Albanians in Greece

Albanians in Greece form the country's largest population group after the ethnic Greek majority. Due to different waves of migration, they are divided into distinct communities. The main group is that of Albanians in Northwestern Greece, who form a national minority, while other populations of Albanian origin have been assimilated into the Greek nation.The first group of Northwestern Greece is mainly composed of Cham Albanians, who identify with the modern Albanian nation. Muslim Chams were expelled from the region of Epirus during World War II due to their alleged collaboration with the Axis occupation, while Orthodox remained in Greece. This population forms part of the modern Albanian nation, alongside minor communities in Ioannina Prefecture and West Macedonia periphery, mainly concentrated in Konitsa and Florina, respectively.Another group of Albanian origin, which speak a dialect of Albanian, is that of Arvanites and Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace, who retain a distinct ethnical identity, but self-identify nationally as Greeks.Albanian immigrants, who have entered Greece in large numbers since the fall of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, form the largest single expatriate group in the country today.


Historical maps showing Albanians in Greece!
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Albanians in Northwest Greece
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Albanians in Epirus are concentrated in the region of Chameria, while minor presence exists in the northern part of Ioannina Prefecture, as well as in Western Macedonia periphery, mainly in Florina. Although the Muslim community was expelled from Greece, or became part of the Greco-Turkish population exchange, the Orthodox population remained. Today, the majority of them are called Arvanites by others, but self-identify as Shqiptar, which means Albanians. In contrast with Arvanites, they have retained, not only a distinct ethnic identity, but also the Albanian national identity.Their Albanian identity was suppressed by deeply repressive policy of assimilation. As before World War II, the Albanian language was not allowed to be spoken in public, nor taught in the schools. As the speaking of Albanian was prohibited in public, the assimilation of Orthodox Albanians gathered momentum and they have struggled ever since to maintain their identity.Orthodox Cham Albanians still live in the region in three prefectures.According to a study by the Euromosaic project of the European Union, they occupy the border with Albania in Thesprotia prefecture, the northern part of the Preveza prefecture, in the region called Thesprotiko and a few villages in Ioannina prefecture.Albanian is still spoken in the region and some of the elder inhabitants are Albanian monolinguals.The language is spoken even by young people, because when the local population migrates to Athens, or abroad, the children are left with their grandparents, thus creating a continuity of speakers.Today, in Greece exist only a small number of Albanian toponimies, like Semeriza (from Albanian Shemërizë, meaning Saint Mary), which have not been changed since the Ottoman Empire.The Greek government tried to alter the demographic structure of northwest Greece, by the introduction of settlers from other parts of the country. Vlachs in particular were encouraged to settle in abandoned Cham villages without the legal right of ownership. The reason of the demographic change was because Greece did not trust the rest of the Albanian population who remained there, even though they were Orthodox.Another group of Albanians in Epirus is concentrated in Ioannina prefectures, where they form a majority in two villages of Konitsa district.As Chams, they form part of the modern Albanian nation and self-identify as Shqiptar.This population is part of the Lab branch of Albanians, whose dialect they speak. The city of Ioannina itself, had in past a substantial number of Albanians, being a intermediate dialect of Cham and Lab.Notable Albanian writer, publicist and politician, Faik Konica was born in Konitsa, Greece, in 1875.Another group of Albanians is settled in West Macedonia periphery, being speakers of Northern Tosk Albanian dialect.Today, there are three villages of Albanian majority: Drosopigi, Flampouro, and Lechovo.


Cham Albanians
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At the end of World War II, nearly all Muslim Chams in Greece were expelled to Albania. They were accused by EDES for having collaborated with occupation forces. However, Muslim Chams provided military support to the Greek resistance forces of the ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army), while the rest were civilians uninvolved in the war.Since the war, no criminal of Cham origin was ever brought to trial. Today, the Muslim majority lives in Albania, United States and Turkey, as a result of their expulsion.Since the fall of Communism in Albania, Muslim Chams have asked for the right to return to their homeland, an issue that does not exist for Greece.


Ethnolinguistic minority
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In addition to the minority of North-western Greece, there are communities of Albanian origin, who no longer identify as Albanians. Although they retain a distinct Arvanitic ethnical identity,nationally they identify as Greeks. These are communities created by Albanian settlers, during the Middle Ages (Arvanites) and during the first half of 20th century (Albanian-speakers of Northeastern Greece). Today they retain their dialect of the Albanian language and cultural similarities with Albanians, but refuse any national connection with them.


Arvanites
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The main part of these groups is composed by the Southern Greek dialectological group of Arbëreshë, known as Arvanites. They are a population group in Greece of, ultimately, Albanian origin who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a form of Tosk Albanian. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions in the south of Greece until the 19th century.Arvanites today self-identify as Greeks and have largely assimilated into mainstream Greek culture.Arvanitika is endangered due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale internal migration to the cities in recent decades.


Suliotes
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Souliotes were a warlike community who became famous across Albania and Greece for the herioc resistance against the local Ottoman Pashalik of Janina, ruled by Ali Pasha, an Albanian brigand.After their defeat in 1803, the Souliotes were forced to move to other parts of Greece, and many of them later became active in the Greek War of Independence starting in 1821, under leaders such as Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas.The Souliotes originally spoke their own sub-branch of Cham Albanian dialect and eventually became bilingual in Albanian and Greek. After their assimilation, a language shift to Greek occurred, while Souliotic became an extinct dialect.


Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace
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This group of albanian population in Greece is located in North-eastern Greece, as a result of migration during the early 20th century. Albanian-speakers form a linguistic minority in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace along the border with Turkey. They speak the Northern Tosk subbranch of Tosk Albanian and are descendants of the Albanian population of Eastern Thrace who migrated during the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s.They are known in Greece as Arvanites, a name applied to all groups of Albanian origin in Greece, but which primarily refers to the southern dialectological group of Arbëreshë. The Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace and Macedonia use the common Albanian self-appellation, Shqiptar.


Albanian immigrants in Greece
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After the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a large number of economic refugees and immigrants from Greece's neighboring countries, Albania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, as well as from more distant countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, arrived in Greece, mostly as illegal immigrants, to seek employment. The vast majority of Albanians in Greece is estimated to be between 60-65% of the total number of immigrants in Greece. According to official data (2008), there are 459,390 holders of Albanian citizenship in Greece.