Peshkëpi killing

Peshkëpi incident
Location Outpost near Peshkëpi, Dropull, Albania
Date 10 April 1994
Target Albanian border
Attack type
 raid on an army recruit centre
Deaths 2 Albanian soldiers
Non-fatal injuries
 3
Perpetrators Northern Epirus Liberation Front

The Peshkëpi incident was the killing of 2 Albanian army officers on 10 April 1994 at 02:40 AM. Eight men, later identified as members of the Northern Epirus Liberation Front, a terrorist paramilitary organization,[1] were involved in an attack on an Albanian army barracks in Peshkëpi, Dropull, Albania in April 1994. Two Albanian border soldiers were killed while sleeping; three were wounded.[2]

Background

From the mid-1980s a far-right terrorist organization named "Northern Epirus Liberation Front" (MAVI), after the Northern Epirote World War II organization, accused the Albanian Government of violating the rights of the ethnic Greek minority in Albania and berated Greece for not doing enough to support the minority. MAVI also called for an "armed struggle" against Albania. A 1984 bombing of the Albanian Embassy in Athens was claimed in its name.

On 10 April 1994 several gunmen crossed into Albania from Greece and stormed a border guard facility in the village of Peshkëpi, killing two soldiers and seriously wounding three others before returning across the Greek border.[1][3]

Aftermath

Albanian authorities alleged that the perpetrators were dressed in Greek military uniforms and were speaking Greek. In Greece, the Northern Epirus Liberation Front (MAVI) claimed responsibility both the next day and some months later.[4] Stohos, a Greek nationalist weekly newspaper, regularly reported in a proud way about the incident. On the other hand, the Greek government flatly denied any responsibility in the event and, in the first couple of days, even excluded the possibility that any Greeks could have been involved in the incident. The Albanian government responded by arresting five member of the organization Omonoia.

In response to this arrest the Greek government expelled a high number (that goes from 70,000 to 125,000) of Albanians emigrants from Greece.[5][6]

Victims

Two Albanian soldiers were killed in their sleep, while 3 others were injured:[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE; 1995 APRIL: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1994
  2. ↑ http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/ghm-greeks-albanians.PDF
  3. ↑ Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milošević's Serbia, p. 111, at Google Books
  4. ↑ http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/ghm-greeks-albanians.PDF
  5. ↑ Human Rights in Post-communist Albania, p. 109, at Google Books
  6. ↑ http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/ghm-greeks-albanians.PDF
  7. ↑ The Search for Greater Albania, p. 310, at Google Books

Sources

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