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The '''expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece''' was the forced migration of thousands of [[Cham Albanians]] from [[Chameria|parts of the region]] of western [[Epirus]], after the [[Second World War]] to [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]], by elements of the [[Greek Resistance|Resistance]] [[National Republican Greek League|National Republican Greek League (EDES)]] forces and the [[Kingdom of Greece|post-war Greek government]].<ref name=":0">Evergeti, Venetia; Hatziprokopiou, Panos and Nicolas Prevelakis (2014) "[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=82Y3BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=The+Oxford+Handbook+of+European+Islam+Chams&source=bl&ots=aPeiu-szsO&sig=bz8UvkPvNb2vH3Sx71bQtSAj_HU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWy96q4d3KAhWG6KYKHRCeA0EQ6AEINDAD#v=onepage&q=The%20Oxford%20Handbook%20of%20European%20Islam%20Chams&f=false Greece]". In Cesari, Jocelyn (ed). ''The Oxford Handbook of European Islam''. Oxford University Press. p 352: "Local tensions, reinforced by the settlement of Asia Minor refugees in the area and open state repression in the 1920s and 1930s, led many Chams to collaborate with occupation forces in the Second World War, leading to conflict with nationalist guerrilla forces (EDES) in 1944 and mass expulsions by the post-war Greek government.</ref>
The '''expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece''' was the forced migration of thousands of [[Cham Albanians]] from [[Chameria|parts of the region]] of western [[Epirus]], after the [[Second World War]] to [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]], by elements of the [[Greek Resistance|Resistance]] [[National Republican Greek League|National Republican Greek League (EDES)]] forces and the [[Kingdom of Greece|post-war Greek government]].<ref name=":0">Evergeti, Venetia; Hatziprokopiou, Panos and Nicolas Prevelakis (2014) "[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=82Y3BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=The+Oxford+Handbook+of+European+Islam+Chams&source=bl&ots=aPeiu-szsO&sig=bz8UvkPvNb2vH3Sx71bQtSAj_HU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWy96q4d3KAhWG6KYKHRCeA0EQ6AEINDAD#v=onepage&q=The%20Oxford%20Handbook%20of%20European%20Islam%20Chams&f=false Greece]". In Cesari, Jocelyn (ed). ''The Oxford Handbook of European Islam''. Oxford University Press. p 352: "Local tensions, reinforced by the settlement of Asia Minor refugees in the area and open state repression in the 1920s and 1930s, led many Chams to collaborate with occupation forces in the Second World War, leading to conflict with nationalist guerrilla forces (EDES) in 1944 and mass expulsions by the post-war Greek government.</ref>


Revision as of 11:09, 10 August 2016

The expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece was the forced migration of thousands of Cham Albanians from parts of the region of western Epirus, after the Second World War to Albania, by elements of the Resistance National Republican Greek League (EDES) forces and the post-war Greek government.[1]

In the late Ottoman period, tensions between the Muslim Chams and the local Greek Orthodox population emerged through communal conflicts that continued during the Balkan Wars, when part of the historic region of Epirus under Ottoman rule became part of Greece. During the First Balkan War, a majority of Cham Albanians, though at first reluctant, sided with the Ottoman forces against the Greeks forces[2][3][4] and formed irregular armed units and burned Christian Orthodox inhabited settlements, with only few Albanian beys willing to accept Greek rule in the region.[3] As a response to this activity Greek guerilla units were organized in the region.[4] After the Balkan wars and during the interwar period, the Muslim Chams were not integrated into the Greek state, which adopted policies that aimed to drive out Muslim Chams from their territory, partly through their inclusion in the Greek-Turkish population exchange,[5][6] although this was not realized due to objections by Italy's fascist regime. Furthermore, the attempted settlement of Greek refugees from Asia Minor within the area and bouts of open state repression in the 1920s and 1930s, in particular by the authoritarian Metaxas regime,[7] led to tensions between the Cham minority and the Greek state.[1][8][9] Meanwhile, Fascist Italian propaganda initiated in 1939 an aggressive campaign for the creation of a Greater Albanian state.[10] As such with the onset of the Second World War, a majority of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with the Axis troops,[11][12][13] either by providing them with indirect support (guides, local connections, informants etc.)[14][15][16] or by being recruited as Axis troops and armed irregulars. The latter cases were responsible of atrocities against the local Greek populace.[17][18] Overall, the Muslim Chams were sympathetic to Axis forces during the war and benefited from the Axis occupation.[14][15][16] Between July and September 1943, armed Cham collaborator units actively participated in Nazi operations that resulted in the murder of over 1,200 Greek villagers,[19][20] and, January 1944, in the murder of 600 people on the Albanian side of the border.[21] There were also moderate elements within the Muslim Cham community who opposed hatred of their Greek neighbors.[15] A limited number of Muslim Chams enlisted in Albanian and Greek resistance units at the last stages of World War II.[17]

Collaboration with the Axis fueled resentment by the Greek side and in the aftermath of World War II, most of the Muslim Cham community had to flee to Albania.[14][22] In the process between 200 and 300 Chams were massacred by EDES forces in various settlements, while 1,200 were murdered in total. Some Albanian sources increase this number to c. 2,000.[23][24][25][26] In 1945-1946, a special collaborator's court in Greece condemned in total 2,109 Cham Albanians (in absentia) for collaboration with the Axis powers and war crimes.[14][16] The estimated amount of Cham Albanians expelled from Epirus to Albania and Turkey varies: figures of 14,000, 19,000, 20,000 or 25,000.[26][27][28][29][30] According to Cham reports this number is raised to c. 35,000.[31] Atrocities were not encouraged by the EDES leadership and the British mission, but both were unable to prevent this turn of events.[32] Moreover, several local Greek notables promised safe passage and offered to host all those Chams who would abandon the Nazi side.[33]

Moreover, according to Albanian sources an additional of 2,500 Muslim Chams refugees lost their lives due to starvation and epidemics on their way to Albania.[23][26] After the members of the community settled in Albania, instead of being treated as victims by the People's Republic of Albania, the local regime took a very distrustful view towards them and proceeded with arrests and exiles.[34][35] The Cham Albanians were labelled as "reactionaries" and suffered a certain degree of persecution within Albania,[36] probably because they were Greek citizens, their elites were traditionally rich landlords, their collaboration with the Axis forces and their anti-communist activities.[37]

Background

Main article: Cham Albanians

Ottoman period

Albanian presence in the area of Chameria, in coastal parts of Epirus, is recorded since at least the 13th century.[38][39] A Venetian document cites an Albanian population inhabiting the area opposite the island of Corfu in 1210, while the first appearance of Albanians within the Despotate of Epirus is recorded in Byzantine sources as nomads.[38][39] The wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between Russia and the Ottoman Empire negatively impacted upon the region.[40] Increased conversions to Islam followed, often forced, such as those of 25 villages in 1739 which are located in current day Thesprotia prefecture.[40] During the Ottoman period, a class divide amongst Muslim Chams existed with a small group of rich elite landowners and the majority population who were small poor land holders or landless peasants.[41]

There is no evidence that Albanian national ideologies had strong support among the local Muslims in the late Ottoman period. On the other hand, the local Orthodox Albanian speaking population, as well as the rest of the Orthodox community, remained Greek-oriented and identified themselves as Greeks.[42][43] For the Greek state however, the possibility of Orthodox Albanian speakers being recruited into the ranks of Albanian nationalists was a source of constant anxiety.[44] However, despite efforts of state and national activists the local population was not nationalised in this period.[45] Thus Kyrios Nitsos, a Greek educationalist in 1909 noted that local Orthodox Albanian speakers did not refer to themselves as Greek yet instead as Kaur which connoted Christian and did not find the term insulting, while Muslim Albanian speakers identified themselves as Muslims or Turks.[46] In late Ottoman period within the Balkans the terms "Muslim" and "Turk" became synonymous and Albanians were conferred and received the term "Turk" while having preferences to distance themselves from ethnic Turks.[47]

In the early 20th century Muslims constituted a little over one-third of the total population of Thesprotia, most of them were Albanian speakers. On the other hand, the Orthodox community, or the "Greeks", as known to contemporary Ottoman classification were Greek, Albanian and Aromanian speakers: In the highlands of Mourgana and Souli there were mostly Greek speakers, while in the lowlands of Margariti, Igoumenitsa and Paramithia Albanian speakers.[48]

In January 1907 a secret agreement was signed between Ismail Qemali, a leader of the then Albanian national movement, and the Greek government which concerned the possibility of an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. According to this, the two sides agreed that the future Greek-Albanian boundary should be located on the Acroceraunian mountains, thus leaving Chameria to Greece.[49][50] Qemali's reasons for closer ties with Greece during this time was to thwart Bulgarian ambitions in the wider Balkans region and gain support for Albanian independence.[51] The following years the Muslim Albanians of the sanjack of Preveza, especially the large landowners and the Ottoman state employees, were persecuting the Christian element in cooperation with the Ottomans. Moreover, the Ottomans continued to install an unknown number of Muslim Albanians in the sanjack as part of their resettlement policy.[52]

Balkan Wars (1912-1913)

On 17 October, the Greek side attempted to approach the local Muslim representatives in order to discuss the possibility of a Greek-Albanian alliance. Only some Albanian beys of Margariti were willing to accept a Greek rule.[3] Muslim Chams were not keen to fight on the side of the Ottoman army, but already from autumn 1912 formed armed bands and raided the entire area as far north as Pogoni. As a result, hundreds of Greek villagers were forced to escape to nearby Corfu and Arta.[4] Thus, the members of the Muslim community were treated as de facto enemies by the Greek state.[53] Later, in January 1913, Greek irregulars begun to respond to this situation.[4] Between 72-78 Muslim Cham notables from Paramythia where executed by a Greek army irregular unit during this time.[53] Cham reports that some Albanian notables of Chameria were persecuted and killed by the Greek authorities had been officially refuted by the Greek government.[54] Thus, several local conflicts took place between local Muslim and Christian Albanian speakers, as they have been recruited by the Ottoman and Greek armies respectively.[55] In the ensuing war against the Greek army, many of the Muslim Chams had formed irregular armed units and had burned Greek inhabited settlements in the area of Paramythia, Fanari and Filiates.[3] As a response to this activity Greek guerilla units were organized in the region latter in 1913.[4] Thus, village burnings were committed by both sides.[56] Occurrences of atrocities perpetrated by Greek forces within the region were recorded mainly by the Albanian side, whereas those events were noted only indirectly, though clearly by Greek government officials.[57] During the Balkan Wars, Chameria, as the whole region of Epirus, came under Greek control.[58]

World War I and Interwar (1914-1940)

The region's geographical proximity to the Albania state became a serious concern for the Greek state, and consequently every pro-Albanian movement within Chameria had to be eliminated by all means.[44][59] Nevertheless, nationalist ideologies were adopted only by a minority of the Cham community. Even this minority was divided between pro-republicans and pro-royalist.[60]

During and immediately after World War I, Muslim Albanians were pressured to leave Chameria through various intimidation tactics, both subtle and violent. The population was harassed and hundreds of young men were deported to various camps by Paramilitary bands.[61][62] When Italian troops replaced the Greek administration with an Albanian one in 1917 in parts of Chameria, Albanians retaliated after years of oppression by plundering Greek villages.[62] Muslim Chams were counted as a religious minority, and some of them were transferred to Turkey, during the 1923 population exchange,[63] although they were not officially part of it, while their property was alienated by the Greek government.[64] Muslim Albanians were seen as backwards and were "excluded from the concept of the Greek nation".[65] During the interwar period, the numbers of Muslim Chams declined and estimates to their numbers varied between 22,000 in official reports, while the census registered 17,000 in 1928 and other Greek government sources gave 19,000 as the number in 1932.[66] Although the relationship between Cham Albanians and the Greek state improved during the early 1930s, things worsened again under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas.[7] Under the Metaxas regime (1936-1940), the gendarmerie used increased intimidation methods toward the Cham populace through imprisonments, arbitrary arrests, violence, beatings, house searches for discovery of weapons and the prohibition of Albanian language, books and newspapers.[7] When Italian fascist forces invaded Greece during World War II, many Cham Albanians were convinced that their situation would improve under the new rulers.[67]

World War II

Cham involvement in the invasion against Greece

Main article: Greco-Italian War

Following the Italian invasion of Albania, the Albanian Kingdom became a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italians, especially governor Francesco Jacomoni, used the Cham issue as a means to rally Albanian support. Although in the event, Albanian enthusiasm for the "liberation of Chameria" was muted, Jacomoni sent repeated over-optimistic reports to Rome on Albanian support. As the possibility of an Italian attack on Greece drew nearer, he began arming Albanian irregular bands to use against Greece.[68]

As the final excuse for the start of the Greco-Italian War, Jacomoni used the killing of Daut Hoxha, a Cham Albanian, whose headless body was discovered near the village of Vrina in June 1940. It was alleged by the Italian-controlled government in Tirana that he had been murdered by Greek secret agents. Hoxha was a notorious bandit killed in a fight over some sheep with two shepherds and according to some other specific works Hoxha was a military leader of the Cham struggle during the Interwar years, leading to him branded as a bandit by the Greek government.[31] From June of that same year up to the eve of the war, due to the instigation of Albanian and Italian propaganda, many Chams had secretly crossed the borders in order to compose armed groups, which were to side with the Italians. Their numbers are estimated of about 2,000 to 3,000 men. Adding to them in the following months the Italians urgently started organizing several thousand local Albanians volunteers to participate on the "liberation of Chamuria" creating an army equivalent to a full division of 9 battalions (4 blackshirt battalions -Tirana, Korçë, Vlorë, Shkodër-, 2 infantry battalions -Gramos and Dajti-, 2 volunteer battalions -Tomori and Barabosi-, one battery corps -Drin-[69]). All of them eventually took part in the invasion to Greece at October 28, 1940 (see Greco-Italian War) under the XXV Italian Army Corps which after the incorporation of the Albanian units renamed to "Chamuria Army Corps" under General C. Rossi, although with poor performance.[70]

In October 1940, 1800 Cham conscripts were disarmed and put to work on local roads, and in the following months all Albanian males not called up were deported to camps or to island exile.[28][71]

The Greco-Italian War started with the Italian military forces launching an invasion of Greece from Albanian territory. The invasion force included several hundred native Albanian and Chams in blackshirt battalions attached to the Italian army. Their performance however was distinctly lackluster, as most Albanians, poorly motivated, either deserted or defected. Indeed, the Italian commanders, including Mussolini, would later use the Albanians as scapegoats for the Italian failure.[68][72][verification needed]

During October 28-November 14 while the Italian army made a short advance and briefly took brief control of part of Thesprotia, bands of Cham Albanians raided several villages and burned a number of towns, including Paramythia, Filiates and Igoumenitsa, while local Greek notables have been killed.[73][74]

Collaboration

Main article: Axis-Cham Albanian collaboration

The Axis forces adopted a pro-Albanian policy, promising that the region will become part of a Greater Albania when the war ends.[75] Under these circumstances,[28] as Italy managed to control most of Greece after the German invasion, Cham Albanians formed armed groups and provided active support to the occupation forces.[75] These armed bands under the leadership of gendarmerie officers Nuri and Mazar Dino participated in the Axis operations (village burnings, murders, executions) and committed a number of crimes in both Greece and Albania.[76] However, it seems that local beys (most of them were already part of the Albanian nationalistic and partly collaborationist group Balli Kombëtar) and the mufti did not support such actions.[28] Thus, in the summer of 1943, armed Cham collaborator units actively participated in the Nazi operations Augustus that resulted in the murder of 600 Greek villagers and the destruction of 70 villages.[19] In September 1943, similar Cham activity resulted in the murder of 201 civilians in the region of Paramythia and Fanari and the destruction of 19 settlements. On one occasion, the Cham administration managed to exterminate the Greek notables of Paramythia.[20] Active collaboration wasn't limited on the Greek side of the border. Thus, in January 1944, Cham units were also active in Albania together with Nazi German forces, as a result 600 people were murdered in the region of Konispol.[21] Though the wider Muslim Cham population was sympathetic to the Axis forces during the war, many were not active collaborators apart from those mainly recruited as Axis troops and armed irregulars.[14]

Although the Italians wanted to annex Chameria to Albania, the Germans vetoed the proposal, most probably due to the fact that Epirus periphery was inhabited by a vast majority by Greeks.[77] An Albanian High Commissioner, Xhemil Dino, was appointed, but his authority was limited, and for the duration of the Occupation, the area remained under direct control from the occupational military authorities.[68]

Resistance

Main articles: IV "Ali Demi" battalion and "Chameria" battalion

The fact the Cham Albanians collaborated with the Axis worried the two major resistance organizations in the region, the right wing National Republican Greek League (EDES) and the left Greek People's Liberation Army (EAM).[78] Cham units engaged in combat operations against both organizations and especially against the EDES.[79] From March 1943 the ELAS bands invited various Muslim Cham villages to join the ressistance, but the results were disappointing.[80] They were unable to recruit more than 30, but most of them deserted ELAS the following winter.[81] Only at the end of the war, in May 1944, a mixed ELAS battalion the IV Ali Demi battalion (Albanian: Batalioni Ali Demi) was formed. It was named after a Cham Albanian who was killed in Vlora fighting against the Germans. According to a Cham report of 1945 it consisted of 460 men, some of whom were members of the Cham minority.[82] However, it had not the opportunity to make any significant contribution against the Germans.[83]

At the same time, the National Anti-Fascist Liberation Army of Albania formed the Chameria battalion (Albanian: Batalioni Çamëria), on 15 June 1943, during the meeting of the Regional Committee of the National Anti-fascist Liberation Army in Konispol. The decision was adopted on June 30, 1943, when three resistance groups were united. These groups were Hasan Tahsini group, Father Stathi Melani group and Alush Taka group, from which the first was based in Konispol, the second in Filiates and the third in Paramithia. Each group numbered about 170-180 members, from which only 75 were not Cham Albanians, of whom 35 were from Delvinë and 40 were members of the Greek minority in Albania.[72][verification needed] In total about five hundred Cham Albanians were conscripted, more than half of whom were from the Greek part of Chameria, while the rest came from Konispol and Markat, as well as from the Greek minority in Albania from the Delvinë District.[72][verification needed]

This battalion was the first big partisan organization in the Gjirokastër County (which at that time included Gjirokastër, Sarandë and Delvinë districts) and were led by Haki Rushit Shehu from Konispol and with group leaders, Taho Mehmet Sejko from Konispol, Eleftherios Talios from Hajdëraga (today: Lefter Talo), Ali Demi from Filiates and for political commissar, Qazim Kondi from Polyneri (Albanian: Kuçi).[72][verification needed] On October 10, 1943, the battalion was renamed IV "Chameria" Group , which had more than 2,000 troops, about half of them were Cham Albanians, and the rest Albanians and Greeks from southern Albania.[72][verification needed] At the end of 1943 the men of this ethnically mixed battalion of the Albanian National Liberation Front fought against the Germans in Konispol, the latter were supported by 1,000 Albanian collaborators under the Cham leader Nuri Dino (Nuri Dino battalion Albanian: Batalioni Nuri Dino).[84] Soon after this battle, Haki Rushit defected to the nationalist collaborators of the Balli Kompetar.[85]

However, during the World War II occupation the majority of the elites of the Cham community had become corrupted by the occupying forces and the atmosphere against the local Greeks who had suffered under Germans, Italians and Chams, led to an explosive polarization which would have constrained any motivation for joint Greek-Cham resistance.[86]

Expulsion

First expulsion by EDES

EDES tried to reach an understanding with the Cham community in May 1943, but without result. Similar negotiations in July 1943 resulted in a short-term ceasefire in the region of Paramythia. According to an order dispatched to all local EDES units that time: [87]

we are currently trying to disrupt the collaboration between the Italian and the Muslims whose morale has completely plummeted and are currently pleading for an alliance with us... it is imperative that you desist from provoking them. You should inform all the guerrillas and the civilian population about this and make them predisposed toward accepting this"

During the summer of 1944, the right-wing head of the National Republican Greek League (EDES), Napoleon Zervas, asked the Cham Albanians to join EDES, but their response was negative.[28] After that and in accordance to orders given specifically to EDES by the Allied forces to push them out of the area, fierce fighting occurred between the two sides.[28] In particurlar Cham Albanian units were fighting together with the German army in all conflicts that occurred in Thesprotia: from the end of June 1944 until the German withdrawal.[88]

According to British reports, the Cham collaborationist bands managed to flee to Albania with all of their equipment, together with half million stolen cattle as well as 3,000 horses, leaving only the elderly members of the community behind.[89] On 18 June 1944, EDES forces with Allied support launched an attack on Paramythia. After short-term conflict against a combined Cham-German garrison, the town was finally under Allied command. Soon after, violent reprisals were carried out against the town's Muslim community,[31] which was considered responsible for the massacre of September 1943.[89]

The advance was carried out in two phases: in July and August with the participation of EDES Tenth Division and the local Greek peasants, eager to gain revenge for the burning of their own homes.[28] On 27 June 1944, during the first operation by EDES forces, the most infamous massacre of Muslim Chams occurred in the district of Paramythia. The total number of the victims in the town, as well as in similar incidents in Karvounari, Parga, Trikoryfo (ex-Spatari), Filiates and the surrounding settlements of Paramythia are estimated to c. 300 Muslim Chams; men, women and children.[25][90] Miranda Vickers based on a Cham report raises this number to c. 600 in Paramythia only. According to this report there were also cases of rape and torture.[31] This day, was announced in Albania in 1994 as The Day of Greek Chauvinist Genocide Against the Albanians of Chameria,[91] but it has not received any international recognition.[92]

British officers described it as "a most disgraceful affair involving an orgy of revenge with the local guerrillas looting and wantonly destroying everything". British Foreign Office reported that "The bishop of Paramythia joined in the searching of houses for booty and came out of one house to find his already heavily laden mule had been meanwhile stripped by some andartes".[28] Some of the EDES units, in particular the regiments of Agoros and Galanis, refrained from looting and tried to limit the activity of the undisciplined groups, thus arresting a number of fellow resistance fighters in the process.[93]

But Colonel Chris Woodhouse, head of the Allied Military Mission in Greece during the Axis occupation, who was present in the area at the time, in his "Note on the Chams" official military report of 16 October 1945, clearly accepting the full responsibility for the expulsion of the Chams although criticized the vendetta way in which that was carried out, including a brief description of the situation led to the events: "Chams are racially part Turk, part Albanian, part Greek. In 1941-3 they collaborated with Italians, making the organization of guerilla resistance in that area difficult. I never heard of any of them taking part in any resistance against enemy. Zervas encouraged by the Allied Mission under myself, chased them out of their homes in 1944 in order to facilitate operations against the enemy. They mostly took refuge in Albania, where they were not popular either. Their eviction from Greece was bloodily carried out, owing the usual vendetta spirit, which was fed by many brutalities committed by the Chams in league with the Italians.

Atrocities were not encouraged by the EDES leadership and the British mission, but both were unable to prevent this turn of events,[32] as a great number of low rank officers and civilians were eager to take revenge. Elements of the left wing ELAS resistance were also involved in killings against Muslim Chams, in one occasion ELAS officer Thanasis Giohalas arrested and executed 40 Muslims in Parga. The remaining women and children escaped a similar after EDES fighters managed to scatter the ELAS units and executed Giohalas.[94] In the following months German and Cham units attempted to retake Paramythia, but they were unsuccessful.[95] At August 17–18 a Nazi-Cham Albanian force was defeated by the EDES ressistance fighters at the Battle of Menina. After this battle the Cham community crossed the border and fled en masse to Albania.[88]

EDES for a second time invited the Cham representatives to abandon their support to the Germans and hand over their weapons. This appeal was accompanied by similar initiatives of the Allied mission but the Cham response was again negative.[96] On the other hand, the Cham community under their autonomous administration was determined to organize its armed defence against the advancing forces of EDES and armed all their male population of recruiting age (from 16 to 60 years old).[97] In early August 1944 the Cham opposition was quickly overcome and the local Albanian communities began to cross the border and settled to Albanian territory.[98] Those Chams that remained in Filiates in order to organize the defence against EDES were easily defeated. They were imprisoned, tried and executed the following day. However, their leaders, brothers Mazar and Nuri Dino, managed to flee to Albanian territory together with the retreating Germans.[99]

Involvement in the Greek Civil War, repatriation by ELAS and final expulsion

Towards the end of the Greek occupation, the communist-controlled ELAS, having limited people's support in the Epirus region due to the right-wing EDES dominance in the area and in preparation of taking up the country's control after the German withdrawal from Greece, turned to the Chams for conscription. Seeing the omens several hundred Muslim Chams enlisted in its ranks. With the German withdrawal and the start of the Greek civil war, local ELAS forces with the participation of those Chams volunteers, aided with ELAS forces from the central Greece, attacked EDES in Epirus and succeeded to take the control in the Thesprotia region in late 1944 forcing EDES to leave in Corfu.[28]

As a result of the ELAS victory, in January - February 1945, about four to five thousand Albanians returned to their homes from Albania, mainly in the border areas of Filiates and Sagiada. But after the final defeat of ELAS during the battle of Athens and its capitulation (see Varkiza Agreement), EDES quickly regained control of the region, eager to take revenge for the Cham's participation in the attack against its forces.[28]

The expulsion of the rest of the community was completed by an inexcusable massacre of Chams in Filliates in March, 1945, carried out by EDES veterans under Zotos and groups of armed civilians. Thus, Col. Zotos, a loose paramilitary grouping of EDES vetetan guerrillas and local men went on a rampage. In the worst massacre, at the town of Filiates, on 13 March, some sixty to seventy Chams were killed. Many of the Cham villages were burned and the remaining inhabitants fled across the border into Albania. However, there was no link between the perpetrators of the 1945 events and the EDES leadership, as well as the Greek administration of that time.[100]

The incident came under an investigation of the Greek army four years later during the second circle of the Greek civil war, in which time, the by-then communist Albania was actively helping the communist DSE army in its second armed confrontation to win the country's control, concluding that no crimes took place. At this time, Col. Zotos himself was part of the Epiros High Command of the Army, something that apparently played role to the resulted decision.[28] The active involvement of Albania in the internal affairs in Greece in that period (see Greek civil war) and the anomalous political situation also played a role in the disguise of the case.

After the Albanian communist regime gave compulsory Albanian citizenship to the Chams, the Greek government confiscated their properties (both of those who collaborated with the Nazis and those who did not) and permitted Greeks to settle in the area. After the war, only 117 Muslim Cham Albanians were left in Greece.[31]

The exact number of Cham Albanians that were expelled mainly to Albania, and to a lesser extent Turkey, is unknown. Mark Mazower and Victor Roudometof, state that they were about 18,000 in 1944 and 4 to 5 thousands in 1945.[28][29] while Miranda Vickers says that they were 25,000 that fled into Albania.[31] Chameria Association claims that Cham Albanians that left were 35,000, from whom, 28,000 left to Albania and the rest to Turkey.[101] Today, most Chams live in Turkey, and some 150,000[102] live in Albania. Those of the Orthodox faith are considered Greeks by the Greek government.[102]

Aftermath

Settlement in Albania

Further information: Anti-Fascist Committee of Cham Immigrants

After their expulsion to Albania, Chams organized the Anti-Fascist Committee of Cham Immigrants, with the help of the newly established communist government of Albania. It was established, during the first wave of refugees, and it aimed to make Greece allow, the returning of Chams in their homes. They organized two congresses, adopted a memorandum and sent delegates in Greece and in European allies. After three years activity, the organization did not manage, neither to re-allocate Chams in Chameria, nor to internationalize the Cham issue.[31] They were given new homes in parts of southern Albania by the People's Republic of Albania regime, thus deluting the local Greek element.[103] Greece did not acknowledge that EDES had expelled Chams, saying that they fled and that they could return, although this was impossible. The international community did not respond to Chams plea, but they acknowledged the humanitarian disaster. Since 1947, the Committee was charged with the normalization of living situations of Cham refugees in Albania. In 1951, Chams were forcibly given the Albanian citizenship and the Committee was disbanded.[31][101]

Cham politics

The Cham issue would regain momentum only in 1991, when the communist regime collapsed, and the National Political Association "Çamëria" was established.[31] In an attempt to give a solution, in 1992 Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis proposed a trade-off in relation to their properties, only for the cases where their owners had certifiably not been convicted or participated in crimes against their fellow Greek citizens. Mitsotakis also proposed that the Albanian government likewise compensate ethnic Greeks who had lost properties due to alleged persecution during the communist regime in Albania. This proposal however was rejected by the Albanian side.[104] 20 years after, on December 10, 2012, the leader of the nationalist Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU) presented to the Parliament of Albania a resolution where PDIU asked from the Greek government reparations in the amount of 10 Billion Euros for the Expulsion of Cham Albanians.[105]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Evergeti, Venetia; Hatziprokopiou, Panos and Nicolas Prevelakis (2014) "Greece". In Cesari, Jocelyn (ed). The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. Oxford University Press. p 352: "Local tensions, reinforced by the settlement of Asia Minor refugees in the area and open state repression in the 1920s and 1930s, led many Chams to collaborate with occupation forces in the Second World War, leading to conflict with nationalist guerrilla forces (EDES) in 1944 and mass expulsions by the post-war Greek government.
  2. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. para 21: "Although Muslim Chams were not eager to fight on the side of the Ottoman army during the Balkan Wars, they were nevertheless treated by the Greek army as de facto enemies, while local Christians were enlisted in the Greek forces."
  3. ^ a b c d Pitouli-Kitsou, p. 212: “Μεταξύ των Αλβανών μπέηδων της Ηπείρου, οι περισσότεροι Λιάπηδες και Τσάμηδες, που είχαν έντονα ανθελληνικά αισθήματα, είχαν ήδη σχηματίσει άτακτα σώματα και πολεμούσαν εναντίον του ελληνικού στρατού και των ελληνικών σωμάτων, καίγοντας χωριά στις περιοχές Παραμυθιάς και Φαναριού. Ορισμένοι μπέηδες, αντίθετα, στα διαμερίσματα Δελβίνου, Αργυροκάστρου, Χείμαρρος και Μαργαριτίου φαίνονταν έτοιμοι να αποδεχθούν την ελληνική κυριαρχία, για να απαλλαγούν και από την αναρχία που συνεπαγόταν η σκιώδης τουρκική εξουσία . Ήδη από τις 17 Οκτωβρίου η Αθήνα είχε επιφορτίσει τον Σπυρομήλιο να συνεννοηθεί με τους μπέηδες, για να δηλώσουν υποταγή το συντομότερο, διαβεβαιώνοντας τους ότι οι ελληνικές αρχές θα σέβονταν τη ζωή και την περιουσία των μωαμεθανών και ότι η ελληνική κυβέρνηση θα φρόντιζε για την ηθική τους ικανοποίηση, ανάλογα με τις υπηρεσίες που θα προσέφεραν”, p. 360: “Αλβανοί μουσουλμάνοι από το σαντζάκι Ρεσαδιέ, μετά την κατάληψη του από τον ελληνικό στρατό, διέφυγαν προς τον Αυλώνα. Πολλοί από αυτούς είχαν πολεμήσει με τους Τούρκους εναντίον των Ελλήνων, και είχαν πυρπoλήσει αρκετά χωριά στα τμήματα Φιλιατών και Παραμυθιάς . Εκεί, πριν από την οριστική εγκατάσταση των ελληνικών αρχών, είχαν γίνει εναντίον τους και ορισμένες αντεκδικήσεις από τους χριστιανούς, καθώς και συγκρούσεις μεταξύ αλβανικών και ελληνικών σωμάτων.”
  4. ^ a b c d e Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 122: "The tensions that had been building in the area finally exploded during the Balkan War of 1912-1913. The war took the form of brutal guerrilla fighting, waged primarily by local civilians who were armed by the Greek and Ottoman governments. In the autumn of 1912, Muslim bands raided villages as far north as the area of Pogoni in Ioannina; resulting in hundreds of Greek peasants abandoning their homes and seeking shelter in Corfu and Arta. Atrocities were widespread and no prisoners were taken from either side. Greek irregulars responded in kind from January 1913 onwards."
  5. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The intention of the State was quite clear: the expulsion of Muslim Chams through their inclusion in the Greco-Turkish population exchange. Although not realized through this exchange, state policies directed at the reduction of the population of Muslim Chams were a prelude to the expulsion that would take place later."
  6. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "We argue that following the earlier Greek-Turkish and Greek-Bulgarian exchanges of populations, the expulsion of Muslim Chams was part of a policy of the Greek state to exercise its alleged right to oust “non-Greeks” from its territory. Within the parameters of this ideological framework, legislatively and practically as well as domestically and internationally, the visibility of the Muslim Chams had to be lessened. The target was the minimization of their physical presence through the reduction of their numbers and the reduction of their distinctiveness as a separate religious and linguistic group. In what follows we will attempt to present evidence of the growing hostility between the two religious communities (Orthodox and Muslim) of this part of Western Epirus which occurred independently of their linguistic affinities. This growing hostility was tolerated if not stirred by the Greek state itself. The Government and the state bureaucracy utilized an instigative approach to increase hatred between the communities in order to successfully attain the aforementioned aims."
  7. ^ a b c Manta, Eleftheria (2009). "The Cams of Albania and the Greek State (1923 - 1945)". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 4. (29): 527-528. "The alteration of the internal and political scene in Greece during the second half of the 1930s was unavoidably to influence the living conditions of the Muslim Çams of Epirus as well as of all other Greek citizens. The Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship (1936 – 1941) imposed an undisguised repressive policy in Epirus, which to a great extent also affected the other minority groups residing in the state, including not only the Slavo-phones of Western Macedonia and the Muslims of Thrace but also the Greek communists and generally all those of different opinion. The practices of the new regime were characterized by an increase in authoritarian police tactics applied contrary to laws then in force. In this context, the Çams, just as the communists and the Slavo-phones of Macedonia, were to be viewed by the new leaders of national security as “potential internal enemies” and were suddenly found to be the object of intimidation and various repressive measures. Already from the first months of the founding of the so-called “New State”, as the Metaxas dictatorship was officially called, information and reports on the use of methods of intimidation on the part of the gendarmerie against the Albanians of Chamuria increased. Amongst those methods were included: arbitrary arrests and imprisonments; house searches for the discovery of arms; beatings and violence; also, above all, measures connected to the prohibition of the use of Albanian mother tongue in public as well as in private places and even the prohibition of Albanian books and newspapers which were distributed by the Albanian consulate in Ioannina. Particularly regarding this latter measure, one must note that the prohibition “to speak any foreign language in all commercial transactions and gatherings by police decree” was universally applied in all of Northern Greece and its implementation had been delegated to the gendarmerie. Penalties imposed on violators ranged from a simple scolding to a heavy monetary fine and imprisonment. In any case, according to information regarding the application of this measure in Greek Western Macedonia, the Slavo-phones of that region particularly suffered the brunt of this wave of state terrorism whereas in comparison the Albanians of Epirus were treated with relative elasticity."
  8. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. " Two years earlier, Greek refugees from Asia Minor had been settled in the area. These newcomers were used as a tool for applying more pressure against Muslims for them to decide to leave Greece."
  9. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The newcomers took advantage of the land expropriations, and settled in the houses of Muslims. These actions were in accordance with legal provisions applicable to the whole territory of Greece. It is highly probable, therefore, that some Muslims, pressed by the legislation relating to expropriation and the presence of refugees who presented a threat to them, sold their estates and remained landless."
  10. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 127: "The invasion and occupation of Albania by Italy in 1939 further exasperated tensions. In an attempt to appeal to disgruntled Albanian nationalists, the Italian authorities began an aggressive propaganda campaign that called for the incorporation of Kosovo and Thesprotia into a greater Albanian state. The Metaxas regime responded by intensifying the pressure on the Cham communities, and a number of Muslim notables suspected for irredentist activities were sent into exile.
  11. ^ Meyer, Hermann Frank (2008). Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg [Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII] (in German). Ch. Links Verlag. p. 705. ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1. Die albanische Minderheit der Tsamides kollaborierte zu grossen Teilen mit den Italienern und den Deutschen. [The Albanian minority of the Chams collaborated in large parts with the Italians and the Germans]
  12. ^ Russell King, Nicola Mai, Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, The New Albanian Migration, Sussex Academic Press, 2005, ISBN 9781903900789, p. 67: "During the subsequent occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, Albanian-speaking Muslims living in the Greek territory of Epirus (the Chams) collaborated with the invaders They fought fiercely against the Greek partisans, who in 1944 were ordered by the Allied force to push them out of Greece and into Albania", and 87: "...the Chams had set up their own administration and militia at Thesprotia and collaborated closely with both the Italians and - when Italy capitulated - the Germans"
  13. ^ M. Mazower (ed.), After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960, p. 25
  14. ^ a b c d e Konidaris, Gerasimos (2005). "Examining policy responses to immigration in the light of interstate relations and foreign policy objectives: Greece and Albania". In King, Russell, & Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers (eds). The new Albanian migration. Sussex Academic. p. 67. "Greece entered World War II after Italy’s attack on 28 October 1940. Albania — which by 1939 had become Italy’s colony — was used as the base for the Italian operations against Greece and also participated in the hostilities. During the subsequent occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, Albanian-speaking Muslims living in the Greek territory of Epirus (the Chams) collaborated with the invaders. They fought fiercely against the Greek partisans, who in 1944 were ordered by the Allied forces to push them out of Greece and into Albania. The violent clash that followed and the extensive reprisals exercised by the Greek guerrillas resulted in the migration to Albania of almost the entire Cham population, many of whom would not have been active collaborators of the axis. In 1945, a Greek Special Court on Collaborators condemned in absentia 1,930 of them (many to death), while their immovable property was confiscated by the Greek state. According to the 1951 census, only 487 Albanian-speaking Muslims remained in Greek territory."
  15. ^ a b c Manta, Eleftheria (2009). "The Cams of Albania and the Greek State (1923 - 1945)". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 4. (29): 530-531. "Today we must admit that certainly not all of the Albanian population of Thesprotia was involved in the criminal activities perpetrated throughout the occupation of Epirus. These activities were assumed by those recruited by the Italian and the German military corps and the armed irregulars. It is also certain that amongst the Albanian Çams there were also moderate elements who did not agree with these actions. They opposed violence and arbitrary high-handedness, and did not harbor a “smoldering hatred” for their Greek compatriots. Indeed, there is much information on cooperation with the Greek inhabitants for the protection of their villages from the criminal elements or for the granting of asylum to persecuted Christians. On the other hand, though, it has been admitted by all sides that the Albanian population as a whole, even though it did not actively collaborate with the occupiers, they accepted them with hope and expectation for the materialization of the promises which had been cultivated for decades; they benefited from their presence in the region and provided them with indirect support with guides, connections, informants etc. A German officer was to admit later that the Albanians were favorably disposed towards them while the Greeks fought against them."
  16. ^ a b c Manta, 2009, p. 10: "After the promulgation of the first Greek legislation regarding the penal procedures against all collaborators and war criminals, the Special Collaborators’ Court of Ioannina tried the Çams’ cases synoptically: with its No. 344/23-5-1945 decision condemned en masse 1,930 Çams, many with the death penalty, and 179 more in 1946"
  17. ^ a b Kretsi, 2002, p. 182: "The majority of their elites had become corrupted by the occupying forces and the atmosphere of ethnic violence against the Greeks/Christians who had already suffered under the Italians, Germans, and Chams, led to an explosive polarization which would have constrained any motivation for joint resistance"
  18. ^ Roudometof, Victor (2001). Nationalism, globalization, and orthodoxy : the social origins of ethnic conflict in the Balkans (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press. p. 190. ISBN 9780313319495. During World War II, the majority of Chams sided with the Axis forces and terrorized the local Greek population. This fueled resentment by the Greeks, and in the aftermath of World War II, the Chams had to flee to Albania
  19. ^ a b Meyer 2008: 204, 464
  20. ^ a b Meyer 2008: 473
  21. ^ a b Meyer 2008: 539
  22. ^ Ethnic cleansing in twentieth-century Europe. Boulder, Colo.: Social Science Monographs. 2003. p. 228. ISBN 9780880339957. During World War II, the majority of Chams sided with the Axis forces and terrorized the local Greek population. This fueled resentment by the Greeks, and in the aftermath of World War II, the Chams had to flee to their ethnic "homeland" Albania {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help); |first1= missing |last1= (help)
  23. ^ a b Kretsi, 2007, p. 285: "...nur ein kleiner Teil versuchte, in die Türkei zu fliehen. Albanischen Quellen zufolge wurden während der Vertreibungen zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs 2.000 Menschen ermodert, weitere 2.500 Flüchtlinge starben an Hunger oder Epidemien"
  24. ^ Close, David H. (1995). The Origins of the Greek Civil War. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-582-06471-3. Retrieved 2008-03-29. p. 161 "EDES gangs massacred 200-300 of the Cham population, who during the occupation totaled about 19,000 and forced all the rest to flee to Albania"
  25. ^ a b Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "When the Germans withdrew, battalions of EDES guerillas shot and slaughtered not only the surrendering armed forces of Muslim Chams but also women and children, a practice which they generally adopted when entering Muslim villages. This was mainly the case for the Karvounari, Parga, Trikoryfo (ex-Spatari), Filiati and most of all Paramythia towns where approximately 300 persons were murdered. In total more than 1,200 persons were murdered. Some Albanian sources suggest that the number is as high as approximately 2000."
  26. ^ a b c Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From historical minorities to immigrant newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9789004221529. p.311. "The subsequent withdrawal of occupation forces drew into the region the right-wing Greek nationalistic EDES, which encountered a void insofar as the communist ELAS movement was not very active in the region. This permitted EDES to drive the Chams violently beyond the Greek borders. The atrocities committed in 1944–1945 led the Chams to settle permanently as refugees in Albania, resulting in a great loss of life and property. [109]… [109] Report on the Albanian minority of Tsamouria’, National Liberation Front (EAM), Panipirotiki Epitropi, 11.6.1944, HAMFA, F.1943–44/2–3. The atrocities committed by the troops of EDES forced 22–25,000 Chams to leave their villages and seek refuge in Albania (see E. Manta, 2008: 200). From June/July 1944, EDES – with the consensus of British forces – started the ethnic cleansing operations. They came back to the region in January/February 1945 to complete their operations. According to sources, cited by G. Kretsi, 2,000 Chams lost their life during these EDES operations and another 2,500 during their flight to Albania, see G. Kretsi, 2002a: 184. See also G. Margaritis, 2005: 166–170. Also, supra, p. 85."
  27. ^ Kretsi, 2002, p. 57: "Das camische Flüchtlingskomitee45, das über 20.000 Albaner griechischer Staatsangehörigkeit in Albanien vertrat,"
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mazower, Mark. After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960. Princeton University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-691-05842-3, pp. 25-26.
  29. ^ a b Victor Roudometof, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict. ISBN 0-275-97648-3. p. 158
  30. ^ Close, David H. (1995). The Origins of the Greek Civil War. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-582-06471-3. Retrieved 2008-03-29. p. 161 "EDES gangs massacred 200-300 of the Cham population, who during the occupation totalled about 19,000 and forced all the rest to flee to Albania"
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i Vickers, Miranda. The Cham Issue - Albanian National & Property Claims in Greece. Paper prepared for the British MoD, Defence Academy, 2002. ISBN 1-903584-76-0
  32. ^ a b Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 138: Neither the EDES leadership nor their British backers encouraged such atrocities; indeed, there is strong evidence that they disproved of it quite strongly, in private at least. However, they are far from irreproachable as, ultimately, it was the unwillingness of EDES to persecute the men responsible for these atrocities, probably because its leadership was fearful that punishments would result in defections to the other side and a serious drop in support – that enabled their enactment and perpetuation since.
  33. ^ p. 136: "The liberation of Paramithia was followed by several weeks of inactivity, during which both groups recruited frantically and raided enemy regions. During the same period, most Muslim families from the areas of Igoumenitsa and Margariti were relocated north of Ioannina under German instructions. In late July, Muslim notables made approaches for armistice to EDES. However, negotiations between EDES and the Muslim community broke down as both sides were mistrustful of the other’s intentions. Muslim notables were afraid to surrender, lest they end up like their fellow religionists in Paramithia. Moreover, the EDES local leadership suspected that these negotiations were a ploy to help them augment their forces with recruits from Albania88. During the same period, talks were held by individual Muslim and Christian clans in the area of Margariti. Several Greek notables and bandleaders promised safe passage and offered to host all those who would abandon the German camps."
  34. ^ Grigorova – Mincheva, Lyubov (1995). "Comparative Balkan Parliamentarism" (PDF).
  35. ^ Kretsi, 2007, p. 58
  36. ^ Kretsi. The Secret Past of the Greek-Albanian Borderlands. 2002. p. 185.
  37. ^ Kretsi, Georgia (2007). Verfolgung und Gedächtnis in Albanien : eine Analyse postsozialistischer Erinnerungsstrategien. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 57. ISBN 9783447055444.
  38. ^ a b Giakoumis, Konstantinos (2003), Fourteenth-century Albanian migration and the ‘relative autochthony’ of the Albanians in Epeiros. The case of Gjirokastër." Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 27. (1). p. 176: "The presence of Albanians in the Epeirote lands from the beginning of the thirteenth century is also attested by two documentary sources: the first is a Venetian document of 1210, which states that the continent facing the island of Corfu is inhabited by Albanians; and the second is letters of the Metropolitan of Naupaktos John Apokaukos to a certain George Dysipati, who was considered to be an ancestor of the famous Shpata family."
  39. ^ a b Fine, John Van Antwerp. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
  40. ^ a b Giakoumis, Konstantinos (2010). "The Orthodox Church in Albania Under the Ottoman Rule 15th-19th Century." In Oliver Jens Schmitt (ed.). Religion und Kultur im albanischsprachigen Südosteuropa. Peter Lang. p. 85. "In the 18th century Islamization increased and a large number of inhabitants of Labëri, Filiates, Pogon and Kurvelesh converted."; p. 86. "In 1739, twenty five villages in Thesprotia were forced to convert to Islam en masse. It has also been noted that conversions intensified after the wars of Russia with the Porte (1710-1711, 1768-1774, 1787-1792, 1806-1812)."
  41. ^ Tsitselikis. Old and New Islam in Greece. 2012. p. 304. "The Cham local majority was divided into different sub-groups including rich elites – the owners of the tsiflikia, and the overwhelmingly number of poor plot workers (holders of bastaina or landless peasants [kolligoi])."
  42. ^ Tsoutsoumbis: p. 122: The situation of the Christian tenant farmers who cultivated these lands was deplorable... Land disputes created fertile ground for irredentist propaganda and the sympathies of the area’s population had been shifting towards the newly-created Greek Kingdom since the late 19th century.
  43. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. para 11. "On the other hand, with the exception of certain elites and prominent families, there is no evidence that Albanian nationalist ideology had gained strong support from the local Muslim population: the pro-Albanian Leagues [Bashkimi] were quite weak in Chamouria,12 while the Albanian language schools, which appeared after the Young Turk revolution, hardly attracted any attention, despite the fact that they were established by pro-Albanian elites in the small towns of the area.", para. 12."The Albanian-speaking, Orthodox population did not share the national ideas of their Muslim neighbors and remained Greek-oriented, identifying themselves as Greeks."
  44. ^ a b Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "But the fact that this Christian population was in close contact with Muslims, spoke the same language and was in geographical proximity to Albania proper was a source of constant anxiety for the Greek state. The state perception was that this partly monolingual Christian population, some of whom were ignorant of the Greek language, could easily be recruited to the ranks of Albanian nationalists."
  45. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 121: "Despite the efforts of the state and nationalist activists, neither the Greek nor the Albanian peasantry had been fully nationalised by this period; peasants identified primarily with clan, village and faith, while co-nationals from adjoining communities were regarded as foreigners."
  46. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, p. 122: "He noted that the local Albanian-speaking Christians «used the word kaur which means Christian to describe themselves» instead of Greek «and they did not find this diminutive or insulting in any way». Accordingly Muslim peasants did not identify as Albanians-Shqiptar, but rather as Muslims-Myslyman in Albanian or Turks Although nationalist feeling might have been weak among the local peasantry".
  47. ^ Karpat, Kemal H. (2001). The politicization of Islam: reconstructing identity, state, faith, and community in the late Ottoman state. Oxford University Press. p. 342. “After 1856, and especially after 1878, the terms Turk and Muslim became practically synonymous in the Balkans. An Albanian who did not know one word of Turkish thus was given the ethnic name of Turk and accepted it, no matter how much he might have preferred to distance himself from the ethnic Turks.”
  48. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015: p. 121: "During the early 20th century the population was a little over 65,000 one-third of whom were Muslims6 . While the majority of local Muslims were Albanian-speakers, there was a significant presence of Roma and Greek-speaking Muslims in the towns of Parga and Paramithia, many of whom had emigrated from southern Greece after the 1821 revolution7 . The «Greek» community was also highly fragmented. The majority of Christians in the highlands of Mourgana and Souli were Greek speakers, while in the lowland areas of Margariti, Igoumenitsa and Paramithia, Albanian speakers comprised the majority. Moreover, there was a strong presence of Vlach transhumant pastoralists who wintered their flocks in the lowlands of the region
  49. ^ Kondis, Basil (1976). Greece and Albania, 1908-1914. pp. 33-34.
  50. ^ Pitouli-Kitsou, 1997, p. 168.
  51. ^ Blumi, Isa (2013). Ottoman refugees, 1878-1939: Migration in a post-imperial world. A&C Black. p. 82; p. 195. "As late as 1907 Ismail Qemali advocated the creation of “una liga Greco-Albanese” in an effort to thwart Bulgarian domination in Macedonia. ASAME Serie P Politica 1891–1916, Busta 665, no.365/108, Consul to Foreign Minister, dated Athens, 26 April 1907."
  52. ^ Pitouli-Kitsou, p. 122: "Ειδικότερα στο σαντζακι της Πρέβεζας όσοι έτειναν να ασπασθούν τις εθνικές αλβανικές ιδέες, αν και ήταν οπαδοί του Ισμαήλ Κεμάλ, δεν συνεργάζονταν με τους Έλληνες και καταδίωκαν τους χριστιανούς, συμπράττοντας με τους Τούρκους, ιδίως οι μεγαλοϊδιοκτήτες ή οι κρατικοί υπάλληλοι που προέρχονταν από άλλα μέρη. Ο αριθμός των Τουρκαλβανών στο σαντζακι αυτό εξάλλου αυξανόταν, άγνωστο σε ποιο ποσοστό καθώς η τουρκική Διοίκηση συνέχιζε την τακτική της εγκατάστασης άλλων, που είχε εγκαινιάσει από παλαιότερα.”” [Especially in the sanjack of Preveza, those that embraced the Albanian national ideas, although supporters of Ismail Kemali, they were not cooperating with the Greeks and persecuted the Christians in alliance with the Turks, especially the large landowners or the state employees that came from elsewhere. The number of the Turco-Albanians in the Sanjack was increasing, unknown to what extent, as the Turkish administration continued to install foreigners.
  53. ^ a b Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "Although Muslim Chams were not eager to fight on the side of the Ottoman army during the Balkan Wars, they were nevertheless treated by the Greek army as de facto enemies, while local Christians were enlisted in the Greek forces. For example, a few days after the occupation of the area of Chamouria by the Greek Army, 72 or 78 Muslim notables were executed by a Greek irregular military unit in the religiously mixed town of Paramythia, evidently accused of being traitors."
  54. ^ Pitouli-Kitsou, 1997, p. 362: “Βέβαιο είναι, ότι οι Τσάμηδες, που βρίσκονταν στον Αυλώνα, μαζί με πρόσφυγες από την Κορυτσά και το Αργυρόκαστρο, πήραν μέρος σε συλλαλητήριο, που έγινε στην πόλη στις 22 Μαΐου με την παρότρυνση των προξένων των δύο Αδριατικών Δυνάμεων, για να διαμαρτυρηθούν "κατά της περικοπής των συνόρων της Αλβανίας υπέρ της Ελλάδος", που θα είχε ως αποτέλεσμα να περιέλθει το σαντζάκι Ρεσαδιέ στην Ελλάδα. Οι ίδιοι απηύθυναν τέλος αναφορά προς τον ' Αγγλο Υπουργό Εξωτερικών, με την οποία κατήγγειλαν φόνους και διώξεις των Αλβανών προκρίτων από τα ελληνικά σώματα και τις ελληνικές αρχές. Την αναφορά αυτή διέψευσε λίγο αργότερα η ελληνική κυβέρνηση με συγκεκριμένα στοχεία.” ["It is certain that the Chams, located in Vlora, together with refugees from Korca and Gjirokastra, took part in the rally, held in the city on May 22, at the instigation of the consuls of the two Adriatic Powers, "to protest" against cutting the Albanian border in favor of Greece ", which would result placed the sanjak of Reshadiye in Greece. The same report sent to the English Foreign Minister, which denounced murder and persecution of Albanian notables by Greek bodies and the Greek authorities. The report was later refuted by the Greek government with concrete evidence."]
  55. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "During the Balkan War, in late 1912, when Muslim Chams were fighting on the side of the Ottoman Army, and Christian Chams on that of the Greek Army, several local conflicts emerged."
  56. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "We must add that some of the “volunteer” units who were fighting on the side of the Greek Army, were coming from the area. This factor, most probably contributed to the increase of armed clashes. For a more detailed narration of the fighting and the battles that occurred in the area during late 1912, the use of local population and the burning of villages by both sides see K. D. Sterghiopoulos"
  57. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "While there is no Greek source describing the behavior of the Greek army against the Muslim population after they seized the area, there are several relevant descriptions in Albanian sources. There are only indirect (but clear) references to atrocities committed by the Greek army. It should be noted that in the spirit of the times, offensive acts such as defilement of mosques and, obviously, looting, would most certainly have taken place.... For example see HAMFA, The Vice-governor of Paramythia to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 30.03.1917 (1917/A/4X(16)).... The lieutenant of the Greek Army Dimitrios (Takis) Botsaris, after a looting incident during the First Balkan War, pronounces an order that “from this time on every one who will dare to disturb any Christian property will be strictly punished” (see K.D. Sterghiopoulos…, op.cit., pp. 173-174). In pronouncing the order in this manner he left Muslim properties without protection. Botsaris, coming from Souli, was a direct descendant of the Botsaris’ family and was fluent in Albanian. He was appointed as lieutenant in charge of a Volunteers’ company consisting of persons originating from Epirus and fighting mostly in South Western Epirus."
  58. ^ Clogg, Richard (2002). Concise History of Greece (Second Edition ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80872-3.
  59. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The existence of a region (Chamouria) whose population was roughly half Muslim and almost entirely Albanian speaking was considered a serious problem for the Greek state, which had to be confronted both practically and discursively. Every pro-Albanian movement in these areas had to be eliminated by all means."
  60. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 124: "Nonetheless, nationalist ideas were espoused by a minority of educated and affluent members of the landowning class, such as brothers Nuri and Mazar Dino and Musa Demi, and had some appeal among members of the Cham diaspora. However, nationalists were in turn divided between a pro-republican and a pro-royalist faction."
  61. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The central Greek state was eager to push the “hostile” population to migrate to Turkey. To that end it utilized harassment tactics which were carried out by local paramilitary groups. This was a practice that was well known and had been adopted as early as the period of the Balkan Wars. In other cases it just forced people to leave the country, after handing down ultimatums."
  62. ^ a b Elsie, Robert (ed.). The Cham Albanians of Greece: A Documentary History. 2013. "Overt the coming years, including those of the First World War and immediately thereafter, pressure were exerted in various ways, from subtle to violent, to encourage and indeed force the Muslim Albanians to leave Chameria. Paramilitary bands, such as that of Deli Janakis, attacked Albanian villages, terrorising the population, and hundreds of young men were deported to camps on the islands of the Aegean Sea."
  63. ^ Fabbe, Kristin. "Defining Minorities and Identities - Religious Categorization and State-Making Strategies in Greece and Turkey". Presentation at: The Graduate Student Pre-Conference in Turkish and Turkic Studies, University of Washington, October 18, 2007.
  64. ^ Ktistakis, Yiorgos. "Τσάμηδες - Τσαμουριά. Η ιστορία και τα εγκλήματα τους" [Chams - Chameria. Their History and Crimes]
  65. ^ Ethnologia Balkanica. Journal for Southeast European Anthropology. p. 174.
  66. ^ Tsitselikis. Old and New Islam in Greece. 2012. pp. 85-86. "A further 23,000 Muslims of Albanian origin were exempted from the exchange and settled mainly in Epirus (infra, Section 4.1.2.). According to official reports there were 22,000 Muslim Albanian Chams in Epirus in 1930 while the population census of 1928 registered 17,000 Muslim Albanian-speakers. According to a report of 1932 by the MFA, Albanian-speaking Muslims numbered about 19,000. All in all, it is very difficult task to obtain accurate statistical data on a population subject to political pressures which resulted in continuous emigration. A complex chain of antagonisms over land and population had a traumatic impact which undermined the cohabitation of Christians and Muslims in Epirus. Finally, collaboration with the Italian and German occupation forces and the crimes committed by groups of Chams against the Christians of the area resulted in massive counter measures taken by the right wing guerrilla forces EDES (Ethnikos Dimokratikos Ellinikos Syndesmos, National Democrat Greek League) of General Zervas in 1944 and 1945. Military operations led to the permanent expulsion of all Chams and caused great loss of life and property resulting in a permanent bilateral issue between Greece and Albania. Of the 18,600 Muslims who in 1940 lived in Thesprotia there were only 207 left in 1946. A failed attempt to instigate a population exchange between the Greek minority of Albania and the displaced Chams in Albania may have been the last discussion in the United Nations of the problem."
  67. ^ Elsie, Robert. The Cham Albanians of Greece: A Documentary History. pp. 34–35.
  68. ^ a b c Fischer, Bernd Jürgen (1999). Albania at War, 1939-1945. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-1-85065-531-2.
  69. ^ Muslim Albanians in Greece. The Chams of Epirus, E. Manta, Institute for Balkan Studies, ISBN 978-960-7387-43-1, 2008, p. 21 & 119
  70. ^ Shqipëria gjatë Luftës 1939-1945 p.117, Bernd J. Fischer, Çabej, p. 117
  71. ^ Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The very day Italy invaded Greece, the leaders of the Cham community were arrested and sent into exile, an action which in retrospect has been heavily criticised, as it gave the Muslim community indubitable proof of the negative perception of Greek Authorities towards the Chams. This measure left them without leadership, a fact that probably influenced their behaviour against the Greeks in the ensuing months. When the Cham refugees went to fight on the side of the Italian Army that was invading Greece, they turned against the local Christian population, who were favoured by the policies of the Greek state. In the following days however the Greek army reoccupied the area, exiled nearly the entire male Cham population, and turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by local Greeks against Chams."
  72. ^ a b c d e Anamali, Skënder and Prifti, Kristaq. Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime. Botimet Toena, 2002, ISBN 99927-1-622-3.
  73. ^ Kretsi, Georgia.Verfolgung und Gedächtnis in Albanien. Harrassowitz, 2007. ISBN 978-3-447-05544-4, p. 283: "...Raubzuge in griechische Dorfern unternommen, Stadte (Paramithia, Filiati und andere) in Brand gesteckt und politische Fuhrer ermordet."
  74. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 127: The Italian troops, who were escorted by a large number of Albanian troops and irregulars, engaged in looting and violence against Greek civilians while the provincial capital of Igoumenitsa was burned to the ground by Albanian militiamen who also murdered two Greek civilians."
  75. ^ a b Hermann Frank Meyer. Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII (in German) Ch. Links Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1, p. 702
  76. ^ Hermann Frank Meyer. [Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII Ch. Links Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1
  77. ^ Manta, 2009, p. 7: "It seems that, amongst other factors which worked against such an annexation was the fact that, in contrast to Kosovo, the inhabitants of Epirus were by a vast majority Greeks, which could not justify any administrative reorganization in that region."
  78. ^ Manta, 2009, p. 8: "The collaboration of the Çams with the occupiers was an issue that worried the headquarters of both of the two most significant resistance organizations that were active in Epirus, ELAS and EDES."
  79. ^ Τζούκας, Ευάγγελος. "The Warlords of EDES in Epirus: Locality and Political Accession". didaktorika.gr (in Greek). Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences: 23. doi:10.12681/eadd/15774. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  80. ^ Tsoutsoumbis, 2015, p. 132
  81. ^ Tsoutsoumbis, 2015, p. 133
  82. ^ Kretsi, Georgia (2002). "The Secret Past of the Greek-Albanian Borderlands. Cham Muslim Albanians: Perspectives on a Conflict over Historical Accountability and Current Rights". Ethnologia Balkanica (06/2002): 181–182. Admittedly these fighting units were formed at the end of the war and therefore... any motivation for joint ressistance, {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |laydate=, |quotes=, |laysource=, |laysummary=, and |coauthors= (help)
  83. ^ Kretsi, 2002, p. 181-182: "...considering that only in May... could no longer exert any broad influence on the Cham population".
  84. ^ Meyer, 2008: p. 539
  85. ^ Kretsi, 2007, p. 49
  86. ^ Kretsi, 2002, p. 182: "Admittedly these fighting units were formed at the end of the war and therefore... any motivation for joint ressistance."
  87. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015: p. 133: "Furthermore, EDES approached the Cham community in May 1943. This tactic failed, but talks were rekindled during July 1943 and resulted in a brief ceasefire between EDES and the Chams in the area of Paramithia. An order dispatched to all regional EDES units advised the local military commanders, «we are currently trying to disrupt the collaboration between the Italian and the Muslims whose morale has completely plummeted and are currently pleading for an alliance with us»; adding that «it is imperative that you desist from provoking them. You should inform all the guerrillas and the civilian population about this and make them predisposed toward accepting this»70. The British Military Mission also attempted to broker an agreement between the resistance groups and the Cham community after the Italian capitulation that was rejected by the Muslim notables, who «listened to Captain Anderson and at the same time sent a runner to advise the Germans, who had just arrived in the area of his presence».
  88. ^ a b Michalopoulos, Demetrios (1987). Σχέσεις Ελλάδας και Αλβανίας (Greek-Albanian Relations). Parateretes. pp. 187–188. Τα όσα όμως αυτοί διέπραξαν κατά την περίοδο 1941-1944 σε βάρος του υπόλοιπου πληθυσμού ναρκοθέτησαν κάθε δυνατότητα συμβίωσης. Έτσι, στίς μάχες πού, από τα τέλη Ιουνίου 1944, έγιναν στη Θεσπρωτία μεταξύ των ανταρτικών δυνάμεων του «Εθνικού Δημοκρατικού Ελληνικού Συνδέσμου» (ΕΔΕΣ) καί των Γερμανών πολέμησαν στο πλευρό των τελευταίων καί λίγο πριν ολοκληρωθεί ή απελευθέρωση της περιοχής, συγκεκριμένα μετά τη μάχη της Μενίνας (17-18 Αυγούστου) διέσχισαν μαζικά τα σύνορα καί πέρασαν στην Αλβανία
  89. ^ a b Hermann Frank Meyer. Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII Ch. Links Verlag, 2008. (in German) ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1, p. 620
  90. ^ Manta, Eleftheria (2009). "The Cams of Albania and the Greek State (1923 - 1945)". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 4. (29): 533. "The greatest destructions occurred in July in the Fanari region with the excuse that the inhabitants were harboring guerillas. ... by EDES forces and later transferred to various locations from where they were dispatched to Albania."; pp. 533-534. "In the first days of August 1944, EDES continued its operations... In the ensuing months they were advanced further northward. Their exact number is impossible to ascertain definitively, but was estimated to be about 22,000 to 25,000. These numbers also coincide with estimations of the Çams themselves from that period."
  91. ^ The full text of the law, from Center of Official Publication website ([1])]
  92. ^ Kouzas, Ioannis, Michail. "The Greek-Albanian Relations (1990-2010): The Bilateral Relations under the Influence of two Issues: The Greek Minority in Albania and the Issue of the Chams". Democritus University of Thrace. p. 134]. Retrieved 2 May 2015. Η μνήμη της γενοκτονίας, όμως, είναι ένα εσωτερικό θέμα της Αλβανίας και δεν έχει διαστάσεις διεθνούς αναγνώρισης. [The 27th June is commemorated as a day of genocide. The commemoration of genocide, however, is an internal issue of Albania and has not received any international recognition.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  93. ^ J.M. Stevens, C.M. Woodhouse & D.J. Wallace (1982). British Reports on Greece 1943-1944. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 158. ISBN 9788788073201. These criticisms do not apply to the disciplined units of AGOROS and GALANIS, who refrained from indiscriminate looting in their area and did what they could to police the others, putting many 28 rg. Andartes under arrest
  94. ^ Tsoutosumpis, p. 137: "On the night of 28 August 1944, a group of ELAS guerrillas led by Thanasis Giohalas arrested 40 Muslims in the town of Parga and executed them in the town’s Venetian castle. The remaining women and children escaped a similar fate after an EDES detachment scattered the local ELAS and executed Giohalas on the spot.
  95. ^ Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 39: "Επανειλημμένες απόπειρες των γερμανικών και τσάμικων τμημάτων να ανακαταλάβουν την Παραμυθιά τους επόμενους μήνες απέτυχαν." [Repeated attempts of German and Cham units to retake Paramythia took place the following months but failed].
  96. ^ Manta, 2009, p. 10 "The EDES operations against the Germans and the Albanians continued in the next days also. A decree of the EDES 10th Division was promulgated which invited the Çams to abandon the Germans and hand over their weapons; nothing resulted from this, though. After this repeated attempts were made to approach the leaders of the Çams; the Allied Military Mission also participated in these attempts which, however, had no practical outcome. The instructions of the Allied Military Mission to Zervas at this point were clear: in order to facilitate operations it was necessary that the region of Thesprotia be evacuated of Albanians."
  97. ^ Manta, 2009, p. 10: "In actuality the Çams were not willing to abandon their activity in Epirus; the Autonomous Administration of Camuria promulgated a decree through which the four fronts where the struggle was to continue against the Zervas powers were determined. Simultaneously the local commanders in the rearguard were to concern themselves with the ceaseless dispatching of enforcements and supplies for the units at the fronts. Also, the General Defense Headquarters was to be responsible for the evacuation of the families, children up to 16 years of age and men of 60 and above. The population was to be accompanied by armed men of recruit able age (16-60), who were obliged to return within two days to the front."
  98. ^ Manta, 2009, p. 10: "In the first days of August 1944, EDES continued its operations. The resistance proffered by the armed Çam forces was quickly overcome. In the meantime, the evacuation operations had begun and already the Albanian population had crossed the borders and established itself in Albanian territory.
  99. ^ Manta, 2009. p. 10: "The groups of Çams, who had remained in the city of Filiates to defend the area, were quickly overcome. All who were imprisoned were tried by the court-martial and executed the next day. Their leaders Mazar and Nuri Dino had earlier abandoned the area passing onto Albanian territory together with the Germans who were retreating."
  100. ^ Tsoutsoumpis, 2015, p. 137 : "Some scholars have suggested that these actions were sanctioned by the government and EDES leadership; however, this does not appear to be the case. According to a British officer who was otherwise critical of EDES and the Greek administration; «actions, particularly those in March 1945, were taken against all orders by General Zervas and others in authority» 94 . Neither the government, which during the period had almost no armed forces at its disposal, nor the EDES leaders, most of whom were located in Athens scrambling for political office, had any sway or influence over the host of gangs of peasants and demobilised guerrillas who roamed this region armed to the teeth."
  101. ^ a b Cham Anti-Fascist Committee (1946). "Document of the Committee of Chams in exile, on Greek persecution of the Chams, submitted to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in 1946" (in Albanian and English). Tirana, Albania: Cham Anti-Fascist Committee. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  102. ^ a b SimmonsO by Mary K, Mary Kate (1996). Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization : yearbook 1995. The Hague: Kluwer Law International. p. 50. ISBN 90-411-0223-X.
  103. ^ Shankland, David (2004). Archaeology, anthropology and heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia : the life and times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878-1920 (1st ed.). Istanbul: Isis Press. p. 198. ISBN 9789754282801. Tsams, Muslim Albanians expelled by the Greeks, were given new homes, thus diluting the Greek element.
  104. ^ Mai, Nicola; Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie (2005). Russell, King (ed.). The New Albanian Migration. Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press. p. 87. ISBN 9781903900789. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  105. ^ Gazeta Shqip December 12, 2012: Zbardhet rezoluta çame: Të kthehen pronat 10 miliardë euro http://www.panorama.com.al/2012/12/10/rezoluta-came-sot-ne-kuvend/

Further reading

See also

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