The handling of issues related to the Albanian ethnogeographic space, especially the southern one, has been the object of study for personalities of Albanian science and culture for years. In particular, this issue gained another dimension after the failure of monism, because in pluralism other favorable circumstances were created without having taboo topics or ideological approaches as it was before in Albania. Among the most diligent and serious researchers in this range is Sherif Delvina, who in this aspect has made a significant contribution to Albanian national historiography. Among them is his work, “The truth about Epirus”, published by “Fllad”, Tirana, 1999.
In the 1843th century, our neighbors were presented with two political projects which were completely expansionist to the detriment of other peoples in order to realize their medieval dreams. We are talking about the Greek “Megaliide” (1844) and the Serbian “Načertanien” (1878) where the final goal was the recovery of their medieval empires, that of Byzantium and Tsar Dushan. Historically, it is known that the consequences of these projects have been directly experienced by the Albanians, starting with the Berlin Congress (1913) and the London Conference (XNUMX), because more than two thirds of the Albanian ethnogeographical space was annexed by our neighbors, the Slavs. and the Greeks.
But, with all these territorial benefits, their appetite is not satiated, which is evidenced by their continuously developed state policy, slandering and fabricating about the Illyrian-Albanian autochthony and the Albanian ethno-geographic space in the Balkan region.
In this range of approaches, some Greek clerical-chauvinist structures are known in particular, which still trumpet for the south of Albania, inventing and creating different territorial features. In this aspect, they invented the Vorio Epiri trick, which is a territorial aspiration towards the Albanian state. All this policy in new social circumstances after the failure of communism is transparent and on their part it is done allegedly for the protection of the rights of the Greek minorities in Albania, where these circles consider all Albanians Orthodox.
Having witnessed all these political acrobatics with consequences for the Albanian people and the state, the intellectual and diligent researcher, Sherif Delvina, presents the book “The Truth about Epirus” to the Albanian public. This is a special book in terms of the subject covered and with an analytical approach and scientific arguments that unmasks the Greek chauvinist policy towards the aspirations and falsifications of the historical and geographical reality of the Albanian south.
The book presents a compilation of articles published from 1992-1999 in various newspapers in Albania. There is no doubt that thanks to these articles, which in terms of content are scientific, analytical and publicistic, the author has sensitized the Albanian opinion regarding some issues which were either taboo or unknown to the general public.
The author has conceived the book in such a way that it consists of nine parts which present a unity of the author’s approaches to the Albanian ethnogeographical space from ancient times to our days.
In this valuable publication, the author provides interesting data on the Albanian ethnogeographic space, emphasizing that before the Congress of Berlin (1878), Albania had an area of 110.000 square kilometers with a compact Albanian population and insignificant national minorities. The Congress of Berlin, rightly, was called by the revivalists, the burial of Albania, but this had not yet been the burial of Albania, because after that congress in Albania, Kosovo remained, Macedonia, Chameria, Grebeneja, Kosturi remained, and the Ottoman rule was temporary, while the occupation by the neighbors was permanent.
But, in 1913, perhaps in the war against the Turks, with the support of the Great Powers, these lands were called “Turkish” and the Albanian ethno-geographical space was constantly reduced. Even if the data from the year 1491, when the records of the Balkans occupied by the Ottomans were made, in the Balkans it turns out that there are over 266 thousand families in the Albanian lands, starting from the north to Arte. At that time we had a larger population than the Greeks and a larger territory than the Greeks and the Serbs, Albania has shrunk and become more than three times smaller than it was.
Delvina is clear in his conclusions when he mentions without hesitation that the truth should be told based on the documents of the time, despite the fact that we are now in new social and political circumstances with our neighbors. Therefore, it is fairer to point out that we should not be silent about the ethnic cleansing of the Albanian territories in the 300.000th century, as is the case for the 1878 Albanians forcibly displaced by Sanxhak of Nis, as well as for the history of Arta, which the Greeks took after XNUMX- s, then for Suli and others. Concerned about the presentation and falsification of our historical past in textbooks to the Greek neighbors, he offers us the example of the Suliots. Delvina points out, the Greeks have them in every textbook, where it is said that the suliots were thrown from the rock of Zallong to preserve their honor. This heroic event, stolen from Albanian heroism, the Greeks have turned from themselves and hold as their greatest heroism! There is no Greek text without Marko Boçari, Bubulina and others. “We are careful not to spoil our policy with the Greeks. We should know what our neighbors have taken from us and what they have eaten from us,” says Delvina, more accurately.
In this most valuable publication, the author deals in detail with the “Megaliides” as well as the Greek chauvinists “Vorio Epir” which has to do with the territorial claims against South Albania, scientifically proving the Illyrian-Albanian affiliation of Epirus. While talking about the Greek minorities, he more correctly states that they are very late present in the Albanian territories, that is, they are descendants, Argatians brought here at the time of Ali Pasha Tepelena and constitute an enclave in the Albanian lands.
Taking the political complex of the Greeks for these territories and towards the Orthodox Albanian population, the falsification of historical data and demographic statistics when the number of Albanian minorities in Greece and Greek minorities in Albania is in question has become the number one patriotic and state duty of Greek chauvinism . On the other hand, the number of over two million Arvanites in Greece is kept silent on purpose.
And in the end it must be said that such a book is welcome not only for researchers and individuals who are interested in the national issue then and now, but also for the general public. I think the Albanian publishers would do a more valuable job if they would translate it into English in its entirety or in a synthesized form. Because, only in this form will we inform the international opinion about the scientific reality, autochthony and Illyrian-Albanian historical continuity of this part of the Albanian ethnogeographical space. The data provided thanks to the consultation of a selective scientific literature, the research of the documents treated in synchrony and diachrony make the book “The truth about Epirus” an encyclopedia in itself for this geographical region which has had a past of historical sensation from ancient times to the present day. And such a book could only be offered to us by Sh. Delvina who is undoubtedly the most diligent and erudite researcher of this issue in our time.
Sheriff Delvina – polyhedral figure
Sherif Delvina, historian, researcher, translator, playwright, intellectual and prominent publicist, author of several scientific publications in the field of history, died in Tirana on February 7, 2022, at the age of 90. He came from a distinguished family of intellectuals and patriots, influential in the history of Albania. Like a rare person, he collected and deciphered and interpreted maps of several European authors from antiquity until 1913, when more than half of the Albanian ethnogeographic space was given to the neighbors (Slavs and Greeks) by the unjust decisions of the London Conference.
Prof. Sherif Delvina is the author of 14 books, 18 books with co-authors, while he has published hundreds of articles and studies in Albanian and foreign languages.
From the publications we highlight: “The truth about Epirus” (1999), “Kosova a Serbian myth, or an Albanian historical reality” (2000), “Mid’hat Frashëri: minister of power in Athens, 1923-1926″ (2002), ” Foreign travelers in Albania – until the end of the 2012th century by Lumo Skendo” (XNUMX) and others.
The review for the book “The truth about Epirus”, written in 2004, is republished in honor of the author.
