Chameria geographically is situated in north-western Greece, centred on the Tsamis River, stretching from the Pindus Mountains in the northeast down to Preveza at the Gulf of Arta.
It is the southern part of the ancient region of Epirus and this beautiful land, has a rich Albanian heritage from ancient times!
Chameria along with the rest of southern Epirus, was awarded unfairly and unjustifiably to Greece by the 1913 Conference of Ambassadors which delineated the border between Greece and Albania.
This was the aftermath of the decision of the great powers to give Chameria to Greece, just as the great powers had made similar absurd decisions to give Kosova and other Albanian territories to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro!
Absurdly most of the Albanian Chams (of muslum faith) were part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, when it was well known that they were ethnic Albanian Chams not Turks!!
The mountain Chams were largely Orthodox Christians and the coastal and lowland Chams were mostly Muslim.
By classifying the coastal Chams as "Turks" rather than Albanians, Greek historians have been able to manipulate history and justify the confiscation of Cham-owned land, much of which was given to Greek refugees from Turkey during the population exchanges in 1923 ! The property of several of the Albanian Chams feudal lords was confiscated in order to permit Greeks to invade and settle in the Chameria area!
Following their expulsion from Greece, most of the poorer Chams went to Albania, whilst the wealthier ones went to America and Turkey.
(Nevertheless, today the Chams are amongst the richest and most successful entrepreneurs in contemporary Albania.)
The Greek government has been very hostile toward Chams and the main reason is the fact that Chams have a very strong Albanian identity.
Another reason of the Greek hostilities is the fact that Greeks inherited a very hostile policy towards Cams. During the period of time, from 1854 till 1877 the Albanians of Chameria resisted successfully the attacks from Greek Andartes. During the WWI and WWII the greek troops attacked Chameria again. The remaining Cham Albanians of Greece were subjected to discrimination that increased under Ioannis Metaxas.
Tensions were exacerbated at the time of WW II while Albania was annexed by Italy in 1939.
The (provisional) government of Vlora (Albania) responded by sending Albanian military troops to assist the Albanian population of Chameria.
As a result of this decision by the great powers, pseudo- Greeks forces led by the hateful figure of N. Zervas launched attackers that ended up with many innocent Albanian locals killed.
During the summer of 1944, the neo-nazi forces led by Zervas attacked many villages and towns of Chameria and as a result 9,000 Albanians (including children, women and old folks) were killed indiscriminately.
[Documents of the. British Foreign Office No.371/58479/R 10458]
“In 1944 the Chams were evicted from Northern Greece by guerilla forces under the command of Gen. Zervas … acting under the instructions of Allied officers. It was unfortunately true however that the eviction was carried out in an extremely bloody manner, and in the form of a reprisal... In March 1945 units of Zervas’ dissolved forces, under a certain officer called Zotos, carried out a ruthless massacre of the Chams in the Philiates area, and practically cleared the area of Albanian(Cham) minority."
Colonel Chriss Monague Woodhouse, head of the British Military Mission in Greece reported as follows in October 1945: “ Encouraged by the Allied Mission I headed, Zervas drove the Chams out of their homes in 1944. The majority fled to find shelter in Albania... Their eviction from Greece was carried out with large scale bloodshed. …Zervas work was followed with a big scale massacre that cannot be excused among the Philiates Chams in march 1945... The result was eviction of the undesirable Albanian population from their own native land."
[Documents of the British Foreign Office, No.371/48094/544/R8 564 ]
In June 1946, Joseph Jacobs, Head of the U.S. Mission in Albania (1945—1946), writes in his report: “According to all information I have been able to gather on the Chams issue, in autumn 1944 and during the first months of 1945, the authorities in north—western Greece perpetrated savage brutality by evicting 25.000 Chams, residents of Chameria, from their homes, …where they had been living for centuries on end, chasing them across the border after having robbed them of their land and property. Most of the young people were killed because the majority of the refugees were old folk, and children."
[Documents of the U.S Department of State, No.84/3,Tirana Mission, 1945—1946, 6—646]
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.
Christian Orthodox Albanians still live in Chameria (in greek a.k.a.: 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!
In Greece those Orthodox Chams, now numbering around 40,000, who were allowed to remain in Greece, have suffered from assimilation and the public suppression of their Albanian heritage and language.
As a result, Albanian language is only spoken privately in the home!
The Greek War Law of Force Nr. 2636 /1940 against Albania!
A significant problem that continues to hinder efforts to find an acceptable solution to the Cham question is that technically a state of war still exists between Greece and Albania.
The so-called Law of War was adopted in 1940 by Greece when the country was invaded by Italian troops through Albania.
Although this law was repealed by the Greek government in 1987, the decision has never been ratified by Greece’s parliament, so the War Law is still in vigour! WHY ?
The Law of War between Albania and Greece remains an obstacle to relations between the two countries, and is inextricably linked to resolving the Cham issue.
For a number of years now the Albanians have been pressing Athens to address this matter but to no avail. On 1 April 2003, the Albanian Democratic Party (then in opposition) urged the Greek parliament to abrogate the War Law.
Speaking at a news conference the DP secretary for foreign affairs, Besnik Mustafaj, said the Greek parliament had the power to abrogate the War Law with Albania.
The following day, however, Greek Premier, Costas Simitis, told Prime Minister Fatos Nano that the War Law did not exist.
That is as far as Greece appears prepared to publicly discuss the matter.
In an interview in March 2004, former Foreign Minister Arta Dade confirmed that the Albanian government had asked the Greek government to fully abrogate the War Law as the primary step towards a solution to the Cham problem.
According to Ms Dade, “Frequent discussions took place on the War Law, but when the Albanian side demanded the Law’s abrogation at the time when I was Foreign Minister, the Greek government said that the interpretation made to the law in question was irrelevant”.
The Greek parliament has neither agreed to examine nor to abrogate the War Law, arguing that the existence of the “Friendship Treaty” …between the two countries automatically abolishes it.
The Chams argue that since their property was seized as a part of this controversial law, it is not enough for the Greek authorities to declare the law invalid - it should be abolished by Parliament!
In May 1999, however, an Albanian lawyer, Mr Agim Tartari, wrote to a Greek colleague in a Thessaloniki law firm, Mr Constantine Hadjiyannakis, requesting information on the state of the Law of War between Greece and Albania.
Having consulted the Ministry of External Affairs in Athens, the Greek lawyers confirmed that Law no.2636/1940 and Law no.4506/1966 are still in force!!
The most recent International Treaties and the “Treaty of Friendship, Collaboration and Security” signed between the Republic of Albania and the Greek Republic in March 1996 have not affected the situation!
In September 2004 the Greek authorities announced the reinforcement of northern military areas near the borders with Albania and Macedonia.
New infantry forces from eastern areas of the country were transferred close to the Greek border with Albania, and a unit of Patriot missiles was moved from Athens to a military air base near Thessaloniki, along with a new air force unit.
These were permanent deployments that gave the distinct impression that Greece felt a possible threat from her northern borders, as opposed to the traditional threat from Turkey to the east.
This fortress-like mentality was further enhanced by a giant ring of barbed wire reinforced with metal spikes, erected at the main southern border crossing at Kakavia.
Despite the Cham-induced controversy, during a visit to Albania in mid-October 2004, Greek President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos stated at a news conference that the Cham issue did not exist for Greece …
…and that claims for the restoration of property presented by both the Cham people and the Greek minority in Albania belonged to a past historical period which he considered closed. "I don't know if it is necessary to find a solution to the Cham issue, as in my opinion it does not need to be solved. There have been claims from both sides, but we should not return to these matters. The question of the Cham properties does not exist," he told reporters.
The key difference, however, is that unlike Albania’s ethnic Greek minority, who are allowed to own their own properties and have Albanian and Greek citizenship, the Chams are forbidden to return to their homes and are denied Greek citizenship!!
With the implementation of the property law adopted in 1992, Albania did not exclude the ethnic Greek minority from the right to own property!! Why Greece did??
When speaking of claims from both sides, Stephanopolous was referring to the nationalists extremist Greek claims on Vorio Epirus (Northern Epirus), which include a considerable part of southern Albania(from Tirana to Saranda)!
The month of November 2005 proved to be highly contentious as the deadline set by the Greek government for the Chams to officially register their property in Greece finally arrived. The law on property, which was passed and decreed by former Greek President Stefanopoulos, states that all unregistered Albanian-owned properties in Greece would be nationalised.
The Act No 2664 “on Greek cadastral and other regulations”, passed on 27 November 1998 by the Greek parliament, set 27 November 2005 as the final deadline for registering estate properties.
Under the controversial War Law the property of the Chams is considered as property belonging to the “enemy” because of the Chams’ alleged collaboration during the Second World War!
Although November was the cut off date for the registration, almost no Chams could go to register their property because they were not allowed visas to enter Greece.
The Greek government was aware that the Chams could not register their property, as they would have to travel to Ioannina to get copies of their missing documents, which they could not do without visas to enter Greece.
On 8 February 2006 the Greek General Prosecution announced its decision to sell all unregistered property and land in Epirus, including Cham-owned land that was sequestrated in 1945.
According to the court the owners have not registered any interest in the land for over 20 years.
The Chams considered the Greek decision as “open provocation” and called for an immediate response from the Albanian government and international institutions. No response was forthcoming!
This is obviously a very complex and ambiguous subject that needs to be conclusively settled, not only to assist in solving the Cham issue, but also in the interests of Albanian-Greek relations!
There are strong divisions in Greece between the Foreign Ministry, which knows it has to deal eventually with the issue, and the Ministry of Defence, which will not agree even to discuss the matter.
The Greek Ministry of Defence has an extensive budget which is sometimes called upon by Northern (Vorio) Epirus extremist nazy groups to influence important leaders of opinion in Albania, and has even targeted prominent individual activists and leaders in the Albanian community in the United States.
The US Greek lobby is very active, and often dominated by the Greek Orthodox Church centred in the city of Chicago, which is the headquarters of most Northern Epirus lobby nazy groups in the US!
This is despite the fact that the minority rights orientation of modern Greece is currently incompatible with European and international law – a fact that needs to be examined by the EU Parliament!
The Cham issue has 4 main aspects:
1) There is the recognition of the problem by the Greek government,
2) There is the property issue,
3) There is the question of citizenship
4) The right to live, work and travel freely in Greece without having to obtain visas.
It is probable, however, that many upland Chams would settle for visas and passports but the lowland Chams would also expect their valuable land back, as well as compensation for its use since their expulsion. They would then be able to decide themselves whether to sell their property or not.
They also want dual citizenship – Albanian and Greek, and want to be recognised as Greek citizens of Albanian nationality. According to most Chams, money is not as important . “We have been refugees for a long time. We want our identity back,” they claim.
When discussing the Cham problem with Albanian politicians, they usually argue that it should not be seen as a political confrontation with the Greek government, because it is an economic issue and there is no point transforming it into a political issue.
However this is too simplistic and also incorrect, because the Chams see financial compensation as just one factor in their demands.
The top priorities for the Cham people remain:
The right to return to their properties in Greece and to regain legal title to their properties;
The right to obtain Greek citizenship, whilst retaining the citizenship of the country in which they currently reside;
With their Party for Justice and Integration, the Chams have put themselves firmly on the political map.
The Albanian government needs to be very clear and specific in its discussions regarding the Chams’ demands!!
Both sides should try to understand each other’s perspective on this complex issue. The Greeks must accept the historical truth about the confiscation of Cham-owned land, and the intimidation and persecution the Chams suffered under the dictatorship of General Metaxas during the late 1930s.
It is clear that old prejudices need to be dispelled, and regional histories need to be re-evaluated and in most cases re-written!
The human rights issues of the Chams cannot be resolved solely between Albania, Greece and institutions representing the Cham population.
A fair and lasting solution should be achieved with international mediation and support!
