Xarrë

Xarrë (Albanian pronunciation: IPA: [d͡zar] or IPA: [d͡zarə]) is a village and a former municipality in the Vlorë County, southern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Konispol.^[1] The population at the 2011 census was 4,263.^[2] The municipal unit consists of the villages Xarrë, Mursi, Shkallë and Vrinë.^[3]

Xarrë Τζάρα Dzara
Municipal unit
Xarrë
Coordinates: 39°44′N 20°3′E
Country	Albania
County	Vlorë
Municipality	Konispol
Population  (2011)
• Municipal unit	4,263
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Name

Besides its Albanian name, Xarrë is also known as Τζάρα (Tzára) in Greek,^[4] and as Dzara in Aromanian.^[5] Other variants that are attested are Xarë, Qarë, and Zara.^[6]

History

Traces of human presence in Xarrë can be found in the late period of the Middle Paleolithic era (40,000-30,000 years ago).^[7][8][9][6]

Double axes of the Mycenaean Greek type, that date from the late Bronze Age (1400-1100 BC) have been found in Xarrë. Those tools were found in wide distribution in the surrounding area: (Qeparo, Butrint, Sarande and Lleshan) and throughout the Aegean Sea, among other items of everyday use which have been classified as belonging to Mycenaean culture.^[10][11]

Xarrë has been attested in historical documents and maps since the 18th century, appearing as the first Ottoman position beyond the delimitations of Butrint, which at that time was a Venetian possetion.^[12]

All the Orthodox inhabitants of Xarrë claim to be descendants of families that came from a nearby village which doesn't exist anymore. This earlier village, which seems to have been abandoned during the late period of Albania under the Ottoman Empire (18th to 19th centuries), is attested in 18th-century maps with the name Zaropoula, while the locals refer to it as Palaeospitia (Greek for 'Old Houses').^[13] Since that time, Xarrë has experienced a coexistence between Muslims and Orthodox families, though more Muslims arrived in the village with the immigrations of the Cham Albanians. Chams are said to have built in the lower parts of the village mosques in huts, the remains of which, however, did not survive.^[14]

Municipal demographics

According to fieldwork done in 1991, the village of Xarrë is inhabited by an Albanian majority (2,285), 2,085 of them being Orthodox Albanians and 200 Muslim Albanian Chams that arrived from northern Greece in the 1920s and 1940s, a combined population of Aromanians and Greeks (50) and some Romani.^[4][15] Mursi is inhabited by an Orthodox Albanian majority, alongside a few Muslim Albanians and Greeks.^[4][15] Shkallë is inhabited by an Aromanian majority, alongside a few Muslim Albanians and Greeks and also contains a few families of Muslim Romani originally from Filiates, Greece who following the exodus of the Cham Albanians in 1944-1945 settled in the region.^[4][16] Vrinë is a new village established during the communist period and is populated by Albanians (718) and Greeks (300).^[4]

According to the 2011 Albanian census, out of the 4,263 inhabitants, the majority (53.27%) declared themselves as Greeks, 37,60% as Albanians, 0.47% as Aromanians. The rest of the population did not specify its ethnicity.^[17] However, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities stated that "the results of the census should be viewed with the utmost caution and calls on the authorities not to rely exclusively on the data on nationality collected during the census in determining its policy on the protection of national minorities."^[18] Furthermore, the census was boycotted by a significant number of the Greek community of Albania.^[17]

According to Dana Phelps who did six months of ethnographic fieldwork in the region between 2010 and 2013, a Greek minority resides in Xarrë, who is mostly Orthodox. The village benefits from remittances of these ethnic Greek residents that move to Greece to make money. Some, however, return to Xarrë often due to discrimination in Greece and invest in small enterprises or build new homes.^[19]

References

1. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). p. 6376. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
2. "2011 census results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
3. Greece – Albania Neighbourhood Programme Archived March 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
4. Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 51. "Ε Έλληνες, ΑΧ Αλβανοί Ορθόδοξοι Χριστιανοί, AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι, ΤΣ Τσάμηδες, Β Βλάχοι, Μ Μικτός πληθυσμός”; p.52. "XARRE ΤΖΑΡΑ 2085 AX + αμ (200) + ε/β (50); MURSI ΜΟΥΡΣΙ (ΜΟΥΡΤΣΙΑ) 1984 AX + αμ + ε; VRINE BPINA (νέο) 1018 M (400 AM+ 318 ΑΧ+ 300 E); SHKALLE ΣΚΑΛΛΑ 619 Β + αμ + ε"
5. Kahl, Thede (1999). Ethnizität und räumliche Verbreitung der Aromunen in Südosteuropa. Universität Münster: Institut für Geographie der Westfälischen Wilhelms. p. 146. ISBN 3-9803935-7-7. "Ḑara" [Ḑ -> Dz, Aromanian alphabets do not use Ḑ].
6. Harrold, Francis B.; Korkuti, Muzafer M.; Ellwood, Brooks B.; Petruso, Karl M.; Schuldenrein, Joseph (1999). "The Palaeolithic of Southernmost Albania". British School at Athens Studies. 3: 361–372. ISSN 2159-4996. JSTOR 40960246. Xarë (alternate spellings Xarrë, Zara, Qarë)
7. Sheme, Selman (2016). Çamëria-Vështrim gjeopopullativ dhe etnokulturor (in Albanian). Tiranë: Albas. p. 21. ISBN 978-9928-02-778-8.
8. Myzyri, Hysni (2001). Historia e Shqipërisë dhe Shqiptarëve (in Albanian). Prizren: Sprint. pp. 13–14. OCLC 60603000.
9. Korkuti, Muzafer; Petruso, Karl M.; Bejko, Lorenc; EIlwood, Brooks B.; Hansen, Julie M.; Harrold, Francis B.; Rusell, Nerissa; Bottema, Sytze (1996). "Shpella e Konispolit (Raport paraprak për gërmimet e viteve 1992-1994) / Konispol cave, Albania (A preliminary report on excavation, 1992-1994)". Iliria. 26 (1): 183–224. doi:10.3406/iliri.1996.1666.
10. Bejko, Lorenc (2002). "Mycenaean Presence and Influence in Albania". Greek Influence Along the East Adriatic Coast. Kniževni Krug: 12, 21, 24. ISBN 9789531631549. Retrieved 4 April 2020. It is important to note that during this period items for every day use of Mycenaean type have a rather wide distribution. The most important class of materials from these items are tools: the double axes and the one edge bronze kinfes of Mycenaean types (Fig. 3). Double axes are found at Xare, Butrint, Sarande, Qeparo, Lleshan, etc., while one edge knives are reported from Barc, Maliq, Pazhok, Kukes, Mat, Vajze.
11. Harding, A. F.; Harding, Anthony F. (1984). The Mycenaeans and Europe. London: Academic Publishing. pp. 127, 240. ISBN 0123247608.
12. López 2023, p. 63.
13. López, José C. Carvajal (2023). Islamization and Archaeology: Religion, Culture and New Materialism. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-3500-0668-3. A member of our team was from Greece, and he was able to engage in very friendly talks with the local population, which was Greek- and Albanian-speaking. Conversations with Orthodox locals gave us interesting information that was later on confirmed by the imam of the mosque to a large extent. All the inhabitants of Xarrë claimed to be descendants of families living there since the Middle Ages, originally from a nearby village, now disappeared. This place was called Zaropoula in eighteenth-century maps and Palaeospitia (Greek for 'Old Houses') by them. Our survey of this site and later archaeological work by Ilir Parangoni (2015) has shown that the village seems to have been abandoned during the late Ottoman period (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries CE in Albania). From that period there is a coexistence (and even intermarriages) between Muslims and Orthodox families in the village, although more Muslims arrived with the Çam immigrations.
14. López 2023, p. 64–65.
15. Kretsi, Georgia (2005). "The uses of origin: Migration, Power-struggle and Memory in southern Albania". In King, Russell; Mai, Nicola; Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie (eds.). The New Albanian Migration. Brighton-Portland: Sussex Academic. ISBN 9781903900789. pp. 197-198. The first village, Xarrë, contains a mixed population in regard to confession and language.[3] The village is about 15 km from the Albanian-Greek border crossing point (for pedestrians) of Qafë Bota and around 30 km from the district capital, Sarandë. The second community, Mursi, consists of a rather homogeneous population in terms of religious affiliation and language (Christian and Albanian speaking) and is located just 1 km away from Xarrë."; p. 210. "[3]. In Xarrë the relevant groups were Albanian-speaking Christians, Çam people (or Chams - the Albanian speaking minority settled in northern Greece/Epirus in the 1920s and 1940s), Vlachs (cattle breeders, speaking a Latin-based language), Roma, and some members of the Greek minority."
16. Baltsiotis, Lambros (2015). "Balkan Roma immigrants in Greece: An initial approach to the traits of a migration flow", International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication. 1. (1): 5. " In general terms, it seems that previous ties of any kind with Greece facilitate not only the migration but also a more permanent way of living in the country. This is the case with the Muslim Roma of Filiati in Thesprotia who, following the expulsion of the Muslim Albanian Chams from Greece in 1944-1945, were settled in the village of Shkallë, Sarandë in Albania. The majority of the families, more than fifteen, gradually settled in Greece.
17. "Ethnic composition of Albania 2011".
18. "Third Opinion on Albania adopted on 23 November 2011". Advisory Committee on the Framework for the Protection of National Minorities. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
19. Phelps, Dana (2016-12-31). "Heritage for Development, Multiethnic Communities, and the Case of Butrint National Park on the Albanian-Greek Border". Ex Novo: Journal of Archaeology. 1. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd: 37–54. doi:10.32028/exnovo.v1i0.397. ISSN 2531-8810.