After the first massacres committed by the Greek nationalist forces against the Cham minority in Greece, as well as with the departure of the German forces, the situation in Chams worsened. Like all of Greece, Chameria was engulfed by the fever of the civil war that had broken out between EAM and EDES. Precisely in order to prevent such a thing, as well as to unite the Greek resistance forces against the German army, the officers of the British mission in Greece tried to reach an agreement between the EAM and the EDES.
After many talks between representatives of these two forces with the mediation of British officers, at the end of August 1944, in Caserta, Italy, the armistice agreement was signed between EAM and EDES led by Napoleon Zerva.
Based on this agreement, both EAM and EDES agreed on the definition of the areas of influence, making the border north of the Kalamas River and continuing on the western line of the Monastery of Saint Mary - Dhovlas - All Saints - Libovë - Qeramica - Maluni, belonged to Albanian Muslim partisans, who were part of the mixed battalion of the Greek People's Liberation Army.
Meanwhile, the areas of Gumenica and Ioannina, up to the extension to the north, up to the border with Albania, were known as areas of influence of EDES. The forces of the XV Regiment of ELAS, led by the Greek commander Paraskas, contrary to the orders given by the military leaders of ELAS, decided to take under their control a good part of the territories of Filati and Sajadha.
Such an action was not well received by the military and political leaders of EAM/ELAS, who ordered the immediate withdrawal of the troops of this regiment and the passage of this area under the influence of the mixed battalion, composed of Albanian Chams. The Edeist forces, not respecting the points of the agreement, entered the areas inhabited by Albanians, which were left under the control of the mixed battalion of the XV Regiment of ELAS. An informative report of the PKG, of the Epirus branch, sent to the Central Committee of the Greek Communist Party in Athens, regarding the introduction of the troops of the Xth Regiment of the EDES in Çameri during November 1944, announced that, "this serious misunderstanding (the word was for the violation of the territory of Chameria, which on the basis of this agreement was recognized by the 15th Regiment of the Greek People's Liberation Army, composed of Greeks and Cham Albanians, our note) gave EDES the right to taste in Filat and in Çameri and cover all its terrible crimes".
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Chameria as a professional and national concern
EAM itself with its army, due to the divergences that existed within this movement, was unable to withstand the growing pressure from Zerva and other extremist nationalist groups, which also had the support of British missions in Greece. Taking advantage of the created situation, the Greek nationalist forces led by N. Zerva openly expressed the initiative to continue their military action in the provinces of southern Albania.
Such an action, exposed by force by Zerva and his supporters, to cross the Albanian border was opposed by American policy.
The start of the massacres
In November 1944, the American undersecretary of state Stetinius, informed about what was happening in Chameri, would emphasize that; "We think that we should not allow the Greek and Albanian armed forces to cross the border and that their attempts to expel or annihilate the minority belonging to a different language or national group should not be tolerated." Zerva's strategy to attack the Cham population in the interior of the Albanian territory was openly denounced by the allies and the General Staff of the Albanian UNCL, which responded in the same way to the Edeist threat.
Faced with a clash between the EDES and the Albanian FNÇL, as well as recognizing the true military strength of the Albanian liberation army, the Allied Headquarters of the Middle East communicated to Zerva that, "in case he tried to cross even an inch of the Albanian border , would be responsible for what followed." According to the allies, Zerva's plan, in case of a possible attempt to cross the Albanian border, would be unattainable, because the Greek nationalist forces would be put between two fires, where on the one hand they would be attacked by EAM troops. / ELAS and on the other hand would be attacked by the military forces of the Albanian LANÇ. After numerous attempts, in December 1944, a significant part of Chameria province was put under the control of the National Liberation Front of EAM and ELLAS. As a result of this created situation, the Edeist forces in the first ten days of January 1945 left towards Corfu.
After the temporary control of these territories by EAM forces, it appeared that conditions had been created for the displaced Cham population to return to their homes. Following the efforts of the Cham patriots to denounce the massacres that had been committed against the Albanian population, as well as to enable the return of displaced Cham families, a representation of this population headed by the patriot Musa Demi in the first days of January 1945, received contacts with the heads of EAM and the Panepiriot Committee in Ioannina.
M. Demi's request to the Eamist leaders to create the right conditions for the return of the Chams to Chameri was well received by the Greek communists. After the meeting with the Greek leaders of the EAM, Musa Demi, accompanied by Jani Kondi from the village of Finiq i Filati, appeared in Athens to meet the Greek Prime Minister Papandreou, who flatly refused to meet with the representation of the Chama Muslim Albanians. . Despite the failure to secure a meeting with representatives of the Greek government, the commission of representatives of the Cham population did not retreat from efforts to complete the mission they had undertaken.
Musa Demi and other representatives of the Cham minority met a representative of the allied mission in Athens, to whom they were made aware of the chilling facts and the difficult situation in which the Albanian population in Cham was.
First reactions
The only promise that the Cham representatives received was that the problem they raised would be brought to the attention of the allies, but that they would not undertake the final solution of the issue and the return of the Cham families to Cham. Efforts to enable the return of displaced Cham families to their lands were increased by the Greek and Albanian leftist forces. For this purpose, both the Greek EAM and the Albanian FNÇL agreed that the displaced Cham population could return to Cham during the following days.
Based on the agreement on January 6, 1945, the High Command of the XV Regiment of ELAS addressed a call to the Cham Anti-Fascist Committee, as well as to all Cham emigrants displaced from Cham. In this call, the fact was emphasized that the return of the Cham families to their homes would be quick, but this return would only begin at those moments when a joint decision was made between the Albanian government and that of ELAS. Aware of the crimes committed by the Zervists at the expense of the Cham population, the Greek leaders of EAM-ELAS emphasized that; "The drama and catastrophe that had recently engulfed the Cham Muslim element had completely destroyed it." In parallel with the call to the Cham minority, the National Liberation Committee of the EAM and the Greek Panepiriot Committee, on January 28, 1945, issued a call to the Christian residents of Cham, through which the decision made by the Gjirokastra Prefecture became known. for the return of Cham refugees to their homes.
In this call, the local population was ordered not to prevent the repatriation of the Cham population to their homes, as well as to take measures to eliminate conflicts and create friendly relations between the two communities. Also, the provisional local administration of Chameria was instructed to take measures for the reception of the Cham community, that this return should be accompanied by a propaganda, in which the friendship and harmony between the communities and the two neighboring peoples should be emphasized. In order to control the implementation of the given orders, as well as to closely follow the repatriation process of the Chams, the National Liberation Committee of EAM sent special people to the field. The measures taken by the EAM and the Hellenic Panepiriot Committee were considerable and the work for the repatriation of the displaced Cham population proceeded normally.
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Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and its consequences in Albania
Encouraged by the talks between EAM and the Albanian government, about 3 to 000 Chams decided to repatriate to Chameri. But, despite the measures taken by the Greek side and the guarantees given by the British mission in Tirana, a good part of the Cham residents, who were able to escape the Zerva massacres and who had seen the crimes committed with their own eyes, who intended to return to their homes. The time was right. Very soon this return would prove fatal for this part of the population. Only a few weeks later, Zerva's forces would regain control of the province of Chameria and fate had prepared another cruel act for the Albanians.
The murders of the servants
The danger of the formation of a communist government in Greece alarmed the British missions in Greece and the government in London. As a result of British intervention for the creation of a Greek national government, on February 12, 1945, the Varkiza Agreement was signed between EAM and EDES. According to this agreement, the ELAS forces were to be disarmed immediately and military control of Greece was taken over by the Quisling government of Ralis. The Varkiza agreement, apart from being an unconditional capitulation of EAM-ELAS, also determined the fate of the Cham Albanian population in Greece. EDES, as a force guided by strong nationalist and anti-communist principles, has long had a constant anti-Cham and anti-Albanian line in general. In March 1945, the Zervist forces, supported by the British, created a special military unit, which took the name "National Guard".
The primary task of this paramilitary military formation was the elimination of their political opponents, as well as the mass extermination and expulsion of the Albanian civilian population from Chameria. On March 5, 1945, a military body of 200 Zervist soldiers, dressed and armed with British weapons, landed from Corfu in the village of Sajadh. After surrounding Filati, Shqepar and Spatari, the Edeist forces commanded by Kristo Kaca, Ilia Kaca and col. Zotos resumed the massacres of the Cham civilian population. On March 8, Selam Izeti from the village of Spatar was killed, while on March 9, Kadri Konduri from Sollopia was killed. Only on March 12 and 13, by the troops commanded by General Zervist Zotos, 217 Chams were killed in Filat, of these 120 men, 60 women and 15 children. The data on the massacres carried out by the servist army during this period are contradictory. The Greek author E. Manda minimizes the number of Cham victims, bringing it to 60-70 people. Regarding the number of people killed in Filat by the service forces led by Colonel Zotos, on March 12 and 13, the author M. Mazower gives a number of about 60 people killed among the Albanian population.
While the total number of Cham killed during the massacres of March 1945, this author takes from 70 to 100 Cham men. According to him, the rest of the population of these villages, who escaped the barbarism of the Edeists, left for Albania under the accompaniment of UNRRA and other international organizations. Regarding the March massacres in Filat against the Cham population, the Greek author E. Manda points out that, "as a result of the cleansing operations of the Cham population in Filat, on March 12 and 13, around 60-70 Chams were killed, while the rest was forced to leave in the direction of the Albanian border".
On March 14, servist gangs led by Ilia Kaca killed Haki Banon. On this same date, a group of Cham families, as they were forced to migrate towards the border with Albania, were executed on the way. From the testimonies given by the survivors, it appears that about 40 men were killed by the Edeist forces. On March 16, Edeist forces led by Kosta Tasho and Fete Noti from Smarta, executed Hysen Shabani along with his son Jakupin and brother Riza Shabani. After the execution of the men of the Shabani family, the rest took the road towards the border with Albania, abandoning everything. The Greek author J. Sharras describes in this way the great exodus of Cham refugees towards the border with Albania; "Thousands of men, women and children, with pain and regret on their faces, started with what they could take with them, on the way to salvation".
Massacres in numbers
The consequences of the massacres of the Greek Andarts against the Cham minority in Greece were quite serious. The figures of the migration of the Cham Muslim population from Chameria have already been accepted by all international organizations. According to official data, the number of Cham refugees forcibly displaced from Greece during the years 1944-45 is around 25. A total of 000 people were massacred and lost, and around 2 people died on the roads while leaving for Albania and other areas. More than 300 Albanian villages of Chameria were completely burned and destroyed, where the number of burnt and looted houses reaches 2. More than 400 heads of cattle were stolen and more than 61 others were lost or died.
As for agricultural products, about 1 ounces of grain and 730 ounces of oil went to waste, or were stolen by Greek gangs. In total, losses in agricultural products for the year 000-620 for Cham farmers were 000 ounces of grain, 1944 ounces of corn, and 45 ounces of oil. After the liberation of Greece from Nazi-fascist forces, the Greek government in office adopted a Special Penal Code, aimed at punishing all those who were considered collaborators with the Italians, Bulgarians and Germans. Through constitutional acts and laws, the necessary details were regulated to include under the jurisdiction of the Special Courts, the crimes that would be judged by them and the punishments that would be given based on the guilt committed by individuals or different groups of the population.
Through these acts and laws, it was foreseen that depending on the degree of the action that the defendant had committed, the special court would rule on the partial or complete sequestration of the person's property. This special law, among other things, was prepared by the Greek government, in order to finish once and for all the work started for the confiscation of the assets of the Cham minority in Greece after 1913. Based on these ordinances, on May 23, 1945 , the Special Court of Ioannina sentenced to death in absentia 1930 Albanian Chams, who, according to the decision of this court, were considered collaborators of the invaders.
By this court, just four days later, on May 27, 1945, another 79 Chams were sentenced to death on the same charge. As an obligation to all Cham convicts accused of collaboration with the enemy, the measure of confiscation of their property was imposed, including that which was in the hands of their spouses, children and other family members related to them. In this way, the Greek state legally sanctioned, as it had done before, the theft and confiscation of the assets of the Cham minority in Greece. The disappearance and ethnic cleansing of the Albanians at any cost became one of the most important tasks for the Greek Andarts. The mass expulsion and massacres carried out by them on the Chama Albanians during the Second World War and at its conclusion, besides causing incalculable damage to the Albanian minority, left a mark on the relations between the two neighboring peoples.
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Summer, 1944: The town of Paramithi was turned into a Cham slaughterhouse
The Greek nationalists tried to justify the massacre committed against the Cham population under the pretext that the Cham population left of its own accord, since, according to them, this part of the population felt that punishment awaited them due to their role as collaborators of the Nazis. For them, the massacre committed against the Albanian Muslim population had happened before this territory was occupied by the Greek government military troops and before the Greek state authority was established in Chameri. The massacre committed by the Greek chauvinists against the Albanian Muslim civilian population was not something accidental. This massacre was a well-planned act within the Greek chauvinist policies of Megaliides. Napoleon Zerva affirmed with his own mouth such a policy of the Greek state, as he wrote to a friend of his a few years later that, "we must remind our countrymen who liberated Chameria from the Albanians, who for five hundred years they trampled on Hellenism".
Not long after the end of the Second World War, the Greek authorities announced with great pleasure that only 113 Chams remained in the city of Parga, of these; 79 women, 34 children and the rest elderly people. As if to confirm the balance of victims caused by the Greek state and by the Greek nationalist forces against the Cham Albanian population in Greece, the Greek author E. Manda states that, "In this way, a cycle of bloodshed in Epirus was closed, a cycle that had begun long before earlier, since 1940". / Lorenc Agalliu, Mapo
