Northern Epirus

Northern Epirus (Greek: Βόρεια Ήπειρος, Vóreia Ípeiros; Albanian: Epiri i Veriut) is a term used for specific parts of southern Albania which were first claimed by the Kingdom of Greece in the Balkan Wars and later were associated with the Greek minority in Albania and Greece-Albania diplomatic relations in the region. First used by Greece in 1913, upon the creation of the Albanian state following the Balkan Wars, it was originally used in a political and diplomatic context rather than a clearly defined geographical one. Today, the term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek minority in the region and had acquired in the past irredentist connotations (Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus).

With the outbreak of the First Balkan War (1912–13) and the Ottoman defeat, the Greek army entered the region and claimed it. The term started to be used by the Kingdom of Greece in 1913, upon the creation of the Albanian state following the Balkan Wars, and the area's incorporation into the latter. During this period, the Greek Army and Greece-backed irregulars used violence against local Albanians and have been accused of atrocities against civilians. In the spring of 1914, the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was proclaimed by ethnic Greeks and pro-Greek parts of the population with official support by Greece and recognized by the Albanian government, though it proved short-lived as the First World War started. Greece held the area between 1914 and 1916 and unsuccessfully tried to annex it in March 1916. In 1917 Greek forces were driven from the area by Italy, in accordance with a general consensus in the Entente, and as a result Italy took over most of southern Albania and part of northwestern Greece. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 awarded the area to Greece, however the area reverted to Albanian control in November 1921, following Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and local politics like the creation of the Albanian Autonomous Province of Korçë under French-Albanian administration. During the interwar period, Greece and Albania followed a détente while Greece officially recognized Albanian control over the region and focused more on promoting minority rights for Greek language and culture. The situation of the Greeks in Albania during this period was influenced by the fluctuations in the relations between the two countries, which was also linked with Greece's treatment of its Cham minority.

Following Italy's invasion of Greece from the territory of Albania in 1940 and the successful Greek counterattack, the Greek army briefly held the region for a six-month period until the German invasion of Greece in 1941. In 1941-1944, many Greeks in Albania, in particular from Dropull and Finiq, participated in the Albanian national-liberation struggle against the Nazi occupation and many individuals like Kiço Mustaqi, the last Minister of Defence of the Communist era in Albania, were later part the upper administrative class of the one-party state established by Enver Hoxha. Tensions with Greece remained high during the Cold War, largely due to Greece's territorial claims and its claims about the treatment of the Greek minority. A Greek minority area was recognized by the Hoxha regime, which followed the pre-war delimitation of the minority areas consisting of 99 villages but leaving out three villages in the Himara region which were previously included in the minority area by King Zog of Albania. People outside the official minority zone received no education in the Greek language, which remained a point of contention until the post-Communist period when it was resolved.

In 1984, during a speech in the Greek region of Epirus, the Greek PM Andreas Papandreou declared that the inviolability of European borders as stipulated in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, to which Greece was a signatory, applied to the Greek-Albanian border. The most significant change occurred on 28 August 1987, when the Greek Cabinet lifted the state of war that had been declared since November 1940. In 1996 Greece and Albania signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, Good Neighborliness and Security, which brought an official ending to the Northern Epirus issue for Greece. Peripheral segments in Greece and, particularly, in the Greek Diaspora continue to push the Northern Epirus thesis and maintain an online populist discourse. In the 21st century, education in Greek is available throughout Albania without any geographical limitation, although the property rights of the Greek minority remain an issue.