13 Facts About Northern Epirus

Northern Epirus is a term used mostly by Greeks to refer to those parts of the historical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans, which today are part of Albania.

Term Northern Epirus is used both in the Albanian and Greek language, but in Albanian refers only to the historical and not the modern region.

The northern boundary of Epirus was unclear both due to political instability and the coexistence of Greek and non-Greek populations, notably Illyrians, such as in Apollonia.

The Greek toponym Northern Epirus, meaning "mainland" or "continent", first appears in the work of Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC and is one of the few Greek names from the view of an external observer with a maritime-geographical perspective.

Rather than a clearly defined geographical term, "Northern Epirus" is largely a political and diplomatic term applied to those areas partly populated by ethnic Greeks that were incorporated into the newly independent Albanian state in 1913.

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The term "Northern Epirus" was first used in official Greek correspondence in 1886, to describe the northern parts of the Janina Vilayet.

Northern Epirus is rugged, characterized by steep limestone ridges that parallel the Ionian coast, with deep valleys between them.

Northern Epirus was occupied in Neolithic times by seafarers along the coast and by hunters and shepherds in the interior who brought with them the Greek language.

In 330 BCE, the tribes of Northern Epirus were united into a single kingdom under the Aeacid ruler Alcetas II of the Molossians, and in 232 BCE the "Epirotic League" was established, with Phoenice as one of its centers.

Northern Epirus was formerly integrated into the Roman Empire as a province in 27 BCE.

Northern Epirus thus became the site of the first clear setback for the Axis powers.

Many Northern Epirus Epirotes formed resistance groups and organizations in the struggle against the occupation forces.

In 1984, during a speech in Northern Epirus, 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.