Enrico Tellini (1871–1923), a major Italian officer, was killed near Ioannina. During World War I, he served in the command of Italian troops in Albania, and in 1923, he was promoted to general and appointed head of the Italian mission at the International Commission for Determining the Albanian-Greek Border, where he was entrusted with leading that commission. Tellini maintained an objective stance, opposing the efforts of Greek government representatives to alter the ethnic composition of Albanian border villages. This position ultimately led to his assassination by members of a Greek gang. In an attempt to deflect blame, the Greek government sought to pin the crime on Albanians, but this effort was unsuccessful. European public opinion, along with the League of Nations and the Conference of Ambassadors, demanded that Athens apprehend and prosecute the murderers and provide compensation. The Greek authorities’ refusal to fulfill these obligations resulted in a crisis in Italian-Greek relations, culminating in the occupation of the city of Corfu by Italian forces from August to September 1923. (In the photo: Enriko Telini)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2674.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Tellini
Graphic processing: AHCF
