In Athens (Greece), Aristidh Kola, arvanites researcher and social activist, jurist, passed away. He was born in the village of Kaskaveli in Thebes (Greece), in 1944. He completed high school in Thebes and higher studies in law at the University of Athens (1968). He worked as a lawyer in Athens, until 1985. After that, he devoted himself entirely to studies and revitalizing cultural, scientific and publishing activities for the Arvanites. In that year he was elected chairman of the League of Arvanitas. Aristidh Kola created the Pelazge Studies Center and the Arvanites Research Center (1985), as well as his own publishing house “Thamiris” (from the Albanian “E tha mirë “). He published the cultural magazine “Besa” (“The pledge”)(1983) and then “Arvanon” (1998). In 1985, with his collaborators, he organized the “First Festival of the Arvanite Song”. His most popular books have been translated and published in Albanian: “Arvanites and the origin of the Greeks” (1983), which has been reprinted five times (Albania, 2002); “The Forgotten Language of the Gods” (1989, Albanian 2003); “Greece in the trap of Milosevic’s Serbs” (1995, Albanian 1998); “Comparative dictionary of the Arvanite language” (1995). Aristidh Kola followed the thesis of the Pelasgian origin of the Albanians and the Albanian language and tried to bring new arguments and evidence for this. He also addressed the role and the important help of the Arvanites in the history of Greece, especially in its struggle for independence. In the days of the NATO air bombing campaign on Serbia, Aristidh Kola opposed the Greek media that sided with Slobodan Milosevic. For this, he was accused as an agent of NATO and Albania, and was even legally punished, not being allowed to leave Greece. With his articles in newspapers and debates on private television, he has defended the dignity and rights of Albanian immigrants in Greece. He came to Albania twice (1984, 1995) to get to know the country of the ancestors. He had connections with personalities of science, culture and art in Albania and Kosovo. Aristidh Kola was decorated with the “Ismail Qemali” order of the Republic of Albania (1995). He passed away in Athens, in 2000. (In the photo: Aristidh Kola)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1106.
Photo: © https://diasporashqiptare.al/2020/10/12/aristidh-kola-dhe-identinteti-kulturor-arvanitas/
Graphic processing: AHCF
