Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Albanian–Greek Border War

Albanian–Greek Border War

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This article is a POV and OR coatrack. This supposed war is nothing more than sporadic border clashes during the Operation Pyrsos (2-27 August) of the Greek government troops against the communist guerrillas in the Grammos-Vitsi area. The objective of that operation was to destroy the Greek guerrillas and push them back into Albania, from where they received support.

There were some border crossings by battalion-level Greek units that led to clashes, but the article is written as if Greece invaded Albania deliberately ("Albania regains all lost territories", listing the full strength of the Greek army, supported by the US/UK, as if directed against Albania, the choice of titles like 'Border War' or 'First Battles' implying a sustained conflict etc.). In fact, the article fails to heed its own sources: Mourelos 2007 explicitly calls the 'Battle of Vidohovë' an "episode". It is also telling that the rest of the quote from the same source is omitted: "Ύστερα από αψιμαχίες με αλβανικές ένοπλες δυνάμεις , οι Έλληνες στρατιώτες υποχώρησαν χωρίς να πάρει μεγαλύτερες διαστάσεις το επεισόδιο , το οποίο , ωστόσο , θορύβησε τα Τίρανα. Για τον λόγο αυτό , η αλβανική κυβέρνηση με αλλεπάλληλα διαβήματα προς τον γενικό γραμματέα του ΟΗΕ, Τρίγκβε Λι, διαμαρτυρήθηκε έντονα για τις « ελληνικές προκλήσεις » στην ελληνοαλβανική μεθόριο." ("After skirmishes with Albanian forces, the Greek soldiers retreated without the episode taking on greater proportions, however it alarmed Tirana. For this reason, the Albanian government, with repeated demarches to the UN General Secretary, protested about the 'Greek provocations' on the Greco-Albanian border"). It is equally telling that even a communist-era source (#1) explicitly calls them "des provocations monarcho-fascistes de 1949", i.e. not a war.

Two out of three sources (Mara 1963 and Konferenca Kombëtare e Studimeve Shoqërore 1970) used to cite that Greece was backed by the US and UK and had a "clear war plan" are communist-era publications which I cannot verify, but are inherently not RS. The only RS cited here is Studies in the history of the Greek Civil War, 1945-1949, but without author, chapter, or page. I have the book, and looked up every mention of Albania, and found nothing. So one count of apparent source falsification as well. Constantine ✍ 13:50, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: History, Military, Albania, and Greece. Spiderone^{(Talk to Spider)} 14:00, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Delete per nom. Can't find any other references to this war as a real thing outside of Pyrsos. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gugrak (talk • contribs) 13:54, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dear members of the discussion panel,

Today, I would like to propose the deletion of the article "Albanian-Greek Border" for debate. Although I advocate for keeping both articles, I would like to discuss the reasons for the deletion first.

One argument for deleting this article could be that they may not be relevant enough to be listed in an encyclopedia like this. Some might argue that the events in question are local conflicts that do not hold significant historical importance.

Another argument could be that the information in these articles may not be sufficiently verified. Particularly when sources from the communist era are used, their credibility could be called into question. There is a possibility that these sources are politically motivated or biased.

However, I would like to emphasize that I personally believe this article should not be deleted. First of all, Me and Based.Shqiptar.from pirok have utilized many sources to create these article, including those from the communist era. I believe this allows for a balanced portrayal of the events.

Furthermore, many of these documents have been released by the Albanian government itself [1], which considers the border war a historical fact. This demonstrates that the topic remains relevant today and holds some historical significance.

Additionally, Operation Pyrsos was a military operation by the National Army against the communist Greek rebels. This aspect should not be disregarded, as it contributes to a broader understanding of the political and military history of the region.

In conclusion, I propose that we retain the article "Albanian-Greek Border". However, we can make additional efforts to verify the sources and ensure the information presented is balanced and reliable. This will help keep these articles informative and relevant to readers.

I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter and encourage an open and constructive discussion.

Thank you. NormalguyfromUK (talk) 14:14, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article, by its very title, alleges a full-on war between Albania and Greece, and a deliberate Greek invasion with the aim of conquering parts of Albania that was defeated. That is the topic as defined by you as one of the article authors. I see no sources that support it (even the communist government from what I can tell talked of 'provocations', nothing more), quite the contrary, I see source cherrypicking and falsification to support extraordinary claims. Minor cross-border incidents that were part of Operation Pyrsos should be covered there; anything else is an invented topic and should be deleted. Constantine ✍ 15:18, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why invented topic? Many of the documentaries that exist in Albanian say themselves that it was a successful victory for the Albanian people's army. The only goal of you is to delete the article and make it appear as if this event never happened.These provocations took place and were even considered as a war by Albanian professors such as Bernad Zotaj. NormalguyfromUK (talk) 15:32, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56913691) how is it an invented topic, when Albania literally alleged Greece of anm invasion of its territory? Albania even went to the United Nations because of these events. GermanManFromFrankfurt (talk) 19:47, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

User:NormalguyfromUK, Bernard Zotaj claimed in a newspaper article without references, that there was a full-scale invasion, with Greece supposedly mobilizing against Albania 70,000 troops, 50 airplanes, 80 tanks, and 400 artilleries (mostly cannons). This is simply fringe; there was no such full-scale invasion. Regardless of that, extraordinary claims require extraordinary sources.

User:GermanManFromFrankfurt, this is a primary source from 12 August 1949, that actually refers to an Albanian radio report from 10 August, which talked about an alleged invasion; in the same article we read that this was dismissed by Greece's Ministry for War as "fantastic" (fictitious), while Greek circles in London said that the allegation had no credence and that the only fighting that was taking place was near the Albanian border, as a result of the ongoing Greek Civil War between the Greek government troops and the Greek communists, in what is commonly known as Operation Pyrsos. During the same time we have the United Nations dismissing these Albanian allegations. From International Conflicts, 1816-2010: Militarized Interstate Dispute Narratives – Volume 1 (2018) by Douglas M. Gibler:

p. 329: In August 1949 Albania claimed that Greek forces were invading the southern part of the country in an attempt to gain territory. The United Nations dismissed the allegation, citing Greece's efforts to fight the Communist rebels in the face of Albania's over support for the insurgency. Demetrios1993 (talk) 02:02, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Delete if the book mentioned above doesn't have any mention of this war/battle and is the only RS, we'd have to delete it. I can't find any mentions in GScholar, Jstor or the New York Times. Oaktree b (talk) 19:38, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Keep Article is sourced and I see no reason to delete it. The argument that this War was nothing more than a border-clash during Operation Pyrsos also doesn't make sense, since there were several battles fought between the Albanian and Greek Army and the clashes went on for several days as the Greek Army invaded Albanian territory.(https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56913691) GermanManFromFrankfurt (talk) 21:43, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Greek government troops pursued the retreating Greek communist guerrillas a few kilometres beyond the Greek-Albanian border and clashed sporadically with Albanian border patrols; this is already mentioned in Operation Pyrsos. Furthermore, as explained above, what you shared is a primary source from 12 August 1949, that actually refers to an Albanian radio report from 10 August, which talked about an alleged invasion; in the same article we read that this was dismissed by Greece's Ministry for War as "fantastic" (fictitious), while Greek circles in London said that the allegation had no credence and that the only fighting that was taking place was near the Albanian border, as a result of the ongoing Greek Civil War between the Greek government troops and the Greek communists, in what is commonly known as Operation Pyrsos. During the same time we have the United Nations dismissing these Albanian allegations. Demetrios1993 (talk) 02:11, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Keep In the final report of the UNSCOB, at the 4th session of the UN Assembly on the 23rd of September 1949, the commission wrote that “...Greek soldiers have violated the Albanian border by crossing into Albanian territory…” and saying this was just a part of Operation Pyrsos is dumb because the Operation ended couple of days before the start of September While the border war was still going on up until athe middle of September. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Based.shqiptar.frompirok (talk • contribs) 20:06, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's even a fact that the Greek National Army invaded on August 2 1949 the Billisht area which was confirmed by the United Nations ...on 2 August 1949 , troops of the Athens Government had invaded Albanian territory in the Bilishte district ... [2] NormalguyfromUK (talk) 21:06, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And the provocations of August 1949 as described were not events but real military attacks against Albania.[3] NormalguyfromUK (talk) 22:11, 31 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is a violation of WP:SYNTHESIS; the United Nations never claimed anything of the sort. The quote shared above by User:NormalguyfromUK is from a report published on 2 November 1949 by the UNSCOB (United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans), describing the positions of an Albanian delegate (Mr. Prifti to be more precise); it was part of a general discussion concerning "threats to the political independence and territorial integrity of Greece", in the 307th meeting (here is the full report). The United Nations didn't adopt this position. Furthermore, i couldn't find the quote shared by User:Based.shqiptar.frompirok; please provide a link to the purported source. Google Books doesn't give me any results, and even if there was such a report, it couldn't be the final one (as claimed above), since we have many more after 23 September 1949 (including the aforementioned one, from 2 November 1949). In fact, UNSCOB lasted until December 1951. Demetrios1993 (talk) 02:47, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Delete as per nom. This is a WP:POVFORK of Operation Pyrsos, describing events from the point of view of communist Albania. In both cases, the operation began on 2 August 1949, and lasted for about a month, in the very same broader region of Gramos. Furthermore, the reason that the official Albanian narrative of the time didn't mention any Greek communists, probably has to do with the fact that their presence and activity on Albanian territory, as well as the support that they received from the Albanian state, was all part of a secret operation known as Aksioni 10. So, of course they would not admit that the Greek government forces were primarily fighting Greek communists; on both sides of the Greek-Albanian border. Last, even the image that is being used in the article is misleading. It claims to show Albanian border troops during the so-called war we are discussing; however, this photograph shows Albanian guards at the border with Yugoslavia (not Greece), on 19 January 1967 (about 18 years later). The image was actually taken from Getty Images (here), and constitutes a copyright violation; it has been nominated for speedy deletion. Demetrios1993 (talk) 01:46, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It says there itself that it is disputed so it can also be from the Greek border, which the Albanian articles say, for example [4]NormalguyfromUK (talk) 05:14, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]