ALBANIAN NATIONALISM AGAINST THE ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP

(in the photo, interview of A. Tare)

ALBANIAN NATIONALISM AGAINST THE ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP

THE LAST BATTLE OF THE ALBANIAN NATIONALISM AGAINST THE (ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS JANULATOS

Stavros Markos, Journalist , Member of the World Security Network Foundation -Southeast Europe Office)

Ioannis Michaletos

(RIEAS Junior Analyst and Coordinator of the World Security Network Foundation – Southeast Europe Office)

In January 1991, the Patriarchate of Constantinople appointed the then Bishop Anastasios to enter Albania as the “Patriarchal Exarches" with the mandate to unite the Albanian Orthodox people irrespectively of their ethnic origin and re- establish the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania. The Orthodox Church in Albania had been decimated after forty years of the most severe persecution. Before the overthrow of the Communist yoke, the numbers of the Orthodox clergy had diminished from 440 in the 1940’s to just 22 in 1990. Once again, the opportunity to revive a Church that was tittering on the brink of collapse was confronted by the Bishop Anastasios. (the full article in: www.rieas.gr)