from the north. MAVI was the name of an ethnic Greek resistance group in Albania during World War II that operated first against the invading Italians and then against the Communists. Press reports state that the group was disbanded in the 1940s, although responsibility for the 1984 bombing of the Albanian Embassy in Athens was claimed in its name.
  2. ^ James Pettifer - The Greek Minority in Albanian In the Aftermath of Communism (Conflict Studies Research Center)