Epirus, the land of which?

[Lonkut]

In wikipedia it says that epirus was returned to Greece but I didn't read one line that says that epirus was part of Greece. Can anybody tell me?

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Historical Eprius is presently divided between Greece and Albania. IIRC Greece made an attempt to annex Albanian Epirus a couple of years back.

 

[King Alexander]

I'd say to search other sources than wikipedia to find out.

Among to many others, Hepirus was considered to have the Gates of Hades in ancient Greece(just an example).

Don't confuse the area with the nations that live/lived in Hepirus.

 

[Lonkut]

But in article there is a line that says

Epirus was returned to Greece

but there is no mention in the article about Epirus being a greek territory. So how can a territory be returned when it wasn't yours in the first place?

 

[King Alexander]

As I've said, wikipedia isn't always a credible source. Do you think we'd imagine myths for an unknown territory or that there weren't any ancient Greek kings there? Pyrrous, to name one.

Look elsewhere.

EDIT: The article may mean the returning of Epirus after we got rid of the Ottomans, or a small part after the WWII, I haven't read it.

Epirus is a larger area, as I've said, and is divided between Greece and Albania, but to claim there wasn't a Greek Epirus in the past, it's crazy.

Edited

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

IIRC Albania became independent (with their part of Epirus) before Greece annexed southern Epirus from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans though set their borders on historical terms only, but during the 16th - 18th Centuries, they divided these up into smaller provinces in a more superior (in an administrative sense) way. Epirus suffered one of these divisions, with the northern part going to a whole new province with a completely different name. Generally speaking, Balkan and Greek history is very complicated and bizarre.

 

[King Alexander]

Generally speaking, Balkan and Greek history is very complicated and bizarre.

I'd say that Balkans is complicated enough with all these wars it had.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

That's nothing, look at Greece's ancient history then fast-forward to the Middle Ages. One big ugly complicated mess. At least Balkan history seems to progress in some form of logical order

 

[Vasileius]

Epirus ( which means "continent" in Greek) was an ancient territory in the northern Greece . Olympias (Alexander's mother) and Pyrrhus was from there .

After the 1204 A.D. , and the "dirty" 4th Crusade ,the Kingdom of Epirus was one of the "Greek states" created after the division of the Byzantine Empire ...

After the indpedence of Greece (1830) the areas still under foreign control were many ( Thessaly,Ionian Islands,Crete,Macedonia,Thrace,Smyrni,Most of the Aegean islands,Dodecanese,Cyprus and Epirus). So one of the greek goals was to recapture Epirus .
This objective was half-achieved with the Balkan Wars . Unfortunately , the Great Powers created the Albanian state (1913) and they gave it Northern Epirus .

 

[Lonkut]

the Kingdom of Epirus was one of the "Greek states" created after the division of the Byzantine Empire ...

How? Who decided it?

 

[Vasileius]

After the 1204 A.D. , and the "dirty" 4th Crusade ,the Kingdom of Epirus was one of the "Greek states" created after the division of the Byzantine Empire ...

How? Who decided it?

Following the Fall of Constantinople of 1204 A.D. some Venetian princes ,leaders of the Crusaders at that time , divided Byzantine Empire to smaller states ... The areas that still weren't occupied by the Latins declared their indepedence as the "Greek Kingdom of Nicaea" and the "greek empire of Trabzon" et.c. In less than 100 years they managed to recapture Constantinople , but the damage to the Empire was huge , and it was one of the reasons they fell to the Ottomans a century later (1453) ...

 

[Lonkut]

"Greek Kingdom of Nicaea" "greek empire of Trabzon"

Dude uh it doesn't say anywhere that nicaea and trebizoid and epirus were of greek property (source: Wikipedia). I know that wikipedia shouldn't be trusted that much but if you have an independent source, I ask you to show it to me.

 

[bigmeat]

they were greek, trabzon itself was ruled by a comnenus

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

@Lonkut, when the 4th Crusaders captured Constantinople, they divided the former Byzantine Empire up into various different states. However, different factions of the Byzantine royal dynasties fled abroad too. Some of these went to Nicaea (considered to be the successor of the Byzantine Empire, and after it recaptured Constantinople it again was called the Byzantine Empire), the Trapezumtine Empire, and the Epirote Despotate.