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Cham Albanians

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Cham Albanians (in Albanian: Çamë, in Greek: Τσάμηδες Tsámidhes) are a group of ethnic Albanians originally residing close to the river Thyamis (Θύαμις in Greek, Çam in Albanian). The region (in the Greek part of the region of Epirus) is called in Albanian Çamëria and in Greek Thesprotia. Chams nowadays live mostly in Albania, while some were sent to Turkey during the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey and others have returned to their old homes in Greece. . After World War II, most Muslim Cham Albanians were expelled from their homes in Greece . This policy, like the expulsion of 12 million ethnic Germans in the aftermath of the war had been instigated and planned by the British and American Allied command while hostilities were still taking place although its implementation caused more suffering than was envisaged. Cham Albanians speak the Albanian language and are predominantly Muslim, with a sizable Orthodox Christian minority.

Folkloric origins

According to the prominent Albanian academic Eqrem Cabej (1974), and M. Lambertz (1973), "Jelims" were figures from southern Albanian mythology. These giants were called in Albanian jelim, def. jelimi, from the Greek word Ελλην (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. 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.

History

Following the defeat of Ottoman forces in the region and the Balkan Wars of 1913, an international boundary commission awarded the northern part of the region of Epirus to Albania, and the southern part to Greece, based on their overall populations, leaving Greek and Albanian minority areas either side of the border. Most of the Cham-populated border area to the far northwest , except for a few Cham villages assigned to Albania, came under the Greek half. 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 , Muslim Cham Albanians of Greece were subjected to discrimination that increased under Ioannis Metaxas. Tensions were exacerbated at the time of World War II. Albania was annexed by Italy in 1939, and when the later invaded Greece in 1940 it did so from Albania using several thousand native Albanian auxiliaries. Following the conquest of Greece by Nazi Germany, the Italians, whose zone of occupation included Epirus, recruited a large number of Muslim Cham citizens to assist them. The property of several of the Muslim Cham feudal lords (beys) was confiscated in order to permit Greeks to settle in the area and the Greek names of traditionally Albanian populated place names became official .

During the Axis occupation the Muslim Chams set up their own administration and militia, part of the fascist Balli Kombetar and XILIA organizations, at Thesprotia and collaborated closely with both the Italians and — when Italy capitulated - the Germans. . Cham units comprised the main occupation force committing, alongside the Wehrmacht, a number of atrocities on their ethnically Greek fellow citizens burning houses and villages. ,killing several hundred ethnic Greeks and forcing thousands to flee their homes

Muslim Cham units also played an active 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 . 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. .

Current situation

A large number of the predominantly Muslim Cham refugees settled in villages of southern Albania, where today their descendants claim to number about 200,000 . Muslim Chams were mostly nomadic shepherds, who acquired "grazing rights" for their flocks on pastures, both public and private, in exchange for a portion of their product. This verbally-settled grazing rights acquisition was a traditional transaction, dating back to Ottoman times. The National Political Association "Çamëria" (in Albanian: Shoqëria Politike Atdhetare "Çamëria"), a pressure group advocating the return of the Chams to Greece, receipt of compensation and greater freedom for the Orthodox Chams in Greece, was founded 10 January 1991. Greek descendants of Cham atrocities are also claiming compensation from Albania. The CPA claims a number of 2,800 dead and over 35,000 evicted although these figures are not supported by historians, like Victor Roudometof or Mark Mazower , who put the number of evictees at 18,000. In 1994 Albania passed a law that declared the 27th of June The Day of Greek Chauvinist Genocide Against the Albanians of Chameria and built a memorial at the village of Konispol. In 1999 the president of the CPA, Hilmi Saqe, stated that:

These massacres were almost at the same level as those of the Holocaust on the Hebrews

It has been claimed that Christian Orthodox Albanians still live in the Threspotia region, the majority being of original Cham descent,and there have been claims of a Cham presence in Preveza, Ioannina and the surrounding villages It should be noted however that there is no official census data to support or refute this claim. According to recent research conducted by Romanian ethnographers in 1994, attempts to find native Albanian speakers in the region were unsuccessful.

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