Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus - The Northern Epirote Issue and The Autonomy Question

The Northern Epirote Issue and The Autonomy Question

From the Albanian perspective, adopted also by Italian and Austrian sources of that time, the Northern Epirote movement was directly supported by the Greek state, with the help of a minority of inhabitants in the region, resulting in chaos and political instability in all of Albania. In Albanian historiography, the Protocol of Corfu is either scarcely mentioned or seen as an attempt to divide the Albanian state and proof of the Great Powers' disregard for Albania's national integrity.

With the ratification of the Protocol of Corfu, the term "Northern Epirus", the state’s common name—and consequently that of its citizens, "Northern Epirotes"—acquired official status. However, after the region's cession to Albania, these terms were considered associated with Greek irredentist action and not granted legal status by the Albanian authorities; anyone making use of them was persecuted as an enemy of the state.

The autonomy question remains on the diplomatic agenda in Albanian-Greek relations as part of the Northern Epirote issue. In the 1960s, Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev asked his Albanian counterpart about giving autonomy to the Greek minority, with no results. In 1991, after the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, the chairman of Greek minority organization Omonoia called for autonomy for Northern Epirus, on the basis that the rights provided for under the Albanian constitution were highly precarious. This proposal was rejected, spurring the minority's radical wing to call for a union with Greece. Two years later, Omonoia’s chairman was arrested by the Albanian police after publicly stating that the Greek minority goal was the creation of an autonomous region inside the Albanian borders, based on the provisions of the Protocol of Corfu. In 1997, Albanian analysts stated that the possibility of a Greek minority-inspired breakaway Republic still exists.