Mihallaq Ziçishti, Deputy Minister of Interior of Albania, speaking before the Central Committee of the KEA in October 1950, stated that women in Dropoli they were fleeing en masse to Greece “not because they were fighting the regime, but to reunite with their husbands.” It was the least a person is entitled to: to live with his family.
However, there was strict criminalization of attempted escape from the country of our unprotected mothers and grandmothers, for the purpose of – as we call it today – “family reunification”. The procedural concept of the era of Enver Hoxha considered them criminal acts and the military courts condemned them with excessive fervor in long-term imprisonment, while the internal border regulations ordered, in some cases, the cold-blooded murder their.
Surveillance and suppression
These attempts – Especially in the 1950s – were headache for Albanian securityThe security authorities regularly monitored the correspondence of women with their husbands, who were then summoned to police stations for questioning, while the Gjirokaster party committee, with constant admonitions to the newspaper People's Forum, called on its journalists to publish "letters" from immigrants from America that described "the hardships and capitalist poverty."
Albanian authorities also obtained information about the intentions of the remaining members of the migrants' families from inside information, mainly from informants and their associates in Greece and the USA. The whole effort was not convincing, but it could not stop the wave of escapes, which continued until the end of the regime and culminated in 1992.
Executions and persecutions
The August 26, 1946, the border guards of Kosovitsas they performed the Marika Natsi during her escape attempt to greece And they gave her up Roughly. her uncle, Pavlos Katsoulas, requested that her body be publicly displayed, denouncing abuse of the victim. Because of his protest, he was imprisoned and convicted by the Military Court of Gjirokaster.
From the Pogoni, e.g., only in January of 1949 15 people had escaped, including 9 women (from Chlomos), 2 communists from Sellios and a woman from Grapsi. There were also organized women's getawaysThe families of the escapees were declared hostile to the regime and were displaced inland.
On the occasion of the escapes to Pogoni, from the beginning of 1949 the Albanian security decided, with excessive display of roughness and brutality, to suppress brutally and openly, as an example to the rest, not hesitating to to arrest, disappear, imprison and exile women from Northern Epirus, especially very old and pregnant women.
Typical cases
In February of 1949, elite security commandos, along with border guards, they killed Athena Calleia and her mother, Calliope, together with Athena Terpou, at the border of Sotira, in front of the eyes of her minor son, Lazaros Kalegia, 16 years old, who was subsequently arrested and convicted of treason against the homelandThe victims' villagers also complained, abuse of women before their murder.
The May 7, 1949, Albanian security men arrested the Ourania Silira from sopiki Of pogonia, Who was held in custody for six months under tortureIn a public trial in October 1949, the 57-year-old, illiterate mother of 13 children was accused of espionage in favor of Greece and a host of other offenses and was sentenced to 15-year-old girl.
In August 1949, She was arrested Giannoula Karagianni, 70 years old, from Divri, Riza Delvinou. She was held in pretrial detention for seven months and was mentally and physically abused. She was accused of inciting minors by telling them that only in Greece will they become people, while it was characterized by the authorities as deceitful, cunning and extremely dangerous.
In March of 1955 was arrested Sana Chipa, 35 years old, from Chlomos tou Pogoniou, accused of attempted illegal escape, gold smuggling and smuggling. The "smuggling" concerned the selling a donkey.
In June 1955, She was arrested Froso Bassio, 70 years old, from Sotira, accused of anti-establishment propaganda and attempted escape, with the aim of Turkey, where her daughter lived.
In the winter of 1957 george Ziavas and his 16-year-old son escaped, but his wife Euthalia and his 9-year-old daughter Helen they ended up from frostbite at the border.
Women's resistance
The female reaction of the women of Northern Epirus was part of the general creeping resistance of the northern Epirus population, but it primarily concerned the their personal survival drama in conditions of separation.
The oldest escapee is identified as Theodora Tsouka, 80 years old, who was handed over to the Greek authorities in October 1958.
At December 25, 1963, was arrested Magdalene Zisi with her two minor children. in April 1964 she Was sentenced to 17 years in prison, of which she served 16 years, 6 months and 2 days, constituting the first woman from Northern Epirus with such a heavy penalty.
Spouses in Greece and the USA
The husbands of these women were found trappedThe Majority tried unsuccessfully to be reunited with their families. there Were also exceptions, with new marriages and renunciation of families, but they were a minority.
From the 1956, Northern Epirus immigrants in the US, without legal means of family reunification, attempted daring missions many of these became known to Albanian security through informants, mainly with pseudonyms "Johnny" and "Luan", who were operating in New York.
Stavros G. Dagios
Doctor of History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
