Hormovë was one of the Albanian Christian villages in the possession of the House of Meçohysaj[3] the ancestral house of Ali Pasha.[4] It was the largest and militarily strongest village of the region of Rrëzë (Riza).[5]
During his stay in Hormovë in 1769, the Serbian monk Dositej Obradović estimated its size at around 700 houses, all built in stone. The group of 20 locals who greeted him on arrival offered to house him at the Saint Nicholas Monastery, which they claimed could house ten monks, but it was empty because they, as Albanians, do not like to be monks.[6]
In 1784, Hormovë was attacked and destroyed by the local Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha as their loyalty to him had been uncertain after having abused his mother. Ali also roasted alive the village's leader, Çavuş Prift,[7] while all men of the village were murdered and the women and children were sold to slavery.[8]
This massacre made a strong impression on various political personalities in Europe. Colonel Willem De Veer, of the Dutch mission, reported to the ICC that:
South of the village of Kodra (Hormova), I found a little church which was undoubtedly used as a prison. In the interior the walls and the floor were washed in blood, everywhere were caps and clothing soaked in blood. The doctor, member of the Commission of Investigation, himself saw human brains. At the altar we found a human heart which was still bleeding. A hundred and ninety-five bodies were dug out because the ditch they were thrown in was too shallow, so as to bury them in deeper graves; all the bodies were without heads.
— Willem De Veer
Aubrey Herbert addressed passionately this tragic event in a speech to the House of Commons proposing military intervention to stop this campaign of massacres.[15][16]
During World War II, the advancing Greek forces managed to enter the village after the Italian retreat, in December 11, 1940.[17]
^Pappas 1991, p. 294: "The Souliote units, together with formations of other Epirotes (Cheimarriotes, Chormovites [people from Hormovë], etc.), Macedonians, Cretans, Thessalians, Ionians and other Greeks from outside the liberated areas, became the "shock brigades" of the Greek Revolution."
^Pappas 1991, pp. 317–318: "Among the heterochtons that formed their own units were the Cheimarriotes and Chormovites, from areas of present-day Albania. Included in these units were Cheimarriotes and Chormovites who had served on the Ionian Islands. Unofficial Cheimarriote and Chormovite units took to the field from the beginning of the revolution in 1821. [...] A similar unit, composed of Chormovites and Riziotes, was organized by Diamantēs and Kōstas Chormovas, both of whom had served on the Ionian Islands in Russian and French forces. This unit besieged Nafpaktos in 1821 and later campaigned in Missolongi, Athens and other parts of Greece."
^Bido 2020, p. 41: "He elected a new church eldership, which included no Albanians but only Greek émigrés even though Albanians constituted all of the native Ortho-dox in Korça, a fact that even the Greek state acknowledged. In Gjirokas-tra, Metropolitan Vasil thanked Venizelos and King Constantine for their support of the Northern Epirotes. He also asked that the male population be conscripted into military service alongside the Greek army.132 Greek soldiers had killed hundreds of Albanians in Gjirokastra, but the metropolitan had failed to raise any complaint. The most shocking event was in Hormova, in the Tepelena district, where irregular troops forcibly assem-bled more than 200 villagers in a shrine and burned them alive. Vasil made 133 no protest whatsoever, despite there being Orthodox among the victims.".
^Van Gerven Oei, Vincent W.J., ed. (2015). Lapidari I (in Albanian and English). Punctum books. p. 192. doi:10.21983/P3.0094.1.00. Në këtë vend janë vendosur eshtrat e hormovitëve të masakruar nga shovinistët grekë në vitin 1914.
^Elsie, Robert. "Albanian Under Prince Wied". Early Photography in Albania. The situation in the south of the country continued to be difficult. In mid-May, in an attempt to regain control of Gjirokastra, De Waal and his men, assisted by a corps of Albanian volunteers under Çerçiz Topulli, reached the Drino river and heard firing at the nearby Orthodox monastery of Kodra, near Tepelena. A terrible scene was discovered - the bodies of 218 old people, women and children who had been massacred by Greek forces. Some of the victims, Albanian Orthodox Christians, had been crucified, and others hacked to pieces. General De Veer reported to the ICC about the tragic event on 10 May: "South of the village of Kodra (Hormova), I found a little church which was undoubtedly used as a prison. In the interior the walls and the floor were washed in blood, everywhere were caps and clothing soaked in blood. The doctor, member of the Commission of Investigation, himself saw human brains. At the altar we found a human heart which was still bleeding. A hundred and ninety-five bodies were dug out because the ditch they were thrown in was too shallow, so as to bury them in deeper graves; all the bodies were without heads." In the House of Commons in London, Aubrey Herbert (1880-1923) spoke passionately about the massacre, but Western public opinion had had enough of Balkan atrocities and there was little reaction.
^Puto, Arben (2012). Pavarësia Shqiptare dhe Diplomacia e Fuqive të Mëdha (in Albanian). Tiranë: Botimet Toena. p. 499. ISBN978-99943-1-826-1. Kolonel A. Herbert e shtroi cështjen në Dhomën e Komuneve. Në fund të qershorit ai kërkoi që të dërgoheshin forca në Shqipëri për të ndalur këtë fushatë masakrash.
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