Revising History and Albanian Nationalism

Historical revisionism by the Greek Left, Western multi-culturalists, and Albanian Nationalists is rampant these days. The fate of the Albanian Chams is a case in point. The Chams were Muslim and Orthodox Christian Albanians that lived in the prefecture of Thesprotia, located in Northwestern Greece, in the province of Epirus. It is an area approximately 10,000 square kilometers with a population of approximately 150,000. In 1913, this region was formally assigned to Greece. In 1923 the Chams were excluded from the 1923 Lausanne Treaty of Obligatory Exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, having been recognized as an ethnic Albanian minority. An international committee set out to redraw the boundaries of the new state of Albania. The committee's final decision left a portion of the Greek population within Albanian territory and, likewise, a portion of the Albanian population within Greek territory. The former region became known as Northern Epirus, while the latter region, home to approximately 20,000 Albanians, became henceforth known as Chameria (or Thesprotia in Greek).

The "minority question" was a concern for Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos, whose coup d'état took place on 1925. Pangalos considered himself a friend of Albania, spoke Albanian, and was proud of his half-Albanian origin. Under his regime, the two states moved decisively to normalize relations on a whole range of topics, from commercial relations to citizenship laws. Indeed, the two countries agreed on mutually accepted guidelines and regulations whose goal was to sort out who was Albanian and who was Greek. This was a vexing question because there was no clear-cut way of differentiating between the two. The two states established mutually accepted rules according to which people had to make a choice within a certain period with regard to their preferred citizenship.

Albanian-Greek relations took a negative turn in 1927, when the administration of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture realized the consequences of the original agreement regarding the compensation of land originally owned by Albanian landlords that had been expropriated by the Greek state. These Albanian land properties were estimated to be around one million stremmas (1 stremma = 0.10 hectares). The amount of money required for compensation was deemed exuberant and, consequently, the initial Greek-Albanian agreement was never ratified by the parliament. The resulting impasse led to a new round of Albanian complaints in 1928. The complaints raised two issues: the land question and the treatment of the Chams. With regard to the Chams, the Albanian government complained that the Greek government was persecuting the minority.

There was little evidence of direct state persecution, but the Albanians insisted that the Greek state open minority schools for the Chams, which the Greek side firmly opposed. Also, the Albanian government complained that the Chams' property was expropriated and given to Greek refugees from Anatolia. The Greek government replied that this was done in consultation with the local religious authorities of the Albanian community, and it concerned solely the necessity to find temporary accommodation for the refugees. Over time the list of complaints was extended to the Chams' effective denial of their right to get elected in local elections. The reports of a League of Nations committee and the reply by the Greek government reveal that part of the bone of contention concerned the change in the status of the local Albanian landlords. In Ottoman times, the overlords received revenues from neighboring villages. But the peasants refused to pay tribute after their land was occupied by the Greek state and in this case they "expropriated" what the Albanian overlords considered to be their property. In June 1928, the League of Nations turned down the Albanian petition against Greece. The compensation for land properties was not been paid until 1933; and when it was paid it fell short of Albanian expectations. As a result of these Greek-Albanian confrontations, the Chams were viewed with suspicion by the Greek state authorities and the Chams were disaffected.

During World War II, the Italians who occupied Albania in the post-1939 period encouraged the creation of a Greater Albania in an effort to attract Albanian support for their occupation. In fact, the Albanian government asked for the "unification" of Chameria, Kosovo, and western Macedonia into a single Albanian state. During the occupation of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, the Italian government arranged to have Kosovo united with Albania. When Italy surrendered to the Allies, the Germans took over from the Italians and followed a similar policy of fostering Albanian independence and nationalism in Kosovo. They also armed close to 15,000 Kosovo Albanians and even recruited a Waffen SS Division known as the "Skanderberg Division." During the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, the Albanian minority in Chameria campaigned for the annexation of the region into the Albanian state and enrolled in armed units sponsored by the Italians. Armed Chams joined the German forces in burning Greek villages.. These attacks are mentioned repeatedly in reporting by British and American Special Operations units operating behind enemy lines. For a background on the role of the Albanian fascists in Epirus (including Northern Epirus/ Southern Albania) during WWII, I recommend the personal account of Nikolaos A. Stavrou, Professor of International Affairs, Howard University, Washington D.C. According to Professor Stavrou: "On Easter week 1944, German forces and their fascist ally Balli Kombaetar (Albanian National Front), commanded by Gen. Hubert Lanz conducted a sweep of Epirus to clear the way for German army units to move north after the anticipated Allied invasion. This operation was commenced just weeks after the Nazis deported the ancient Jewish community of Ioannina, the capital of Epirus. In less than three days, Nazis and Ballists would wreak havoc in the pastoral life of my village." According to a report by Gerasimos Priftis, a founding member of ELAS (left-wing Greek Resistance group),dated February 20,1944: "The overwhelming majority of Chams in the area of Epirus have sided, in no uncertain terms, with the occupation forces; they have launched murderous attacks against Greek villages and have carried out looting and confiscation of properties. The high point of their collaboration with the fascists was their assault against Fanari in August,1943 where they burned down 30 villages, killed 500 Greeks and held another 500 as hostages." [From "Apokalypto (I Reveal)" by Retired General Nikolaos Gryllakis.]

A vivid account of the devastation inflicted by German, Albanian and local Albanian Cam forces is spelled out in the March 13, 1944 issue of the Albanian newspaper Bashkimit Kombit (the official publication of the then pro-German Tirana regime). The publication proudly announced the success of the February, 1944 campaign and documented the degree of destruction: 25,000 homes were set ablaze and 100,000 Greeks were left homeless.  With the withdrawal of the German forces in 1944, the Greek right-wing guerrilla forces of the National Republican Greek League (EDES), commanded by Napoleon Zervas, made an offer to the Chams to join them against the communist guerrilla forces of ELAS. When the Chams turned down this offer, Zervas ordered a general attack against the Chams, an action supported by the peasants whose villages had been burned down by the Chams and who were all too eager to extract revenge. Many of the Chams' villages were burned and most of the Chams (around 20,000) fled to Albania. 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. Zervas of course was directed by C.M. Woodhouse, the officer in charge of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) to push the Muslim Chams out of the area because they had overwhelmingly supported German attacks on Slavs, Greeks, and Jews and anti-Nazi guerrilla units in the region. Reading the accounts of the various British officers working in Greece at the time provides ample documentary proof of the horrific destruction and mass murder by the Cham groups, as well as the British strategy of pushing them over the border.

During World War II, three military guerrilla movements developed in Albania. The first was organized by the pro-royalist forces of Abas Kupi, a Army officer under the reign of King Zog. Its power base was in the northern part of the country. The second movement was the Balli Kombetar (National Front), under the leadership of distinguished writer, diplomat, and scholar, Midhat Frasheri. This was a republican movement and it supported a program of social, political, and agrarian reforms. The organization's program included the unification of all Albanian areas; this coincided with the Italian-sponsored Greater Albania. The third movement was the communist guerrilla movement that developed in close association with the Yugoslav Communist Party. Eventually, civil war broke out, and in the course of the 1943-44 period, the communists were successful in eradicating all resistance by the other two movements.

The Chams eventually withdrew to the Albanian side of the border when the German army fled. Returning to Greece after the war ended would have exposed many of them to serious charges of war crimes. Most stayed in Albania and were made Albanian citizens by Hoxha in the early 1950's. Lately, they have become vocal in internal Albanian politics. Cited below are excerpts from the commentary by Prof. N.A. Stavrou titled "KFOR: Repeating history?" that was published in The Washington Times on August 11, 1999: "Albanians of all ideological persuasions joined Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in their Balkan adventures. For a short four years, matters looked promising and Albanian enthusiasm for fascism was unabashed. Hitler's U-Boats and Mussolini's air force were routinely referred to by Albanian leaders as "our forces", and banner headlines in the press heralded their victories. For example, the Albanian fascist newspaper, Tomori, in April 1942, joyfully announced "our navy destroyed an American armada in the Atlantic"; Bashkimi i Kombit headlined the "Successes of our air force in Malta and the Corinth Canal" with the subheading "Greece cut in two." Sixty-two thousand Albanians eagerly marched into Greece with Mussolini's blue shirts. In their enthusiasm, the commanders of the Albanian brigades, Drini and Dajti, requested the "honor" of crossing the Greek borders first. Many prominent communists, among them Ramiz Alia,(secretary general of the Communist Party) started their careers as fascists. Omer Nishani, first president of communist Albania, had fashioned himself as the theoretician of fascism. But when his fascist past surfaced at the Paris Peace Conference, even V.M. Molotov blushed."

During the Greek Civil War that raged after the defeat of the Axis Powers, Greek communists themselves were indeed most eager to accept, in their "Democratic Army", Albanian Cham conscripts, many of whom had previously committed atrocities against the Greek civilian population in Epirus under the tutelage of the Wehrmacht and the SS. The Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha received a request in writing during the visit of of General Markos Vafiadis, the Greek communist leader of ELAS/EAM, during which he requested the dispatch of Albanian Cham reinforcements to Mount Grammos in support of the Greek communist forces during the offensive undertaken by the Greek National Army supported by the US government of President Harry Truman. Vafiadis had expressed optimism regarding the potential "success against the American intervention" speculating that a large part of the Greek state will soon become "liberated" and that the size of the "Democratic Army" will reach 50,000 troops. he was also more than willing to cede parts of Greek territory to the overall goal of joining the ranks of International Communism.

The Cham controversy is only the latest in a number of current challenges in Greek-Albanian relations. If they are entitled to reparations and citizenship for themselves and their descendent's as some human rights and Albanian nationalist groups assert, then about 22 million persons in various post Ottoman countries, as well as several million in the US, Canada and Australia also have claims. Minorities with no "home nation", especially those who a) remained, and b) engaged in no sedition or treason, deserve the same rights as other citizens. Persons who left and engaged in organized sedition should not be considered for repatriation or reparations. If the ethnic cleansing of 400,000 Serbs from Croatia during the 1990s hardly registers on the radar of world public opinion, then the expulsion of 25,000 Chams from their homes in 1946, is hardly worth a second thought, given the historical record. Considering the recent developments in Kosovo and Macedonia I can understand Greece's sensitivity on the issue. Who wants to be seen as ready to give any concessions with such precedents around?

    Technorati : Albania, Albanian Nationalism, Balli Kombetar, Cham Albanians, Chameria, ELAS. EDES, Enver Hoxha, General Hubert Lanz, Gerasimos Priftis, Greece, Greek Civil War, Greek-Albanian Relations, Kosovo, Markos Vafiadis, Napoleon Zervas, Nickolas A Stavrou, Northern Epirus, Shanderberg Waffen SS Division, Theodoros Pangalos, Worl War II

Comments

[ΠΗΓΑΣΟΣ]

Well done Stavros !
I have written some words on this issue in http://pigasos.blogspot.com/2005/11/chameria-is-our-homeland.html.

[Hermes]

Excellent.

[Ervin]

All you greeks still suffer the complex of inferiority, as you still pretend to have right regarding the Cham question. The only thing you have to accept is that all you have is a huge sense of unfairness and racism towards ethnic minorities. But you must be sure that the same way will be the reaction towards the greek mini-minorities in Albania. And i think the reactions will be worst than the yours....

[mario]

i like the tactics the greek govt has adopted recently. by giving their minorities in albania citizenship, it looks like its paving the way to claim most of southern albania. especially since a lot of poor albanians will opt for this.

[Ledio]

Oh look, another angry, propably out of job Greek guy with inveterate extremism who thinks that Albanians are the cause of his problems....how unoriginal and frankly boring. I dont understand why some Greeks like yourself cannot realize that it is 2006 and what the yaya and the papu told you as a kid could have been false and should not be taken as historical truth.

And let me guess, you think that those pesky Macedonians stole Alexander the Great, dont you. Because of course megas alexandros was greek, from kalamata or something. And yes, he liked boys, that's the way it is... Sue?

[Stavros]

Judging from some of the recent comments, it seems certain folks find it easier to launch accusations and personal attacks than address the facts. Then again "facts" are difficult to refute. I always find it amusing when people who don't have much of a history try to expropriate history that belongs to someone else.

[demonax]

Wow, Stavros! You’ve certainly caused these Albanians to crawl out of the woodwork, and what a bunch of semi-literate barbarians they turned out to be. I’m genuinely surprised by their vehemence (though not by their ignorance). Not even the Turks hate us this much. It’s good to know your enemies and what runs through their diseased minds. The Albanians are without question the most inconsequential and useless people in Europe. Known only for crime and violence. Perhaps the fact that Albanians – with such an embarrassing history and barbarian culture – are such losers explains their hostility towards Greeks. How amusing they are, these troglodytes.

[demonax]

An article about Albania by a prominent British journalist appeared in the prestigious UK newspaper, the Sunday Times, a few months ago. AA Gill wasn’t impressed. Read the whole thing at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2271185_1,00.html

Here’s a taste of what the man says:

‘In the unlikely event of your ever needing to know, Tirana’s international airport is called Mother Teresa. It is grimly typical that the Albanians named their runway to the world after a woman who devoted herself to helping people die… Mother Teresa is the only internationally famous Albanian; all the rest are infamous.

‘As you walk across the tarmac, you might notice a couple of planes from Albatros Airways – there is, again, an Albanian inevitability in naming your planes after the only bird that is an international synonym for bad luck.

‘Any sentence with Albania in it is likely to get a laugh. Albania is funny. It’s a punchline, a Gilbert and Sullivan country, a Ruritania of brigands and vendettas and pantomime royalty.

‘The young lounge and practise their impenetrably tough looks; the boys play-fight. The difference between these kids and their neighbours in Italy and Greece is how they look. With effortless élan, Albanian students are without peer the worst-dressed kids in the western world.

‘There are girls with bad peroxide jobs, and minute skirts, and tits-out-for-the-boys tops. They play at being gangster bitches, but it all looks much more like a drama-school production of Guys and Dolls.

‘The men have a strange – and, it must be said, deeply unattractive – habit of rolling up their T-shirts so that they look like bikini tops. The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies.’

[Hermes]

Ethnically most Albanians are of Greek origin with some Serbian, Italian and Caucasian admixture. They are mostly apostate Hellenes. If they appear ugly it is because of poor diet.

[Ted]

For those who can read Greek, there is a very good book on the Tsam issue by Eleftheria Manta: Oi Mousoulmanoi Tsamides tis Epirou, 1923-2000 (ISBN 960 7387 38 4) published by the Institute for Studies of the Emos Peninsula, Thessaloniki, 2004. Manta brings together original archival material examined for the first time. An interesting footnote is that she was denied access to Albanian ministry papers (as if we're surprised). The book, academic, balanced, and using language that avoids the usual polemics, is a serious contribution to scholarly research.

"The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies. How perfect! Physical environment, diet, and daily routines are powerful evolutionary contributors. You should see Albanian children, belonging to illegal immigrant families, who have been raised in Greece; in the short period of 10-15 years, they have lost that animal look of their progenitors almost completely!

[genta Saam]

Reading this immoral page on the internet, one can only conclude that “Ugliness”, “Provocation” and “History misrepresentation”, spits right on the faces of this content provider and his applauding imbeciles.

[Stavros]

Genta,

Perhaps you live in a country that doesn't value free expression or perhaps you prefer politically correct versions of history. Either way, labeling a post "immoral" without giving readers factual reasons why you are doing so smacks of the type of guilt laden values one finds today in the West. It does not work with everybody. Try finding a blog where your approach might be more effective.

[Taulant]

Please Greeks "as my elders called u Kafe=dark skin"read,
Marko Boçari (1790-1823), an Albanian suliot (from the heartland of Chameria). A warrior and a Scholar, he composed an Albanian dictionary of 484 Albanian Lexoms of the Suliot dialect of Albanian. This is preserved at the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris (Suplement 251),

The characteristic Greek national costume is Albanian. The uniform of the Evzones, or Highland Regiments, is Albanian. The war of Independence was largely fought by Albanians. Not only is this true of the Clefts of the mountain district, but the seamen of Hydra and Spetsae. No wonder that the Albanians of Epirus, proud from time immemorial of their orthodoxy religion and their Hellenic culture, find themselves at home in the kingdom of Greece.

Method of apologetics contributed to the obscuring of the Albanian question. It consisted in ignoring or denying the antecedents of anyone who had called himself a Greek. It is as if the United States, in its suspicion of hyphenated Americans, disowned its gift of assimilation. But such an attitude is remote from the frankness and, we may add the farsightedness of the Venizelist regime.
Pre - Venizelist Greece met the Albanian claims to North Epirus by quoting the Hellenic sentiments of Epirotes as proof that racially they could not be Albanians. Venizelist Greece quotes them as a proof that race and language taken by themselves are no test of political allegiance.
We may adapt the epigram of the philosopher who, when asked whether he denied the divinity of Christ, replied that he denied the divinity of no man.
If we are asked whether we deny the Albanism of Koritza, we might reply that we deny the Albanism of no Greek.

Such a paradox is not far from the truth. It is not a matter of old Albanian settlements that have lost their language. There are whole districts as far south as Boeotia and Attica, where the peasants are bi-lingual.Near Thebes many of local people talked Albanian as well as Greek.

When I go to Greece all u fucks beg to spend my money there besides all that shity dark skin of urs "mixed with Ethopian, a sheep--goat hybrid" need some Albanian Chromosomes to change ur future DNA.

p.s. The other day,I stopped at the car wash, had a cup of coffee and the payed ur Greek Brothers to wash & wax my GL, they cleaned it all up nice.

so go fuck a cow u fag

[Stavros]

Taulant,

Reading your comment, my first inclination was to delete it and send it where all the other trash goes, however, I think I will leave this up for awhile, if for no other reason than the fact that your comments make you look much worse than I ever could. I hope that your fellow Albanians are a cut above but I fear that there may be a lot more of your type lurking around on the net. Come back when you learn some manners.

[jill starr]

Monday, April 20, 2009
Robert Latham at New School Allowed Ethnic Albanian To Condone Genocide Against

Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo Posted 3/2/2009 2:37 PM EST

Robert Latham at New School Allowed Ethnic Albanian To Condone Genocide Against

Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo
Posted 3/2/2009 2:37 PM EST

I couldn’t get the link right so read the scoop here -> Robert Latham at New School
Miss Jill Louis Star wrote:
/>> > Dear Friends: I have told this factual autobiographical account prior. However, this
was during the height of NATO’s illegal war launched against Jugoslavija so I am unsure

if this
e-mail ever reached the entire audience for which it was intended. Hence, I am re-sending

a brief
account of whereby one United States University in New York City assisted Bill Clinton

and
Tony Blair in plotting, orchestrating, launching and perpetuating Albanian-KLA

Nationalism and
ethnic genocide directed against the Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo. (See

Attachment for
formal proof).
/>> >
/>> > I. It was in the Fall of 1997, my first semester in graduate school at the New School

for
Social Research when I noticed the bulletin on the wall that announced the Albanian Pro

-KLA
Nationalist Fatmos Ljubonia was going to give a lecture on Albanian Nationalism at the

New
School for Social Research in NYC (5th and 14th Streets in Wolffe Conference Room

2nd
floor). This lecture was undoubtedly funded by the USIP and the WPI (the World Policy

Institute
resides on the fourth floor of the schools location).
/>> >
/>> > II. Evidently, this particular lecture sparked my interest like none other owing to

my serious
commitment in following the various political & international trends regarding the

Kosovo / Serbia
& Bosnia wars and what would occur next. Therefore I made it my business to sit in on

this
lecture.
/>> >
/>> > III. At that time, primarily the students attending this lecture and (it was a full

house) were
from parts of the world (like Asia) who knew nothing about Serbia and Kosovo. So they

were
very interested to hear what Fatmos Ljubonia had to say about the plight of the ethnic

Albanians
in Kosovo. There were only two graduate students who really knew what was going on in
Kosovo at that time between the Albanians and the Serbs. (me and this Albanian student).

I sat
in for about 1 and 1/2 hours taking notes and listening. Then I left. Here is a short and

brief
description of the lecture.
/>> >
/>> > IV. Primarily Fatmos at first attempted to elicit as much sympathy as humanly

possible from
the New School graduate students. He began the lecture by explaining that the Serbian
government had imprisoned him for 20 years. and treated him in an inhumane manner.

He did not
explain why to us.
/>> >
/>> > V. He quickly then shifted (to be blunt)–he spent the rest of his lecture lying to the
(students) about the current situation in Kosovo. He supplied lies as answers to the

students
questions about Serbia, Albania and Kosovo and Fatmos completely bad-mouthed the

Serbian
government blaming it, for myriad human right violations not only committed against him

(as he
claimed) but also against him all ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
/>> >
/>> > VI. He completely this question and answer session quite pleased with himself since

most
of my classmates later indicated to me that they were shocked to hear about the

conditions under
which Fatmos claimed the ethnic Albanians were living under in Kosovo. I knew the man

was a
filthy liar but I could not say anything at the time. So he lied lied and he lied more!
/>> >
/>> > VI. As I said I left early but I will never forget his phrase stating: “I, Fatmos

Ljubonia, have
come to the New School for Social Research to ask you, The New School students, to

give me,
Fatmos Ljubonia, new creative nationalist ideas to PROMOTE AND TO CONSTRUCT

A
GREATER ALBANIA!”
/>> >
/>> > VII. Now there were a hell of a lot of New School faculty members also present

who
knew the truth about what really was going on between Serbia, the Western liberal think

tanks at
the New School for Social Research and their king, Bill Clinton regarding Kosovo.

However,
evidently these were the same political science professors such as David PLotke who

later
tossed me out of graduate school only three weeks prior my anticipated MA graduation

date on
April 22 1999 at knife point (we all know about my Civil Rights Case against the school
#02-99-2132.
/>> >
/>> > VIII. I, Jill Starr have always stood up for the right political and social group, the

Serbs of
course. For it was not the Serbian authorities fault that NATO members and their

corrupted
politicians with a guilty as hell mens rea instigated and escalated the present ethnic

contentions
and genocide now occurring in Kosovo today!
/>> >
/>> > XV. For this reason it does not surprise me that the semester before I was tossed

out of
school by POL SCI DEPT. CHAIR David Plotke, during my classes with the renown

Robert
Latham (from the SSRC in NYC) no one did anything when my Albanian classmate stated

in
front of many UN Diplomats that he 100% promoted “ethnic genocide against the

Orthodox
Christian Serbs in Kosovo!” Of course I reported the incident to both my human rights

professor
Adamantia Polllis and also the Dept. Chair David Plotke, yet neither of them did a damn

thing!
What they did do is allow my Albanian classmate to continue going to school and

graduate while
they decided to throw me out of school and ruin my life to the best of their corrupt

abilities!
/>> >
/>> > X. The Albanian classmate of mine even said to me in front of Robert Latham’s

entire class
(FALL 1998) this to me when I said I’d like to see a copy of his paper which he said is

written to
promote ethnic genocide against Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo this— />”Jill, you

will
surely die before you ever see my term paper!” The New School faculty threw me out and

kept
the genocidal Albanian on April 22 1999! See attachments!
/>> >
/>> > PS: I’d like to give some lectures describing this experience in America to my

friends in
Serbia. David PLotke even came towards me with a swiss army knife!
/>> >
/>> > Respectfully,
/>> > Miss Jill Louise Starr USA
/>> > PO BOX 635
/>> > Newfoundland NJ 07435 USA
/>> > (973) 208-8372
/>>

Post your own opinion for: ROBERT LATHAM
http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa

[Ajdonat]

It is realls sad to see how Greeks interpret the History of minorities in Greece during the WW II.
Like in every other nation Greece was devided between Right Wing And Left Wing,For instance Loayalists and sessionist,the same was with other communitties for instance in Chameria,Vlachs of Thessaly and slav-Macedonians.Some joined the right wing some left wings and most of the peolpe stayed neutral.
The Treaty of Greece with World Powers in 1 of January 1913 rewarded the Kingdom of Greece with added territories.
Greece had to treat those nationas as Greek nationasl art 3.
Also Greece has to comply with principle of Justice,liberty and equality.
Ethnic Albanians of Chameria were always treated as second class citizens.
The had no allowed to open schools in their own language,to govern in local administartion,no rights to serve in the Greek army,Their property rights (
movable and immovable properties)were de facto confiscated.Even though Greece had singed a Treaty in Athens 1913 with Turkey recognizing all registred agrarian Land of Ottoman empire.

The Greek Church incited other groups in Chameria to take posssesion of such lands in order to devide Albanians of Chameria in religiuos lines.
Movable and immovable property were defacto confiscated .
With the arrival of Germans in Greece,the Right Wing Powers in Greece ,like the Railis Government and General Zerva convinced Germans with their support in Greece and with reprisals inside the Albanian Territories.
Therefore Germans opposed the partition of Greece,so Chameria region remained under Greek State.
However,Germans allowed minimal Rights for such Minorities to localy governace and opening of albanian schools.In some cases during that period Chams claimed back their own properties.
These infuriated Criminal
circals in Greece,so Genocide was ordered.
Other very sofosticated European countries have abadoned the Idea of Imperial ideology,that Greece is still holding on,not in its own interst in the long run.
The World has Changed and European integration can not be taken forward with such handycap.

[GGW]

Wow, what a lot of pent-up hatred for a people and a country which opened up it's borders so that those thousands of Albanian citizens who wanted to could make an honest day's living for their families, and provide them with the food and clothing they had been deprived of for so long under the dictatorship of Enver Xotza!

The Greek people have traditionally been very good immigrants, whichever country of the World they migrated to, usually grateful for the opportunities given which they can build on, working hard to achieve great heights in their host country.

Thankfully, in all our dealings with Greeks living Abroad, we have never seen such hatred for the country which has received them.

It is a real shame...and a very sobering lesson in reality.

Thanks

[Spiromilios]

Greek Genocide in Thesprotia !!
Greece should issued an International arrest warrant with Name List against all War criminal Albanian Cams (Tsiamides) !!

[Pirro]

Poor stavros !!! We are the nation of Homer, great Aleksander, Pirro, Gjergj Kastrioti - Skenderbeu, and at last Mother Theresa. The only ability of you so-called greeks is to rob everything: land, history, heroes, money, .... do you really belive you can purloin even the Germans money?!?

[Stavros]

Pirro,

The nation of Homer? What alternate universe do you live in? Albanians are suffering from an inferiority complex. Since you know so little of your own history let me introduce you to some Albanian poetry by a real Albanian (Andon Zako Çajupi) who wasn't very impressed by Albanians like you:

My village

The mountains rich in stone,
The meadows full of grass,
The fields replete with wheat,
Beyond them is a river.

Across from it the village
With church and rows of gravestones,
And standing all around it
Are humble, tiny houses.

Frigid is the water,
The wind blows, but no matter,
The nightingale proclaims it:
Gazelle-like are the women.

Lying in the shade, men
Playing, busy chatting,
Misfortune cannot strike them,
For they're living off their women.

Women in the fields, and
In the vineyards, women,
Women harvest hay, all
Day and night a-toiling.

Women do the threshing,
Reap the harvest, women,
Leaving before sunrise,
After dark returning!

For their husbands, women
Scorch out in the sunshine,
Working, never resting
Not even on a Sunday!

Poor Albanian woman,
All the time a-slaving,
And when homeward's wending,
Makes both lunch and supper.

What about your husband
Lounging by the fountain?
Oh, my wretched woman,
You run, too, the household!