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« If you had interviewed me a year ago […] I would have told you that I’m … Greek. Of course, I would have been lying. Like always, I would have been wearing this mask that all Albanians wear in order to be taken for Greeks. [I would have done it] to take advantage of it: maybe to find a job I was looking for, maybe so I could feel more at ease…and to make others also feel at ease. In addition because I wouldn’t have to see that pained look on other people’s faces when I tell them I’m Albanian. And this is something I have felt. I have seen it for myself. »
« It was only when we came to Greece. My husband showed me some map. My husband has historical books and he showed me that Northern Epirus is not only Korce. Because I didn’t even know what Northern Epirus was. And not just me, but my parents too. Now, since we came here some characteristics come out. They come out strongly. For example "Where are you from? From…" "Ah, you are Northern Epirot." […] At the beginning I would say I was from Tirana. And that my parents were from Agioi Saranda. That was at the very beginning. Then, you start realizing…You don’t have so much the sense of [a particular identity?]. We also didn’t know what we were. They hadn’t passed on to us the idea of who we are. It is like being uprooted from somewhere. And then, gradually you start feeling, you don’t say anymore, you don’t feel it in you to say "I am from Tirana". I am from Agioi Saranda because my parents are from there. They’re from there. You do it of your own free will. You start feeling this Greekness that is in you. That’s the way I see it, the way I feel it. The fact that I started remembering most of the words - I was picking up Greek easily because half of the words that my grandmother used were Greek. The words she used in everyday life were Greek words. »
