Grigorios Lampovitiadis (1908-1945)

Grigorios Lampovitiadis (1908-1945)

From the village of Douviani, south-east of Argyrokastro in Northern Epirus, he was a patriot, fighter and a leader of the Greeks of Northern Epirus.

After completing his early schooling in Northern Epirus, he continued on to Corfu and then to Athens where he graduated from dental school in 1935.

He was back in Northern Epirus at the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in 1940, where Lambovitiadis organized resistance groups in Argyrokastro and Delvino. Thus, playing a significant role, in assisting the Greek Army against the Italian fascists and their pigmy Albanian collaborating allies.

The defeat of the Italians and their Albanian allies, saw the liberation of numerous Greek villages throughout Northern Epirus.

Following the end of WW2, Northern Epirus was not re-incorporated into the rest of Greece, meaning the Greeks of Northern Epirus were once again left to their own devices by the Greek authorities, betrayed and left to fend for themselves.

Albania, a puppet communist pseudo state, began to go after any prominent Greeks in Northern Epirus who identified as such. Lampovitiadis’ wife was killed and he was apprehended and tortured, before he was finally executed and dumped in a mass grave of Greeks.

Many years later his son found his remains, where he reburied them, in proper Greek Orthodox tradition, in their home village of Douviani.