Expulsion of Cham Albanians

rdf:langString Expulsion of Cham Albanians

rdf:langString ly

rdf:langString October 2022

rdf:langString Thesprotia Prefecture

rdf:langString EDES resistance group, Allies of World War II

rdf:langString elements of ELAS resistance group

rdf:langString individual peasants

rdf:langString Muslim Albanians

rdf:langString Expulsion of the Cham Albanians

rdf:langString The expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece was the forced migration and ethnic cleansing of thousands of Cham Albanians from settlements of Chameria in Thesprotia, Greece - after the Second World War to Albania, at the hands of elements of the Greek Resistance: the National Republican Greek League (EDES) (1944) and EDES veteran resistance fighters (1945); the expulsion was encouraged by the Allied mission under Colonel C.M. Woodhouse. The causes of the expulsion were multifaceted and remain a matter of debate among historians. Modern historiographical narratives argue that the causes involved the pre-existing Greek policies which targeted the minority and sought its elimination and local property disputes which were instrumentalized after WWII while Cham collaboration with the Axis forces is specifically invoked in post-war Greek historiography. In socialist Albanian historiography (1945-1991) the events of the expulsion received no special attention and were dowplayed, while after 1991 it was upgraded and became part of the national narrative for obvious political and financial reasons. The estimated number of Cham Albanians expelled from Epirus to Albania and Turkey varies: figures include 14,000, 19,000, 20,000, 25,000 and 30,000. According to Cham reports this number should be raised to c. 35,000. In the late Ottoman period, tensions between the Muslim Chams and the local Greek Orthodox Christian population emerged through communal conflicts in the region known as Chameria/Tsamouria that time. These tensions continued during the Balkan Wars, when part of the historic region of Epirus, then 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 Greek forces and formed irregular armed units and burned Christian Orthodox-inhabited settlements, with only few Albanian beys willing to accept Greek rule in the region. As a response to this activity Greek guerilla units were organized in the region. 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 them out of their territory, partly through their inclusion in the Greek-Turkish population exchange, although this was not realized because of 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, led to tensions between the Cham minority and the Greek state. Unlike the Christian Albanians of Greece, the Muslim Cham Albanians were seen by Greek nationalists as an immediate threat to the state. Meanwhile, fascist Italian propaganda initiated in 1939 an aggressive pro-Albanian campaign for the annexation of the Greek region and the creation of a Greater Albanian state. At the beginning of World War II, when Greece announced its full mobilisation prior to the Italian invasion, Cham Albanians requested to be included in said mobilisation; in response, Greece included them in the mobilisation but had them work in construction rather than give them arms, which alienated the Albanians. At that time Albania had become an Italian protectorate. Muslim Chams, being unofficially considered Albanians, eventually were treated as a hostile population. Cham Albanian community leaders were arrested and forced into exile by Greek authorities on the same day that Italy invaded Greece, which gave the community indubitable proof that the Greek state held a negative perception towards the Chams; it left their community without leadership, which probably influenced their behaviour towards the Greeks in the following months. When the Chams fought on the side of the Italian Army that was invading Greece, they turned against the local Christians. However, when the Greek army reoccupied the area during the early stages of the Italian invasion, they exiled nearly the entire Cham Albanian male population. Greek forces turned a blind eye to the resulting atrocities committed against Cham Albanians by locals. With the onset of the Second World War, a part of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with the Axis troops, with the degree being a matter of academic debate. They did so either by providing indirect support (guides, local connections, informants etc.) or by being recruited as Axis troops and armed irregulars. The latter cases were responsible for atrocities against the local Greek populace. Overall, the Muslim Chams were sympathetic to Axis forces during the war and benefited from the Axis occupation of Greece. These Cham collaborators displayed extreme cruelty toward the Greek population and indulged in massacres and lootings. Armed Cham collaborator units actively participated in Nazi operations that resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Greek villagers between July and September 1943, and, in January 1944, in the murder of 600 people on the Albanian side of the border. There were also moderate elements within the Muslim Cham community who opposed hatred of their Greek neighbors, inlcuding Albanian beys and religious leaders.. A limited number of Muslim Chams enlisted in Albanian and Greek resistance units in the last stages of World War II. Collaboration with the Axis fueled resentment by the Greek side and in the aftermath of World War II, despite the assurances of the EDES guerillas, and in particular the position of Napoleon Zervas who guaranteed that life, personal worth and wealth would be honored, most of the Muslim Cham community fled, or were forced to flee, to Albania. The collaboration, which was also the outcome of Greek totalitarian regime's policy embedded in the prevailing nationalistic ideology of the interwar period, served as a justification for their expulsion. 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. However, atrocities were not encouraged by the EDES leadership and the British mission, but both were unable to prevent them. Generally, violent incidents against Muslim Cham civilians were severely limited because the EDES leadership managed to impose discipline on its subordinate members. In 1945–1946, a special collaborator's court in Greece condemned a total of 2,109 Cham Albanians in absentia for collaboration with the Axis powers and war crimes. Several local Greek notables promised safe passage and offered to host all those Chams who would abandon the Nazi side. As such, a few hundred Muslim Chams stayed in Greece. Moreover, according to Albanian sources an additional 2,500 Muslim Cham refugees lost their lives through starvation and epidemics on their way to Albania. After the members of the community settled in Albania, the People's Republic of Albania and the ruling Party of Labour of Albania under Enver Hoxha did not treat them as victims, but took a very distrustful view towards them and proceeded with arrests and exiles. The Cham Albanians were labelled as "reactionaries", "murderers of the Greeks" and "collaborators of the occupation forces", and suffered a certain degree of persecution within Albania, because their elites were traditionally rich landlords, they had collaborated with the Axis forces and they had been involved in anti-communist activities.