Page 50 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

erned the lives of the inhabitants at that time. cal change in the dominant ethnic structures.
She also gives a detailed account of the destruc- Even if other lines of force ran through this soci-
tion and atrocities committed during the occu- ety (social differences, political trajectories), they
pation of Thesprotia. would all have disappeared in favour of a sin-
In the villages affected, the memory of these gle polarity opposing Christians and Muslims,
violences is vivid and the various generations are Greeks and Albanians. The burning of the old
still able to recount them easily and in great de- village of Sagiada mentioned above is a reveal-
tail, often revealing the circumstances of the ing example of this. In local memories, it is the
murders as well as the identity of the murder- Muslim inhabitants of the neighbouring village
ers: “During the war, after the Italian offensive of Liopsi who are identified as having played an
but especially during the German occupation, active part in this destruction, rather than just
the main leaders of the Muslim villages in the re- the German troops. From then on, they became
50 gion, former landowners whose advantages had irreconcilable enemies. A resident of Sagiada re-
been threatened by the annexation to Greece members his relations with them, whom he still
in 1913, carried out atrocities against the Chris- calls the “Turks”, but also the events surround- ti
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
tian population” (interview 1), explains a local ing the burning of the village (interview 5):
historian living in Sagiada. Moved by strong-
er passions and resentment, the other testimo- Did we have a good relationship with the
nies describe horrific crimes that are inexcusable Turks from Liopsi? Relations were very ta
in the eyes of those who recount them: “My un- much like ... enemies. Not with all of them,
cle was shot dead in front of his house. His body of course. It was their leaders who were
was dragged by a horse around the village before against us. There were a lot of Agas who made
being thrown into the Kalama” (interview 2 in life hard for us. But it was during the war that
Smerto), or “The Muslims raped a young girl in the relationship deteriorated even more be- di
the village and killed her” (interview 3 in Ragio) cause their leaders sided with the Germans.
and again “I lost my father at the time. It was a Of course, we’re not talking about all the in-
‘Turk’ called Hassan from the neighbouring vil- habitants. We can’t say that they were all bad,
lage who beat him and threw him into the river but their leaders ... The Germans burnt down
with his hands tied. His name is now inscribed the village in 1943 and at that point the Turks
on the monument in front of the church” (inter- helped them. They took everything they
view 4 in Kestrini). These various testimonies could from our houses. They loaded it onto here
clearly reveal the permanence of this memory the animals. They brought it back to their
among the inhabitants. village. They came up behind the Germans
While these various murders are classically and took everything. We saw them from the
presented as the result of age-old hatred between mountains where we had fled. The Turko-
antagonistic religious communities present in Chams arrived with the Germans and took
the region for centuries, various interviews also everything. Even when the Germans left,
seem to show the extent to which the Second they carried weapons and did what they
World War was a key moment in the polariza- wanted. They even killed people in Sagiada
tion of local society, to some extent completing at the time. But after the German army re-
the structuring of this society into national com- treated from Greece, they left too. They no
munities on the basis of faith-based differences. longer felt safe. They feared retaliation from
This period seems to be a kind of culmination of the Greeks here. On the other hand, you studiauniversitatis
the transition that began at the time of annexa- can’t say that the partisans [Αντάρτες] of Ser-
tion by Greece, which led to the gradual trans- vas didn’t drive them away, so they were right
formation of social relations but also to a radi- to be afraid. When there’s hatred, anything