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Cham Albanians

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Cham Albanians (In Albanian: Çamë or Shqiptarë, in Greek: Τσάμηδες Tsámidhes or Αλβανοί Alvaní) are a group of ethnic Albanians traditionally from Çamëria, (part of the Greek region of Epirus) and live in Albania, Greece and Turkey. They speak the Albanian language and are predominantly Muslim, with a sizable Orthodox Christian minority.

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Folkloric origins

According to the prominent Albanian academic Eqrem Cabej (1974b), and M. Lambertz (1973), "Jelims" were figures from southern Albanian mythology. These giants were called in Albanian. jelim, def. jelimi, from the Greek word 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 (northern Epirus). The Chams (of the southern Cameria region) believed themselves to be descended from a race of ancient jelims. A more contemporary source is found in: 'The Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture', p.131 by Robert Elsie, Hurst 2001.

History

Following the defeat of Ottoman forces in the region and the Balkan Wars of 1913, an international boundary commission awarded the South of the territory of Epirus to Greece and the North to Albania, based on their populations. The newly drawn borders left a sizable Albanian minority in Greece and a sizable Greek minority in Albania.

In March 1926 Greece announced that all Greek citizens, including the Chams enjoyed equal rights. In practice, these rights were very selective. The Greek authorities discouraged ethnic Albanians from speaking Albanian outside their homes and did not permit Albanian language schools. In 1936, the dictator Ioannis Metaxas came to power and life for the Chams, along with some other ethnic minorities in Greece (excluding the Jewish and Muslim minorities which enjoyed considerable priviliges owing to their support of the Metaxa regime), became considerably more difficult. Cham property was confiscated in order to permit Greeks to settle in the area and the Greek names of traditionally Albanian populated place names became official. In WWII many Chams welcomed the invasion of Greece by Axis forces. A segment of the Muslim Chams were enlisted by Axis forces to assist with the occupation and were responsible for atrocities against Greek and Jewish civilians, although the majority were passive rather than active collaborators, distrusting both Italians and Greeks. The Balli Kombëtar played a role in the destruction of Ioannina Jewish community as well as many Greek villages.

Beginning on June 27 1944, and continuing through March 1945, EDES resistance partisans operating under allied orders, led by Napoleon Zervas, launched a series of attacks on Muslim Cham villages which resulted in the death of roughly 5,000 chams. The surviving Muslim Chams fled to Albania and settled in villages of southern Albania, where today they number over 100,000. The Greek government then brought Greek, Vlach and Roma populations to settle in the region.

Joseph Jacobs, head of the US Mission in Albania (1945-1946) wrote:

In March 1945 units of Zervas's dissolved forces carried out a massacre of Chams in the Filiates area, and practically cleared the district of the Albanian minority. According to all the information I have been able to gather on the Cham issue, in the fall of 1944 and during the first months of 1945, the authorities in north-western Greece perpetrated savage brutality by evicting some 25,000 Chams - residents of Chameria - from their homes. They were chased across the border after having been robbed of their land and property. Hundreds of male Chams from the ages of 15 to 70 were interned on the islands of the Aegean Sea. In total 102 mosques were burnt down.
The Orthodox Cham Albanians were not expelled, but were placed under tight restrictions. Speaking Albanian in public was prohibited, and as a result, was reduced to a home language spoken only in private. Since then, Greece has not recognised any minorities, with the notable exception of the Greek Muslim minority, whose recognition was guaranteed under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

Current situation

The exiled Muslim Cham Albanians have addressed the issue of their lost properties and requested permission to return to their villages Greece. So far, the Greek government has maintained that the Cham issue is closed. 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. The organisation was registered with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation in January 1995, although they are currently (2006) not represented in UNPO.

It has been claimed that an estimated 40,000 Christian Orthodox Albanians still live in the Threspotia region, the majority being of original Cham decent, a significant minority having migrated to the region from Albania after 1991 [link], and there have been claims of a Cham presence in Preveza, Ioannina and the surrounding villages [link]. It should be noted however that there is no official census data to support or refute this claim, a fact attributed to the reluctance of Christian Chams to identify as such. (A preferred designation is Arvanites, because unlike "Cham" it is not associated with the Muslim Chams.) According to recent [research] conducted by Romanian ethnographers in 1994, attempts to find native Albanian speakers in the region were unsuccessful.

Since the early 1990s there has been an influx of Albanian immigrants, estimated in the only official report undertaken (for the Greek Interior Ministry) [Statistical Data on Immigrants in Greece] at 650-700.000 individuals, of which up to 200.000 declared themselves as ethnic Greek; the Greek state has declined to grant them citizenship. Some of these immigrants have settled in Cham villages, although the vast majority have moved to the Greek cities.

See also

External links

 

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