Chameria issue

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The Chamerian issue is a dispute between Greece and Albania over the violent expulsion of Cham Albanians from the Greek province of Epirus between 1944–1945, during the World War II.

1 Region
2 Greek Rule
3 German Occupation
4 The Massacre
5 Notes
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Region

Chameria (or Çamëria) is the Albanian name for a region which was once part of ancient Greece and which is called by the Greeks Thesprotia, in Epirus. The name is derived from the same ancient Illyrian root as the name of the Thyamis (or Kalamas) river, which runs through the center of the region. The region extends from Butrint on the coast of the southwest tip of Albania, north to Lake Prespa, southward to Preveza in Greece, and eastward as far as the Pindus mountains, and was in the 19th century apparently mainly populated by Albanians, as reported by Byron.^[1]

According to the Albanian academic Eqrem Cabej (1974b), and M. Lambertz (1973), "Jelims" were figures from southern Albanian mythology. These giants were called in Albanian. jelim, def. jelimi, from the Greek word Ellhn (ellin) which means ’Greek’. The current version of the name reached its form through Slavic transmission. The 'Jelilms' were known to the Saranda region in Southern Albania (northern Epirus). The Chams (of the southern Cameria region) believed themselves to be descended from a race of ancient jelims. A more contemporary source is found in: 'The Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture', p.131 by Robert Elsie, Hurst 2001.

See the article on Epirus (region) for more information.

[edit] Greek Rule

Following the defeat of Ottoman forces in the region and the Balkan Wars of 1913, an international boundary commission awarded the North of the territory of Epirus to Albania, and the South to Greece. The newly drawn borders, which left consistent minorities on both sides of the border, left almost all Chameria in what was now recognized as Greece, except for a few Cham villages assigned to Albania. Considerable numbers of Chams were forced to leave, and other were expelled to Turkey under the treaty of Lausanne in 1923.^[2]

Muslims were subjected to severe pression, that increased under the rule of Ioannis Metaxas. Tensions exacerbated at the time of World War II. Italy captured Albania in 1939, and in 1940 Greece fell to invading Italian and Germans forces, striking from Albania and Yugoslavia. Italians recruited Muslim civilians to assist in the occupation.

[edit] German Occupation

A large number of Chams collaborated with the Italians after occupation, as these favored them due to fierce Greek resistance to the Axis forces.^[3] A minority of Chams were responsible of atrocities against Greeks, but the majority were only passive collaborators, distrusting both Italians and Greeks. As the Germans and their allies began to lose ground to the anti-Nazi militias in 1944, and started retiring in Albania, many hundreds of Chams followed them.^[4]

[edit] The Massacre

Beginning on June 27, 1944, and continuing through March 1945, EDES resistance fighters operating under British orders in an attempt to estabilish a mono-ethnic border as well as to punish the collaborators, launched a series of attacks on Muslim Cham villages in Epirus, killing 5,000 Chams and causing 35,000 to flee to Albania or Turkey.^[5]

The issue remains a point of friction between the two nations. Greek censuses mention no Muslim presence in Epirus since 1951; they do not include linguistic data.

A large number of the predominantly Muslim refugees settled in villages of southern Albania, where today they number about 200,000.^[6]

[edit] Notes

^ M. Vickers, "The Cham Issue - Albanian National & Property Claims in Greece", (2002)
^ Ibid.
^ Gage,Nicholas, Eleni 1996
^ M. Mazower (ed.), After the War Was Over; Reconstructing the Family, Nation, State in Greece, 1943-1960, (2000), p. 25; M. Vickers, ibid.
^ M. Mazower (ed.), ibid.; M. Vickers, ibid.
^ M. Vickers, ibid.