Gjirokastër District

Gjirokastër District (Albanian: Rrethi i Gjirokastrës) was one of the 36 districts of Albania, which were dissolved in July 2000 and replaced by 12 counties. It had a population of 55,991 in 2001, and an area of 1,137 km² (439 sq mi).^[1] It contained a large Greek ethnic minority.^[2][3] It is in the south of the country, and its capital was the city of Gjirokastër. Its territory is now part of Gjirokastër County: the municipalities of Gjirokastër, Dropull and Libohovë.

Gjirokastër District Rrethi i Gjirokastrës
Former district
Coordinates: 40°4′N 20°12′E
Country	Albania
Dissolved	2000
Seat	Gjirokastër
Area
• Total	1,137 km2 (439 sq mi)
Population  (2001)
• Total	55,991
• Density	49/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Administrative divisions

The district consisted of the following municipalities:^[4]

• Antigonë
• Cepo
• Dropull i Poshtëm
• Dropull i Sipërm
• Gjirokastër
• Lazarat
• Libohovë
• Lunxhëri
• Odrie
• Picar
• Pogon
• Qendër Libohovë
• Zagori

Villages of Gjirokastër

• Andon Poci
• Asim Zenel
• Bularat
• Cepos
• Derviçan
• Erind
• Frashtan
• Fushë-Bardhë
• Gerhot
• Golem (Gjirokastër)
• Goranxi
• Jergucat
• Kolonjë (Gjirokastër)¹
• Kardhiq
• Krioner
• Lazarat
• Labova e Zhapes
• Labovë e Kryqit
• Libohova
• Mashkullorë
• Mingul
• Nivan
• Palokastër
• Picar
• Poliçan²
• Prongji
• Valare
• Vrisera
• Zhej
• Zhulat
• Pepeli

¹ - not to be confused with Kolonjë District
² - not to be confused with Poliçan of Skrapar District

Demographics

Bilingual sign in Dropull on the SH4.

In fieldwork undertaken by Greek scholar Leonidas Kallivretakis in the area during 1992, the district of Gjirokastër had 66,000 inhabitants of which 40% were Greeks, 12% Vlachs and an Orthodox Albanian population of 21%.^[5] These communities are Orthodox and collectively made up 73% of the district's Christian population while the remaining 28% of the population were Muslim Albanians.^[5] Overall the Greek community was the most numerous ethno-religious group (40%), while Albanians, irrespective of religious background, in 1992 were a plurality and collectively consisted 49% of the district's total population.^[5] Within Gjirokastër district, Greeks populate all the settlements of both former municipalities of Dropull i Sipërm and Dropull i Poshtëm and also all settlements of Pogon municipality (except the village of Selckë).^[5][6][7] Gjirokastër has a mixed population consisting of Muslim Albanians, Greeks and an Orthodox Albanian population while the city in 1992 had an overall Albanian majority.^[5]

References

1. Districts of Albania, statoids.com
2. The Albanians, a scattered people, by Philippe Rekacewicz, Le Monde diplomatique, January 1999
3. "Country Studies US: Greeks and Other Minorities". Retrieved September 6, 2006.
4. "Portraits of poverty and inequality in Albania" (PDF). World Bank Group. 2016. pp. 33–40.
5. 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. 34. "Στα πλαίσια της επιτόπιας έρευνας που πραγματοποιήσαμε στην Αλβανία (Νοέμβριος-Δεκέμβριος 1992), μελετήσαμε το ζήτημα των εθνοπολιτισμικών ομάδων, όπως αυτές συνειδητοποιούνται σήμερα επί τόπου. [As part of the fieldwork we held in Albania (November–December 1992), we studied the issue of ethnocultural groups, as they are realized today on the spot.]"; p. 42. "Στο Νομό του Αργυροκάστρου: Έλληνες 40%, Βλάχοι 12%, Αλβανοί Χριστιανοί 21%, Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι 28%, επί συνόλου 66.000 κατοίκων, 63% Χριστιανοί, 49% Αλβανοί." p. 43. "4) Ακόμη και εκεί που η ύπαιθρος είναι ελληνική ή ελληνίζουσα, οι πόλεις διαθέτουν αλβανική πλειοψηφία. Αυτό φαίνεται καθαρά στις περιπτώσεις Αργυροκάστρου και Δελβίνου, όπου οι Νομαρχίες πέρασαν στα χέρια της μειονότητας, όχι όμως και οι Δήμοι των αντιστοίχων πόλεων." "[4) Even where the countryside is Greek or Greekish, cities have an Albanian majority. This is clear where the prefectures of Gjirokastër and Delvinë were passed into the hands of the minority, but not the municipalities of the respective cities.]"; p. 51. "Ε Έλληνες, ΑΧ Αλβανοί Ορθόδοξοι Χριστιανοί, AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι, Μ Μικτός πληθυσμός...." p.55. "GJIROKASTRA ΑΡΓΥΡΟΚΑΣΤΡΟ 24216 Μ (ΑΜ + ΑΧ + Ε).”; p.57.
6. Dalakoglou, Dimitris (2010). "The road: An ethnography of the Albanian-Greek cross-border motorway" (PDF). American Ethnologist. 37: 132–149. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01246.x. hdl:1871.1/46adcb87-0107-4e00-87e1-9130ee16b0fa.
7. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Clarendon Press. p.27. "The present distribution of the Albanian-speaking villages bears little relation to the frontier which was drawn between Greece and Albania after the First World War. In Map 2 I have shown most of the Greek speaking villages in Albanian Epirus and some of the Albanian-speaking villages in Greek Epirus. The map is based on observations made by Clarke and myself during our travels between 1922 and 1939."; p.28-29. In Llunxherië the villages are more compact but smaller, Shtegopul and Saraginishtë, for instance, having only fifty houses each; the people of Llunxherië are all Albanian Orthodox Christians, except those of Erind, who are partly Christian and Mohammedan, and the men, but not the women, know some Greek. Zagorië has the same characteristics, its ten villages extending from Doshnicë to Shepr; the group is endogamous and does not marry with the people of Llunxherië. Pogoni, or Paleo-Pogoni as some people call it, consists of seven Greek-speaking villages near.y 3,000 ft. above sea-level (Poliçan, Skorë, Hlomo, Sopik, Mavrojer, Çatistë, and, on the Greek side of the frontier, Drimadhes), the biggest, Poliçan, has a population of 2,500 persons and Sopik has 300 houses. The Pogoniates normally marry only within their group, but occasionally a bride may be taken from Zagorië and then she is taught Greek."