Politika e Greqisë ndaj Shqipërisë dhe minoriteti grek gjatë vitit 1945
The greek policy towards Albania and the Greek minority in Albania throughout 1945

Summary/Abstract: Once the German armies left Greece and Albania, the relations between the two countries did not improve. On the contrary, there reemerged inherited conflicts, which had been left aside during the war time, and as a result these relations further deteriorated. Apart from the fact that the two countries belonged to two different ideological blocks, created at the end of the war, another important reason, that worsened their relations, was the increasing pressure of Greece to annex Albanian territories. The Greek diplomacy at this time aimed at gaining the support of Western Allies for its territorial claims in Southern Albania. In order to achieve this aim, Greece did everything in its power to incite irredentism among the Greek minority and the pro-Greek individuals in Southern Albania. In order to achieve its primary goal, Greece followed a plan based on two strategies: Firstly, Greece exploited the weak international position of Albania, and also the rivalry among the Allies in establishing their "spheres of influence" in the Balkans. Secondly, it used a combination of claims about "the persecution of the Greek minority'' by the Albanian government, with the one about the "war status" between the two countries. Greece was hoping that the Allies Mediterranean Headquarters was going to allow the Greek forces to occupy the territory of southern Albania. If this aim was achieved, the Greek government would have had a favorable position, making the Allies take a decision in the forthcoming Peace Conference, based on a fait accompli and recognize formally the Southern Albania as a Greek territory. By the end of 1945 there existed an aggravated situation in the Albanian-Greek relations marked by an increasing tension. However, this would worsen during 1946 with the approaching of the Peace Conference. The Greek minority in Albania was considered to be in the eye of a hurricane, when in reality this was not the case. In fact, the eye of the hurricane was invented in Athens, where unjustified territorial claims were made and policies that would damage the relations between the two countries for the next decades were designed.

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