Chameria

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Chameria (Albanian: Çamëria, Greek Τσαμουριά Tsamouriá) is the name used by Albanians for part of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. Most of what is called Çamëria is divided between the Greek prefecture of Thesprotia and the southern part of Albania's Sarandë District. The name is of uncertain etymology, but may derive from the ancient Greek name of the Thyamis river, or from the ancient Thraco-Illyrian tribe of Sameis.^[1] Chameria traditionally was limited to the river's valley^{[citation needed]}.

Contents 1 History 2 Population 3 Chameria issue 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading

[edit] History

Chameria (except for Butrint and seven neighboring villages), along with the rest of Epirus, was Ottoman territory until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, when it was annexed by Greece, and officially became Greek territory by the Bucharest Treaty. This was opposed by the local ethnic Albanian population because they would lose the privileges they had during the Ottoman period, who agitated for the annexation of Greek Chameria to Albania. A similar situation arose for Northern Epirus - the decision of the international community to award the region to Albania was strongly opposed by Greece and the Greeks residing there.

The region was occupied by Italian-ruled Albania from 1941-1944 but was not annexed due to German opposition. Although an Albanian high commissioner, Xhemil Dino, was appointed by the Italians, Chameria remained under the control of the Axis military command in Athens. The relations between the Cham leaders and the Italian and then the German-Nazi forces were friendly and some of them organized local militias in the region. A number of atrocities by Cham militias resulted in massacres of the local Greek population and burnings of towns and villages, especially around Paramythia. On the other hand, several hundred Cham Albanians joined EAM-ELAS, in which they formed a battalion and fought against the Nazi regime.^[2][3] The region was restored to Greece following the Nazi withdrawal at the end of 1944 but became a central battleground in the Greek Civil War.

[edit] Population

Main article: Cham Albanians

Main article: Epirus_(periphery)#Demographics

The population of Chameria consists mainly of Albanians and Greeks, with smaller minorities. There is a dispute regarding the size of the Albanian population of the region. According to 1923 Greek census, the muslim Albanians living in Chameria was 20,319, from a total population of about 60,000.^[4]. According to a Italian Fascist census in the region the population consists 20,000 Greeks and 54,000 Albanians, from whom 26,000 were Orthodox and 28,000 were Muslim. This census was disputed by Greek authors, who say that the way it was accomplished was exaggerated.^[4]

In 1913, most of the Cham-populated border area to the far northwest came under Greek rule except for a few Cham villages which were assigned to Albania. Most of the Muslim Cham population was part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The remaining 20,000^[3] Muslim Cham Albanians of Greece were subjected to discrimination that increased under Ioannis Metaxas. A large number of the predominantly Muslim Cham refugees settled in villages of southern Albania, where today their descendants number about 200,000.^[5]

The National Political Association "Çamëria" (in Albanian: Shoqëria Politike Atdhetare "Çamëria"), a pressure group advocating the return of the Chams to Greece and the receipt of compensation and greater freedom for the Orthodox Chams in Greece, was founded on January 10, 1991. Greek descendants of the victims of Cham atrocities are also claiming compensation from Albania. The Chameria Political Association (CPA) claims a number of 2,800 dead and over 35,000 evicted although these figures are not supported by historians like Victor Roudometof^[6] or Mark Mazower,^[3] who estimate the number of evictees at 18,000.

Today, around 350,000 people live in Periphery of Epirus, which includes Thesprotia and Preveza prefecture. The overwhelming majority of the population are Greeks, with a small Aromanian minority. According to research conducted by a Romanian ethnographer in 1994, native Albanian population is decreasing fast and attempts to find Albanian speaking people in the region proved unsuccessful. But other studies report that there is still an Albanian speaking minority in the region^[7][8]

[edit] Chameria issue

Main article: Chameria issue

The Chameria issue is an issue which has been raised by Albania since the 1990s. Descendants of Cham Albanians claim property in Greece, regain Greek citizenship and demand compensation from the Greek state.

The Greek government refuses to allow them to resettle in Greece considering them to have lost their citizenship for collaboration (1,910 Muslim Cham collaborators were convicted in absentia by the Greek Special Court on Collaborators) after evidence was brought of their war crimes and for taking part in the Holocaust in Greece, including the round-up and expulsion to Auschwitz and Birkenau of the 2,000 strong Romaniotes Greek-Jewish community of Ioannina in April 1944.^[9]. Also according to Greek government, (under a law stricken in 1998) as having left Greece as non-ethnic Greeks.

[edit] See also

• Northern Epirus
• Thesprotia
• Cham Albanians
• Chameria issue
• Collaboration during World War II

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Albania at War, 1939-45, Bernd I. Fischer, p. 85. C. Hurst & Co, 1999
• Historical Atlas of Central Europe, 2nd. ed. Paul Robert Magocsi. Seattle: U. of Washington Press, 2002.
• Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometof
• A Concise History of Greece, Richard Clogg,Cambridge University Press, 2002.