Derviçan

Derviçan (Albanian definite form: Derviçani; Greek: Δερβιτσάνη, romanized: Dervitsani, also known as Dervician) is a settlement in the former Dropull i Poshtëm municipality, Gjirokastër County, southern Albania.^[1] At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Dropull.^[2] It is within the larger Dropull region. The village is inhabited solely by Greeks.^[3]

Derviçan Δερβιτσάνη
Village
Derviçan
Coordinates: 40°1′57″N 20°10′24″E
Country	Albania
County	Gjirokastër
Municipality	Dropull
Municipal unit	Dropull i Poshtëm
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Bilingual road sign pointing to Derviçan

History

Derviçan is recorded in a document of 1084 during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.^[4]

In the 16th century, the church of Saint Anna (also known as Panagiotopoula) was built, while the following century saw the construction of an Orthodox monastery.^[5]

In 1940, during World War II, the town came under the control of the advancing Greek forces, who were welcomed by hundreds of local ethnic Greeks.^[6]

In 1991, the political organization Omonoia was founded in Derviçan, by representatives of the Greek national minority.^[7] In early 1993, in widespread unrest that occurred in ethnic Greek settlements, the mayor of Derviçan was arrested by the Albanian authorities and sentenced to six months in prison for raising the Greek flag on a Greek national day.^[8]

In 2023, the Albanian prime minister Edi Rama unveiled the statue of Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the first Greek prime minister who visited Albania after the fall of communism, as a symbol of coexistence and unity between Albanians and Greeks.^[9]

Demographics

The settlement reached a population of 68 households in 1431/1432 and 317 in 1520. An estimate of 1583 counted 194 but this figure most likely exluded some households. In 1857 the population was estimated around 150 households.^[10]

In the 1520 Ottoman tax register the Albanian anthroponyms Gjon and Gjin as well as others are found in the village of Derviçan, which appears in the same register with a fairly large population for the time, with a large influence by Greek culture. Characteristic Albanian anthroponyms include: Jani Gjini, Gjin Spato, Gjon Jorgji, Jorgo Gjoni, Nako Bard(h)i, Jorgo Babi, Mano Çuni, Jani Çuni, Kosta Lula, Mano Shpata, Lluka Prushi, Dhimo Prushi, Jani Dragoi and others.^[11] The anthroponymic material of the 1520 tax register points to the evident predominance of Greek anthroponyms in Derviçan.^[12]

Notable people

• Lefter Millo (1966-1997), footballer
• Spiro Ksera, politician

References

1. "Location of Derviçan". Retrieved 3 September 2010.
2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). p. 6371. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
3. Καλλιβρετάκης, Λεωνίδας (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], I. Siderēs, p. 58, ISBN 978-960-08-0054-8, retrieved 2021-10-09
4. Giakoumis 2002, p. 80.
5. Giakoumis 2002, p. 24.
6. Carr, John C. (2013). The Defence and Fall of Greece 1940–1941. Pen and Sword. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-78159-181-9.
7. Report submitted by Albania puruant to article 25, paragraph 1 of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities. Archived 2010-09-02 at the Wayback Machine ACFR/SR (2001). 26 July 2001.
8. Pettifer, James (2015) [2000]. "The Greek Minority in Albania: Ethnic Politics in a Pre-National State". In Stein, Jonathan P. (ed.). The Politics of National Minority Participation in Post-communist Europe: State-building, Democracy, and Ethnic Mobilization. Routledge. p. 181. ISBN 978-0765605283. ... in the spring of 1993 ... In widespread unrest in the Greek villages, local leaders were arrested and there were well-attested accounts of human rights violations in the area, including the sentencing of the mayor of Dervician, a minority village, to six months in prison for raising the Greek flag on Greece's national day.
9. "Përurohet busti i Mitsotakis në Dropull, Rama: Do të kisha dëshiruar që këtu të ishte edhe Kyriakos". Gazeta Tema (in Albanian). 27 October 2023.
10. Giakoumis 2002, p. 61.
11. Demiraj, Shaban (2008). "La situation ethnique-linguistique des habitants de Dropulli et de Vurgu au cours des siecles". Studia Albanica. 1. Academy of Sciences of Albania: 77–91. ISSN 0585-5047.
12. Kyriazis, Doris K. (2022). "Για το "Χρονικό της Δρόπολης", τη χρήση και κατάχρησή του ως ιστορικής πηγής (μεθοδολογική και γλωσσολογική προσέγγιση)" [Concerning the "Chronicle of Dropull", its use and misuse as a historical source (methodological and linguistic approach)]. Βότρυς (in Greek). No. 1. Hellenic Education Editions. pp. 42–43. ISSN 2944-9936.

Bibliography

• Giakoumis, Konstantinos (2002). "The monasteries of Jorgucat and Vanishte in Dropull and of Spelaio in Lunxheri as monuments and institutions during the Ottoman period in Albania (16th-19th centuries)". Retrieved 8 July 2018.