Chameria

Chameria (Albanian: Çamëria, Greek: Τσαμουριά Tsamouriá) is a term used to decribe territories of Ethnic Albania in the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. Most of what is called Chameria is divided between the Greek prefectures of Thesprotia and Preveza, the southern extremity of Albania's Sarandë District and some villages in eastern Ioannina Prefecture. The term is rejected in Greece due to its perceived connotation of Albanian irredentism.The region is named after Cham Albanians, by adding the suffix -eria, which in Albanian language denotes "land of the Chams". Chameria was mostly used as a term for the region of modern Thesprotia, during the Ottoman rule and in modern times when speaking about the Cham Albanians. It's name derives from name of the Thyamis river(Lumi Kalamaja), which in Albanian language is called Cham (Çam)or Kalamaja.In antiquity the region was called Thesprotia, named after the Illyrian tribe of the Thesprotians, which were the inhabitants. According to Strabo, the Thesprotians (along with the Chaonians and the Molossians) were the most famous among the fourteen tribes of Epirus, who once ruled over the whole region. The Chaonians ruled Epirus first while the Thesprotians and Molossians ruled afterwards.In Medieval Ages the region, known as Vagenetia, was under the jurisdiction of the Roman and later Byzantine Empire. In 1205, Michael Komnenos Doukas, a cousin of the Byzantine emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos founded the Despotate of Epiros, which ruled the region until the 15th century.During medieval ages, two Albanian states were formed in the region. In the summer of 1358, Nikephoros II Orsini, the last despot of Epirus of the Orsini dynasty, was defeated in battle against Albanian chieftains. Following the approval of the Serbian Tsar, these chieftains established two new states in the region, the Despotate of Arta and Principality of Gjirokastër.Internal dissention eased the Ottoman conquest, which proceeded with the capture of Ioannina in 1430, Arta in 1449, Angelokastron in 1460, and finally Vonitsa in 1479, giving an end to the Despotate of Epirus and the newly established Albanian states, putting Vagenetia, under Ottoman rule.During the Ottoman rule, the region was under the Vilayet of Ioannina, and later under the Pashalik of Yanina. During this time, the region was known as Chameria (also spelled Tsamouria, Tzamouria) and became a district in the Vilayet of Yanina.In the 18th century, as the power of the Ottomans declined, the region came under the semi-independent state of Ali Pasha Tepelena, an Albanian brigand who became the provincial governor of Ioannina in 1788. Ali Pasha started campaigns to subjugate the confederation of the Souli settlements in this region. His forces met fierce resistance by the Souliotes warriors(Albanian Orthodox). After numerous failed attempts to defeat the Souliotes, his troops succeeded in conquering the area in 1803.After the fall of the Pashalik, the region remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire, while Greece and Albania declared that their goal was to include in their states the whole region of Epirus, including Thesprotia or Chameria.Finally, following the Balkan Wars, Epirus was divided in 1913, in the London Peace Conference, and the region came under the control of Kingdom of Greece, with only a small portion being integrated into the newly formed State of Albania.When the region came under Greek control, its population was at vast majority Albanian. In the aftermath of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the region was settled by Greek refugees from Asia Minor.In 1936 the Ioannina prefecture where the area was included, divided into two parts and the new prefecture took the name Thesprotia which was its ancient name. Cham Albanians were given religious, but not the ethnic status.Muslim Chams were counted as a religious minority, and some of them were transferred to Turkey, during the 1923 population exchange,while their property was alienated by the Greek government.Orthodox Cham Albanians were counted as Greeks, and their language and Albanian heritage were under pressure of assimilation.At the end of World War II, nearly all Muslim Chams in Greece were expelled to Albania.Led by Zervas' former officer, Col. Zotos, a loose paramilitary grouping of former guerrillas and local men went on a rampage. In the worst massacre, in the town of Filiates on 13 March, some sixty to seventy Chams were killed.The exact number of Albanians still residing in the Chameria region is uncertain, since the Greek government does not include ethnic and linguistic categories in any official census. According to one source, Orthodox Chams today are approximately 40,000.Albanian is still spoken by a minority of inhabitants in Igoumenitsa.According to Ethnologue, Albanian language is spoken as a mother-tongue by about 10,000 Albanians in Epirus and the village of Lechovo, in Florina.


Demographics
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In Greek censuses, only Muslims of the region were counted as Albanians. According to the 1913 Greek census, 25,000 Muslims were living at the time in the Chameria region who had Albanian as their mother tongue, from a total population of about 60,000, while in 1923 there were 20,319 Muslim Chams. In the Greek census of 1928, there were 17,008 Muslims who had it as their mother tongue.The only census that counted Orthodox population of the region of Albanian ethnicity, was made by Italy in 1941. This census found that in the region lived 54,000 Albanians, of whom 26,000 Orthodox and 28,000 Muslim and 20,000 Greeks.After the war, according to Greek censuses where ethno-linguistic groups were counted, Muslim Chams were 113 in 1947 and 127 in 1951.