A screenshot from News 24 Tv Channel shows the burrial ceremony turned in a protest by Greek nationalists. Photo: News 24

Several hundred Greeks, some of them holding anti-Albanian and anti-Macedonian insignia, attended the funeral of Kostandinos Kacifa on Thursday in the village of Bularat in southern Albania, hailing him a national hero.

Media reported that several buses and other vehicles traveled from different towns and cities in Greece across the border to Albania.

Some of the passengers chanted anti-Albanian slogans and waved a Greek flag on which it was said: “Northern Epirus is Greece and Macedonia is Greece.”

The local municipality of Dropull said it had decided to cover the cost of the funeral, because the family of the victim was in need.

Kacifa, 35, was killed by Albanian police after opening fire with a Kalashnikov on 28 September, when Bularat, known in Greece as Voulariates, was celebrating Oxi Day, a national holiday in Greece that commemorates the start of the Greek-Italian War in 1940.

Following the killing, Greek nationalists organized protests and several hate incidents were registered against Albanian property in Greece.

Before the funeral, the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Civil Protection appealed to participants in the funeral “to show restraint”.

Albanian media reporting from the village said police were not present for the funeral, apparently trying to defuse tensions.

The funeral ended in the afternoon without incidents.

Greek nationalists have long laid claim to southern Albania, which they call Northern Epirus. Parts of southern Albania have historically been an ethnic border zone with a mixed population of both Albanians and Greeks.

Albanians were expelled in several waves from the Greek side of the border during the first half of the 20th century, with the biggest expulsion registered in the dying days of the Second World War, when about 30,000 people had to relocate to Albania. They are known as Chams.

Ethnic Greeks in Albania numbered about 60,000 in the 1989 census, concentrated in about 100 villages along the border with Greece.

The Greek population in Albania has diminished in the last three decades due to mass migration from rural areas to urban centres in Greece as well as within Albania. In the 2011 census, Greeks in Albania numbered about 24,000.

Read more:

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Albanian Police Kill Gunman in Greek-Populated Village

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Albania, Greece Agree to End Forgotten ‘War’



