Country: Albania

Group: Greeks

Date Finalized: 04/11/2022

Team: Ashlee Greenier (lead), Isabella Booker, Hajer Rahee, Anthony Un

Content Warning: Forced displacement

Approximate Time Period: 1940s-Present

Since 1921, Albania’s ethnic Greek population has been registered as a minority living in recognized “minority zones”. During the communist era, the government feared Greek discontent with communist policies, so the government encouraged Albanians to move into the minority zones to further disperse their population. The government also forcibly moved Greeks out of these minority zones to Tirana and other northern districts using threats of intimidation, imprisonment and economic incentives (Vickers, 2010; Stavrou, 1984). During this time, the government changed Greek place names in minority zones Albanian names, creating a hostile and unwelcoming environment for Greeks (Stein, 2000). Throughout the 1980s, there were reports of political violence against the Greeks in a continuing effort to remove them from the country where “many of these violations have been directed at members or supporters of the Socialist Party… other victims include homosexuals, members of the Greek minority and former political prisoners” (Albania, 1995). Currently, Greeks are recognized as the largest ethnic minority in Albania. Minority leaders complain of the government’s unwillingness to recognize the possible existence of ethnic Greek towns outside communist-era ‘minority zones’ (Minority Rights).

Data Quality: 3- Excellent academic and primary sources on the discrimination code forced away for Albanian Greeks.

Sources

  1. Albania: Failure to end police ill-treatment and deaths in custody. (n.d.). Amnesty International. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur11/004/1995/en/
  2. Minority Rights Group. Greeks. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/greeks/
  3. Stavrou, Nikolaos, and . “The Little Country with the Big Gulag.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Dec. 1984, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/12/09/the-little-country-with-the-big-gulag/90e4fb4a-7c19-488a-a261-35b9d3861df1/.
  4. Stein, J. P. (2000). The Politics of National Minority Participation in Post-communist Europe: State-building, Democracy, and Ethnic Mobilization. ME Sharpe.
  5. Vickers, M. (n.d.). The Greek Minority in Albania – Current Tensions. 16.