Page 63 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

Table of the interviews quoted in the text

Interview number Date of birth Date of interview Metting place
1 1959 06/08/2010 Sagiada
2 1940 11/07/2010 Smerto
3 1952 14/07/2010 Ragio
4 1924 5/08/2010 Kestini
5 1935 06/08/2010 Sagiada
6 1924 14/07/2010 Sagiada
7 1928 06/08/2010 Sagiada
8 1930 12/07/2011 Sagiada
9 1923 13/07/2011 Sagiada 63
ti 10 1916 14/07/2011 Sagiada
11
1925
Asprokklisi
07/08/2010
12 1943 08/08/2010 Filiatès
ta 13 1937 07/08/2010 Filiatès
09/08/2010
Konispol
14
1982
di Summary Nowadays, the interpretation given locally to these ma- tales from the greek-albanian borderland ...
jor social and ethnic transformations always refers to the
The border between Greece and Albania has a cheq-
resolution of a violent conflict that had plagued the re-
uered history. Its establishment in 1913 ceded to Alba-
nia a territory conquered by Greece during the Balkan gion’s society since the inter-war period. In the villages
affected, the memory of these atrocities is vivid, and the
here of Prizren in 1878. This is the case of a small region of ly and in great detail, often revealing the circumstances
wars and left outside Albania a large part of the territo-
various generations are still able to recount them easi-
ries claimed by Albanian nationalists since the League
of the murders as well as the identity of the murderers.
Greece, that is presented in this text, called Thespro-
These stories of violence are echoed today by the pres-
tia in Greek and Chameria in Albanian, where the his-
ence in the Greek side of the border of singular monu-
torical turmoil has not been without effect on its pop-
ments, which highlight the way in which this history has
ulation, massively affected by the powerful polarization
left its mark on the construction and symbolic appropri-
movements resulting from the application of national
studiauniversitatis
discourses on the field. Throughout this period and un-
ories. By recalling the atrocities of a group closely as-
til now, the heterogenous groups that formed the bor- ation of the territory, and how this in turn feeds mem-
sociated with neighboring Albania, these monuments
der society had to position themselves according to po- designate the Albanians as enemies of the Orthodox
litical turbulences, sometimes despite other long-term Greeks, and bear witness to the long-standing hostil-
realities, and their discourses of belonging were gradu- ity between the two countries, feeding present-day re-
ally reshaped by these changes. These transformations sentments with the violence of the past. On the other
have had important consequences for the presence of side of the border, around the small Albanian town of
several communities whose fate has been turned on Konispol, stands a number of monuments commem-
end by the new realities of this contested border, like the orating the victims of the “Cham genocide”, officially
Chams, a large Albanian-speaking community, which recognized by the Albanian state since 1994. These var-
disappeared from the Western section of the Greek-Al- ious monuments on the other side of the border also act
banian border in circumstances that are still debated. as landmarks, activating the representation of a space