Page 53 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

the whole of Thesprotia a “region of remem-
brance”. What’s more, by recalling the atrocities
of a group closely associated with neighbouring
Albania (such as Albano-Chams), these monu-
ments designate the Albanians as enemies of the
Orthodox Greeks. In this way, they bear witness
to the long-standing hostility between the two
countries, feeding present-day resentments with
the violence of the past. On a regional scale, they
also help to explain the reasons for the disap-
pearance of the Muslim populations of Thespro-
tia after the Second World War. The murderers
certainly had to fear retaliation, but they would 53
also have had to answer for their many crimes,
ti which is why they chose to leave. Furthermore,
the murders of which the Muslim populations
are accused would now justify that they must
ta they abandon any claim to Thesprotia because
no longer claim their rights to these lands, that

of their many crimes. Such a position echoes
the words of some of the inhabitants of the plac-
di es where the murders were recorded: “Now they tales from the greek-albanian borderland ...
[the Chams] are over there in Albania, and they
are crying. They say they want to come back here,
Figure 4: Memorial to the victims of intercommunity
violence of the 1940s, in Mavromati, Greece, but if they hadn’t stolen and killed so much, they
could come back” (interview 11 in Asprokklisi),
here prus” (interview 12 in Filiatès). The threat of a
on the border with Albania. (photo: Pierre Sintès, 2010)
or, “it’s better that the Muslims have left, because
religion always causes problems, as we saw in Cy-
possible Albanian claim to the coastal regions of
Southern Epirus is countered in these discourses
by the recall of the murders committed by these
Muslims in the 1940s. More than the transmis-
sion of a tragic memory, the discourse underlying
studiauniversitatis
these steles is projected into the present (or even
the future) to counter what are seen as hostile in-
tentions on the part of Albanian neighbours.
But these monuments also reflect a univo-
cal treatment of public space. It is striking to
note that some localities in Thesprotia, reput-
ed to have been important centres for Muslim
populations, no longer bear any trace of this for-
mer presence, nor any monuments. The “memo-
Figure 5: Memorial to the victims of intercommunity ricide” mentioned by Bénédicte Tratnjek (2011)
violence of the 1940s, in Kastri, Greece. is evident here in the steles that collectively des-
(photo: Pierre Sintès, 2011) ignate them as murderers. The same is true of the