Twenty Years of Balkan TangleDurham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
History
Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle
Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel; Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
Meanwhile the Greek "wounded" at Koritza telephoned for medical
comforts, and the Greek Bishop sprang his plot. The "medicine"
arrived in the form of armed bands and weapons. The Greek "wounded,"
the Bishop's servants, and a band of Grecophile students made an
attack within the town on the night of April 11th, and the bands of
lurking Greek soldiers attacked from without. Koritza was taken by
surprise, was not well armed, and had but fifty newly trained
gendarmes, commanded by the Dutch officers. Nevertheless the town
put up a gallant resistance. Reinforcements arrived, and the
Albanians "rushed" the house of the Bishop and carried him off a
prisoner to Elbasan, along with a number of Greek soldiers, who
readily gave their names and regiments, and told of the orders they
had received. They had long been kept in readiness on the frontier.
The Greek Government, as usual, declared the men must all be
deserters, over which it had no control, which, at best, was a poor
compliment to the Greek army, and did not explain how the
"deserters" became possessed of artillery and ammunition.
The Greeks, furious at being beaten out of Koritza, avenged
themselves on their retreat by committing outrages and burning
villages. The Albanians drove back the Greeks to Argyrokastro, and
would have chased them over the border had not the Greek General
Papoulias come to the aid of his compatriots with large
reinforcements and artillery. The Greek Government still "knew
nothing" about the actions of its officers.
It is to be hoped that a future League of Nations will be in
readiness to investigate at once similar occurrences, and that
"ignorance" on the part of a government shall not be accepted as
innocence without full inquiry. In this case the Albanians had no
tribunal before which to present their case. The invading Greeks
burnt and sacked numbers of villages, and destroyed the town of
Leskoviki, committing at the same time terrible atrocities.
The International Commissioners went to Corfu to meet the Greeks and
arrange peace. The Greeks were told to evacuate the district
delimited by the Frontier Commission, and certain privileges were
accorded to the very few Greeks it contained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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