Memorie.al / In 1947, Italy and Greece signed a friendship treaty in which Greater Greece no longer recognized Italy as an enemy country. Their economic relations began on May 4, 1955. The project of the Entente Alliance to create a Balkan Communist Federation, dissolving Albania into Yugoslavia, broke down in 1948. And since the end of the (international) Civil War in Greece was clearly in sight, on May 13, 1949, Approved Law 1138/1949 was published in the Greek government gazette. It stipulated that for a country to be considered non-enemy, a new law had to be approved by the government and the King and published in the government gazette.
Albania under the Slavo-communist regime was a closed country and would have no diplomatic relations with Greater Greece until May 7, 1971. That is, deliberately, the expelled Muslim Arvanites were prevented from returning to their homes, and there was no political ear to hear the creaking of their movable and immovable property turned over to Greater Greece. At the end of 1952, 18,622 expelled Muslim Arvanites from Chameria remained in Albania who still had refugee status with Greek nationality.
Law No. 1654 of April 19, 1953, of the Albanian state under the Slavo-communist regime, forcibly granted them Albanian nationality without exception, and with the knowledge that Greece had not revoked their nationality. That is, their Greek nationality was forcibly covered unilaterally, and at the same time they became “enemy citizens” according to Greek Law 2636/1940.
Also, following the order to dissolve and detach them from their origin, the Slavo-communist government in Albania undertook, in the years 1946-1973, a campaign of propaganda, imprisonments, internments, executions, and family displacements against the expelled Muslim Arvanites.
The War Diaries of the German Armed Forces High Command (Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, 1940-1945) were arranged in eight volumes by a team of historians led by Percy Ernst Schramm in the years 1961-1965. In them, there is no mention of Chams or native Muslim Arvanites collaborating with the occupation armies in north-western Greece.
Meanwhile, they do mention, for example, the non-aggression agreements with Napoleon Zervas. His bandits, on orders, carried out massacres and expulsions of native Muslim Arvanites in June-September 1944 and March 1945, because the latter were among the last Muslims remaining in Byzantine Greater Greece and also supported the ULPG (National Liberation Front) led by the Greek Communist Party.
Even if there were some native Muslim Arvanites who collaborated with the occupation forces, their number or significance was negligible. They were always either under the orders of the central government in Athens or were used in Albania. Moreover, their actions cannot be compared to the number and crimes of the Security Battalions or other Greek government forces, or to the 300,000 dead from the Holodomor caused by the British Fleet in the winter of 1941-1942.
If the men and the entire population had been collaborators of the occupiers, then the German army command would have prevented the bands of the LKDH (National Republican Greek League) from carrying out the massacres, expulsions, and imprisonments in June-October 1944.
Greek Approved Law 2636/1940 itself, Decision of the Ministry of Economy 14882/1947 and that of the Greek Ministry of Finance 3574/1947, as well as Greek Approved Law 4506/1966, exclude Albanian citizens of Greek origin from the effect of Greek Law 2636/1940. Consequently, the Muslim Arvanites who are natives of Greece, of Greek origin, when they became Albanian subjects under Albanian Law 1654/1953, are excluded from the effect of Greek Law 2636/1940.
That is, their movable and immovable property is there, in place. Bearing in mind that the registers are archived and Greek nationality for Muslim Arvanites has not been revoked (Figure 2), and because when they were expelled they arrived in Albania with only the clothes on their backs, it is the responsibility of the Albanian government, together with the Greek government, to open the way for them to go to the place and obtain their documents, including the Greek passport.
For the obstructive network to fall on at least one side and the path to open, it is enough for the Albanian state to issue a law that invalidates its own Law 1654/1953. Because this would restore to only the names of the Muslim Arvanites on the relevant list the status of refugee with Greek nationality. This decoupling does not harm the current nationalities (passports) of their heirs and family members. With Britain and France as “shares”, diplomatic relations between Greece and Albania would be postponed until they were established on May 7, 1971.
The “shares” took care that the repeal of approved law 2636/1940 in Greater Greece was not mentioned and that no voice was raised for the Muslim Arvanites expelled to Albania. On August 28, 1987, the Greek government officially recognized Albania as a non-enemy country. Albania and Greece signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, Good Neighborliness and Security on March 26, 1996.
This Treaty, after passing through the steps of the Parliaments and Presidents of the two countries, entered into force on February 4, 1998. Even though that Treaty recognizes both states, even though state relations between Greece and Albania are complete, even though Article 15 of that Treaty required the removal of legal obstacles for nationals of one party to enjoy property on the territory of the other party, the repeal of Approved Law 2636/1940 has still not become an approved law published in the Greek government gazette.
The reason is that the value of Albanian properties looted in Greater Greece before and in November 1940, together with the value they have produced from exploitation (compound interest), and which must be returned, is very large. The Albanian properties looted in November 1940 were hotels, houses, restaurants, various enterprises, financial ventures, land, agricultural land, forests, pastures, meadows, pensions, money kept in banks, etc. Some examples without calculating the value produced from use, re-circulation, and time are given below:
(1) The villa of Hasan Prishtina at the address “Vasilisis Olgas 32”, Thessaloniki, today costs at least four million Euros. Meanwhile, the Albanian state has been paying rent for its General Consulate in Thessaloniki since 1999.
(2) The Albanian state spent 2.5 million Euros in 2002 for the Albanian Embassy building in Athens, while 6.3 km away, on “Vasilisis Sofias” street, is the building of the former Albanian Legation, looted under Greek Law 2636/1940 and which the Greek government continues to exploit.
(3) Citing the book “The Last War” by author Mentor Nazarko, Albanian land forcibly expropriated through “agrarian reforms” from the signing of independent Albania in July 1913 until November 1940 amounts to 350,000 hectares. Based on a calculation made in the Albanian Parliament on June 25, 1925, the taxes from the use of those 350,000 ha for the years 1913-1940, not paid to the Albanian state, amount to 456 million gold francs, and value of the year 1940. And the unpaid taxes for the years 1941-2021 are 456 million / (1940-1913) = 1.351 million gold francs, at 1940 value.
(4) Land appropriated under Greek Law 2636/1940 amounts to 260,000 hectares. The taxes from the use of this land area for the years 1941-2021, not paid to the Albanian state, amount to 456 million (260,000 – 350,000), (1940-1913) = 1003 million gold francs, at 1940 value.
One gold franc = 0.29025 grams of pure gold. On January 11, 2021, the price of gold is 59.56 US$/gram and 1 Euro = 1.22 US$. Then, the above values together are (456+1331+1003=2810 million gold francs) * 0.29025 * 59.56 / 1.22 = 39,817 million Euros today = 39.817 billion Euros today.
Citing the book “The Last War” by author Mentor Nazarko, the price of that 350,000 + 260,000 = 610,000 ha of land was 203 million gold francs in 1941. Taking an average land price today of 22 Euro/m² and 1 ha = 10,000 m², then the value of 610,000 ha is 610,000 * 10,000 * 20 = 134.2 billion Euros today. Total, land value plus taxes are 174 billion Euros today.
(5) The movable and immovable properties of Vangjel Zhapa in the 19th century in Romania and Greece were extraordinary. On November 30, 1860, he left a will that a large monetary fortune should go to his people in Labovë e Madhe, Gjirokastër. He asked the inheritance commission in Athens that, after the death of his cousin Konstadin (who died in 1892), the donations according to the will be carried out. Greek Law 2636/1940 again prevented the execution of the will and legal inheritances for the people of his clan.
In 1955, the Tirana government made a clumsy and fruitless attempt to bring to Albania 800 million US$ (6.36 billion Euros today) which Vangjel Zhapa had left in the custody of the Christian Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul and which the Turkish government had temporarily frozen until the heirs appeared.
These are apart from the value as compensation that Greater Greece must pay to Albania for the damages and massacres of its army during the Balkan Wars, World War I, November 1940 – April 1941, and August 1949. (The trial in Albania for the events of 1997 has not yet taken place for the details on this matter to emerge.) And these are apart from the value of the looted property plus their compound interest that belongs to the native Muslim Arvanites expelled to Albania in 1944-1945. / Memorie.al
