At 11:00 on 12 February 2020, at the Military Cemetery of Këlcyrë in Albania, a religious ceremony, with all honours, was held for the burial of the remains of twenty (20) Greek soldiers who fell in the Greek-Italian war, and whose remains were recovered in the framework of the Greek-Albanian bilateral Agreement of 2009 on Seeking, Disinterring, Identifying and Burying the Greek soldiers who fell in military operations in Albania in 1940-1941.
The ceremony, performed by Metropolitan Dimitrios of Gjirokastër, was attended by representatives of the Greek Ministry of Defence, the Greek Ambassador to Tirana, Greece’s Consul General in Gjirokastër, and representatives of the Greek ethnic community in Albania.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its satisfaction that, 80 years after their sacrifice, the souls of the fallen Greek soldiers will finally rest in peace, and it welcomes this cooperation with the Albanian side on a very sensitive and humanitarian issue, stressing the importance it attaches to the continuation of the fieldwork and the full implementation of this Greek-Albanian inter-state agreement.
February 12, 2020