Medieval era (up to 1434) The first undisputed mention of Albanians as an ethnic group in historical records dates from the second half of the 11th century, where they are named as the inhabitants of
Arbanon in central Albania. During this time, the earliest mention of Albanians within the region of Epirus is recorded in a Venetian document of 1210 as inhabiting the area opposite the island of Corfu. Groups of Albanians moved into Thessaly and the Peloponnese as early as 1268 as mercenaries of
Michael Doukas. In the early 14th century, some Albanian clans were reported in Epirus and
Thessaly, mainly hired as mercenaries from the Byzantines. A major migration occurred in the 1340s and 1350s when Albanian tribesmen supported the successful
Serbian campaign against
Byzantine possessions the region. During this migration period, two Albanian entities were formed in Epirus: the
Despotate of Arta (1358–1416) and the
Principality of Gjirokastër (1386–1411). While the area of Vagenetia (medieval name of Chameria/Thesprotia) was mainly under the control of Italian rulers: either
Venetians or the Despotes of Epirus based in Ioannina. That time, representatives of Vagenetia, together with a delegation from Ioannina, asked the Serb ruler
Simeon to protect them from the Albanian threat. Both Albanian entities were annexed and in 1419, many Albanians fled from Epirus and moved to
Morea. Those tribes that settled in southern Greece would become the ancestors of the
Arvanites. There were also other Albanian groups which in the 19th century had become Greek-speaking as attested by primary accounts about them older than the 19th century and toponyms of Albanian origin in specific regions. These areas included the settlements along the
Tyria river valley, the region to the northeast of
Ioannina Lake, the region south of the Fanari plain in Preveza and partly the area extending to the south
Tzoumerka mountain range. From the establishment of Ottoman rule until 1864, the region of Chameria was included in the
Eyalet of
Rumelia. It was divided between the sanjaks of
Delvina and
Ioannina, which were second order administrative divisions. Between 1787 and 1822,
Ali Pasha controlled the region, which was incorporated into his
Pashalik of Yanina, a
de facto independent state under only nominal Ottoman authority. Under Ottoman rule,
Islamization was widespread amongst Albanians. Until the end of the 16th century, Chams were still predominantly Christian, but by the end of the 17th century the urban centers had largely adopted Islam. The growth of an Albanian Muslim elite of Ottoman officials, like
pashas and
beys, such as the
Köprülü family, who played an increasingly important role in Ottoman political and economic life, further strengthened this trend. Muslim Chams were mostly followers of the
Bektashi order, The Chams have their own peculiar cultural identity, which is a mixture of Albanian and Greek influences as well as many specifically Cham elements. Albanian Chams did not face any dilemma over their ethnic identity or relations with other Albanian socio-cultural and dialectal subdivisions. In general religion, and not ethnicity, defined each community in Ottoman society. Under this context the Muslim communities in Ottoman Epirus were classified as "Turks", while the Orthodox as "Greeks" regardless of their ethnic origin, though some exceptions existed. The process of Islamization of the Chams started in the 16th century, but it reached major proportions only in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to the population census (
defter) of 1538, the population of the region was almost entirely Orthodox, with only a minority, estimated less than five per cent, having converted to Islam. The main instigator for the beginning of mass conversions in the region were the draconian measures adopted by the Ottomans after the two failed revolts of the Greek monk
Dionysius the Philosopher as well as a number of Muslim local farmers, against the Ottomans. In their wake, the Ottoman pashas tripled the taxes owed by the non-Muslim population, as they regarded the Orthodox element a continuous threat of future revolts. Another reason for conversion was the absence of liturgical ceremonies in Chameria, especially in the northern part of the region. This combination resulted in the first wave of conversions in the beginning of the 18th century, by a number of poor farmers. At this time Muslims became the majority in a few villages like Kotsika, near Sagiada. The wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between Russia and the Ottoman Empire negatively impacted upon the region. During the entire 18th century, Muslims were still a minority among the Albanian population of the region, and became the majority only in the second half of the 19th century. Estimates based on the
defter of 1875 show that Muslim Chams had surpassed Orthodox Chams in numbers. Nationalist sentiments during the late Ottoman era was weak in the region with Muslim Albanian Chams referring to themselves as
Myslyman(Muslims) or
Turks while local Orthodox Albanian speaking Christians referred to themselves as
Kaur (i.e
infidels) and did not find the term offensive. During the Albanian National Awakening a number of local Albanians would establish private, unrecognized Albanian-language schools. In 1870, the despot of Paramythia, Grygorios, translated the
New Testament into Albanian, as his followers could not understand well the
Greek language. While, in 1879, the first Albanian school of the region was created in Sagiada by father Stathi Melani. At that time, the region was under the short-lived rule of the
League of Prizren. Moreover, Abedin Dino managed to gather various Albanian personalities in Preveza, from all over Albania and Epirus, who believed that the Ottomans will provide full support to the Albanian movement and were against annexation of Epirus to Greece. They also organized a
meeting there in January 1879 and on 28 February 1879, signed a petition with a threat to take arms to prevent an annexation of Preveza to Greece. As a result of the unrest created, led by
Abdyl Frashëri, another Albanian national figure, the local Ottoman governor was recalled. Abedin Dino was also recalled from Preveza, while the recently arrived Albanians left the city and returned to their homelands. In January 1907 a secret agreement was signed between
Ismail Kemal, a prominent leader of the then Albanian national movement, and the Greek government which concerned the possibility of an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. According to this, the two sides agreed that the future Greek-Albanian boundary should be located on the Acroceraunian mountains, thus leaving Chameria to Greece. As part of the agreement, Kemal in exchange asked the Greek authorities to support the Albanian movement and the Greek side agreed, provided that no armed Albanian activity will emerge south of the Acroceraunians. Kemal's reasons for closer ties with Greece during this time was to thwart Bulgarian ambitions in the wider Balkans region and gain support for Albanian independence. When the Ottoman defeat was imminent and before the arrival of the Greek army in the region, Muslim Cham and
Lab armed units burned a number of Greek villages: 3 in the vicinity of Preveza (Tsouka, Glyky, Potamia), 4 in Thesprotia (Alpohori, Manoliasa, Keramitsa, Fortopia) as well as a number of villages in the regions of Ioannina, Sarande and Delvina. From these actions, many villagers managed to escape to the nearby island of Corfu. The local Orthodox Albanian speaking population did not share the national ideas of their Muslim Albanian speaking neighbours, whereas instead they remained Greek-oriented and identified themselves as Greeks. Throughout this period the Albanian speaking zones in Thesprotia and adjacent areas that later became part of Albania was considered a nuisance for both the Greek state and Christians of Epirus who self identified as Greeks. The non-Greek linguistic factor posed a hindrance to Greek territorial ambitions. Tackling this issue was undertaken through two policies. The first was that Greek historians and politicians attempted through concerted efforts to conceal the existence of the Albanian language within the region. The second was to present the argument that the language spoken by the local population had no relation upon their national affiliations. According to the prevalent ideology in Greece at the time, every Orthodox Christian was considered Greek, whereas after 1913, especially the area of Southern Albania deemed "Northern Epirus" by Greece, Muslims were considered Albanians. With the incorporation of the area within Greece, these discursive policies alongside the practical were continued. This was due to the sizable Albanian Muslim population being considered a real problem for the Greek state and hence any pro-Albanian movement eventuating had to be eliminated by all means. Chams had their own delegates in the Vlora Congress of 1912, when Albanian Independence was proclaimed. Four representatives from Chameria and two representatives of Ioannina took part in the congress, and the six of them were in favor of Independence. They were
Jakup Veseli from Margariti,
Kristo Meksi and
Aristidh Ruci from Ioannina,
Rexhep Demi from Filiates,
Veli Gërra from Igoumenitsa, and
Azis Tahir Ajdonati from Paramythia. Especially in the Sanjak of Preveza, Muslim Albanians embraced ideas regarding the Albanian national movement of the time. Amongst them large landowners and state employees who came from other places were hostile to the local Greek population and persecuted them. Also though unknown in numbers, the proportion of Muslim Albanians over a prolonged period increased within this area, due to official Ottoman resettlement policy regarding geo-strategic interests and concerns.
Modern history Balkan Wars, World War I and first years of Greek rule (1913–1923) With the onset of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Muslim Chams were uneager to fight as part of the Ottoman army. Nonetheless, most of the Lab and Cham beys formed irregular armed groups that fought against the Greek units, burning a number of villages in the regions of Paramythia, Fanari and Filiates. On the other hand some beys in Margariti were not willing to fight and were ready to accept Greek rule due to the general anarchy in the Ottoman Empire. Local Christians were enlisted as part of the Greek forces. Within a few days after the Greek army secured control of the region, a Greek
Cretan paramilitary under commanders Deligiannakis and Spiros Fotis, killed 75 Cham notables of Paramythia who were gathered to pledge allegiance to the Greek state. A few months later, more Cham notables were murdered by Greek authorities. In their internal correspondence, Italian diplomats in the region noted that this was a tactic employed to end Cham Albanian influence in the region by eliminating the elite class which had the role of dissemination of Albanian national ideology in the broader population. Following the defeat of Ottoman forces in the
Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, an international boundary commission awarded the
northern part of the region of Epirus to the
Principality of Albania, and the
southern part to the
Kingdom of Greece, leaving Greek and Albanian minority areas on both sides of the border. Most of the areas inhabited by Chams, except for a few villages, were assigned to Greece. After the end of the Balkan Wars, Greek authorities suspected that a local anti-Greek movement was possible, supported by the Provisional Government of Albania and Italy, and decided to disarm the population. Moreover, Albanian representatives accused Greece of assassinations and persecution of Cham representatives. These accusations were rejected by the Greek government. In the
December 1915 legislative elections, due to the general boycott declared by the party of
Eleftherios Venizelos, two of the three deputies of Preveza electoral periphery were Muslim Chams:
Ali Dino and Musli Emin Ramiz. Persecution of Chams continued during World War I at a smaller scale than in the Balkan Wars. Many villages mainly in the former
kazas of Filiates and Paramythia were burnt down. It can be inferred that during the Interwar period the Muslim Cham community did not appear to have a clear-cut understanding of their national affiliation beyond their local religious affiliations. Chams were in fact divided amongst themselves as to where their loyalties lay. In accordance with the Greek policy on minorities at the time, Orthodox Cham Albanians were counted together with Greeks, while the Muslim Chams were counted in the census as a religious minority. During this period, the Muslim Cham beys lost the political power they enjoyed during Ottoman rule, but manage to briefly retain their economic influence. The Muslim portion of the population was under a
sui generis rule of the Greek authorities and the local
muftis, who were recognized in these areas. In the region of Epirus there were the muftis of Ioannina, Paramythia, Filiates, Margariti, Igoumenitsa, Parga, Preveza, Sagiada and Thesprotiko. Soon with the outbreak of WWI, Greek authorities imposed significant restrictions on land rights of Cham Albanian property owners. Additionally, a new tax system which targeted large estates of Muslim landowners was employed and massive grain expropriation was used again Cham properties to support Greek war effort. This led to starvation and dozen of deaths in the region. A military report of the Italian general commissioner to the Italian Ministry of Defence notes that from July 1917 onward the rule of the Greek authorities in Epirus had forced more than 3,000 Chams to seek refuge towards Istanbul and Anatolia.
Population exchange and appropriation of property (1923–1926) in 1915, by Fred Boissonas At the conclusion of the
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Greece and Turkey signed the
Treaty of Lausanne, according to which the Muslims of Greece would be
exchanged with the Orthodox Christians of Turkey, making a unique exception for the Muslims of western Thrace and the Orthodox Christian population of Istanbul. The treaty used religion as the indicator of national affiliation, thus including Muslim Cham Albanians in the population exchange. Greek officials had two options. The first was to exchange Muslim Chams with Greeks from Turkey, under the population exchange. The second option was to exchange them with a community of the
Greek minority in Albania. They approached the Albanian government in 1923, but Albanian officials refused to consider the second scheme. Muslim Chams nevertheless were to become part of the Greek-Turkish population exchange, yet the Albanian state asked for an exemption. In May 1924 however, a delegation of the League of Nations visited the area to investigate the issue of exchangeability. The delegation met groups of Albanian Cham Muslims from various villages in the area that had been chosen by Greek authorities and local muftis. The local muftis were supportive of the Greek administration. Later, the delegation concluded that the vast majority of the Cham community declared that they were of Turkish origin and wished to be included in the exchange. One year later, a second commission in general confirmed the conclusions of the first one. After pressure by Italian and Albanian delegates which made a case that the Chams primarily self-identified as Albanian nationals, Greece accepted in 1925, two years after the exchange had officially begun, that Muslim Chams were not subject to the exchange. According to the Greek decision, which was presented by
Eleftherios Venizelos to the local administration in Epirus, only those who were born in Albania or whose fathers were born in Albania could stay in Greece, thus excluding the genuine Chams of the Chameria region. In Turkey, Cham Albanians were accommodated in Istanbul and Bursa. The majority of them were from Ioannina and outlying areas and Preveza. There were other Muslim Chams though who were more limited financially and in land. The first law was passed on 15 February 1923, expropriating the lands and second homes of Muslim Chams, in order to give it to Greek refugees and to landless Greek farmers. Compensation was set at below 1914 market price, and not 1923 values. On the other hand, the compensation for the homes would be given by 1923 value. Nevertheless, some Chams were never compensated. This law was reported even to the League of Nations, but in June 1928 the Albanian petition against Greece was turned down. However, during the period of 1922–1926, the Greek government used the settling of Greek refugees as a tool for applying pressure on Muslim Chams to leave Greece. These refugees in accordance with Greek law of the time took advantage of land expropriations and settled in the houses of Cham Muslims, which made some sell their land and become landless. There were also government restrictions on the right to lease, sell or cultivate land due to Muslim Chams being classified as "exchangeable" which led to the gradual financial devastation of the Muslim Cham population. Due to the fluidity of the situation, there were some Muslim Chams who sold their properties to the incoming refugees with a view of proceeding with a migration to Turkey, due to the exchange, while the League of Nations sought to be informed of those developments. As such, in 1925 the Greek government by means of a special operation was still trying to persuade Muslim Chams to leave the country. It was only by 1926, when the Muslim Chams were decided by the Greek government not to be exchanged that most of these refugees were resettled to other parts of Greece. Thereafter, only a limited number of Asia Minor Greek refugees remained in the region and were resettled throughout settlements within the provinces of Filiates, Margariti and Paramythia. After 1926, with the relocation of the refugees to other parts of Greece, the Greek government took careful discretion in Greek Epirus to implement its land reform and expropriations toward the Muslim Cham population so as to prevent discrimination occurring against them regarding the matter.
Reginald Leeper, the British ambassador at Athens in 1945, in a letter to the British Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden in April 1945 mention that the Greeks can blame Cham Albanians for the murder of the Italian General
Enrico Tellini which was the pretext for the Italian
bombardment and occupation of Corfu at 1923.
Pangalos regime (1926) An unexpected turn in Chams' fate occurred when an Arvanite general, known for his pro-Albanian feelings, became prime minister of Greece. On 24 June 1925, a group of officers, fearing that the political instability was putting the country at risk, overthrew the government in a coup and their leader,
Theodoros Pangalos became the head of the dictatorial government. His main priorities in foreign relations were to establish good relations with Albania and to protect the rights of both minorities, Chams in Greece, and Greeks in Albania. For this reason he officially decided that the Albanians of Chameria would not be sent to Turkey after 1926, putting an end to the population exchange. He also decided that refugees from Asia Minor would not settle in Chameria, but rather in
Western Thrace, as was originally decided. Pangalos was an Albanian-speaker, and declared himself proud of his half-Albanian identity. His priority in establishing good relations with Albania was soon materialized by four agreements between the two governments, among others addressing the confiscation of Cham properties before 1926, when Greek refugees from Asia Minor were settled in the region. This agreement stated that Chams would be compensated
at least as much as foreign citizens or ethnic Greeks. But after a few months he was overthrown, and his pro-Cham policies were immediately abolished. In 1927, the Greek government abolished four of the nine
Vakoufs, the muftis of Parga, Preveza, Sagiada and Thesprotiko. In 1929, the
League of Nations asked Greece to open Albanian-language schools, since they had been officially recognized as an Albanian minority. The official position however of the then Greek prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, was that since the region had never had Albanian schools, even under the Ottoman Empire, this issue could not be compared with the rights demanded by the Greek minority in Albania. During this period, a number of villages were renamed in the region. More than 100 village names were changed in Thesprotia, Preveza and Ioannina. Many other names had already been changed in 1913 when the region came under Greek sovereignty. Villages like
Shëndiela in Preveza were translated into Greek
Agia Kyriaki (
Saint Kyriake), while other toponyms such as
Ajdonati or
Margëlliç had been immediately renamed with new Greek names (
Paramythia and
Margariti). The Venizelos government (1928–1932), despite the former Greek-Albanian crisis, took measures to intensify the improvement of the Cham communities both on economic and social basis. In 1931 a law was passed that allowed direct payment of reimbursement through the granting of analogous bonds and the direct return of improperly expropriated urban properties. A number of Cham families responded to these favorable regulations. Moreover, the Albanian government accepted the Greek proposal for the payment of indemnifications in bonds, allowing that way the promulgation of the relevant legislation and thus enabling the process of paying indemnification to the Albanian citizens. Thus, in 1935, according to Greek diplomatic reports, most of the Albanian demands that concerned the Cham communities appeared to be settled. In April 1930, the League of Nations heard claims by small property Muslim Cham landowners that illegal expropriations occurred within the region, while Greek authorities stated that the region had been exempted from those land reform laws. In June 1930, the Greek government passed a special law that properties within Thesprotia were exempt from the Agrarian land laws which satisfied the League of Nations regarding the matter. During this time though, there were ongoing efforts by Greek authorities to prompt the dislocation of the Muslim Cham population by means of hard-line policies and migration to Turkey, while discouraging or even forbidding it to Albania. The Muslim Chams by the 1930s were viewed in Greece as a hostile population and unable to be integrated within the socio-political structures of the state.
Repression under the Metaxas regime (1936–1940) The harshest period of discrimination against Cham Albanians occurred during the
dictatorial regime of Ioannis Metaxas,
Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 to 1941. The nationalistic character of his regime was imposed on all minorities in Greece. As with
Slavic-speakers,
Aromanians and
Roma, Albanian-speaking minorities were prohibited from using their own language outside home. The colonization of the area with Greeks and the confiscation of Cham property increased and Albanian place names were replaced with Greek ones.
Second World War and expulsion Greek-Italian War (1940–1941) At the same time, a negative influence about the position of Cham Albanians came from Albania. Following the
Italian invasion of Albania, the
Albanian Kingdom had become a
protectorate of the
Kingdom of Italy. The Italians, especially governor Francesco Jacomoni, used the Cham issue as a means to rally Albanian support. Although in the event, Albanian enthusiasm for the "liberation of Chameria" was muted, Jacomoni sent repeated over-optimistic reports to Rome on Albanian support. Hoxha's death was used as the final excuse from fascist Italy in order to attack Greece. Italian propaganda officially described him as "an Albanian from Chameria animated by great patriotic spirit" murdered by Greek spies inside Albania, declaring the imminent liberation of Chameria. As the possibility of an Italian attack on Greece drew nearer, Jacomoni began arming Albanian irregular bands to use against Greece. 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. Cham Albanian community leaders were arrested and forced into exile by Greek authorities on the same day that Italy invaded Greece, giving the community indubitable proof that the Greek state held a negative perception towards the Chams and leaving their community without leadership, which probably influenced their behaviour towards the Greeks in the following months. When the Greek army reoccupied the area during the early stages of the Italian invasion, they exiled nearly the entire male population - specifically all males older than 14 - to camps on the islands of
Lesbos,
Chios and
Corinth, which left the Cham Albanian women, children and elderly defenseless and unguarded, resulting in murders, rapes and robberies. The Greek forces turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by local Greeks against Chams. The invasion force included native Albanians, estimated at 2,000–3,500 strong, (among them Chams and Kosovars), in three volunteer battalions attached to the Italian army. Their performance however was distinctly lackluster, as most Albanians, poorly motivated, either deserted or defected. Indeed, the Italian commanders, including Mussolini, would later use the Albanians as scapegoats for the Italian failure. In November, as the Greek counter-offensive managed to regain Thesprotia, the Greek authorities seized all Muslim Cham males not called up or with the Italians, and deported them to island
exile for security reasons. Until the
invasion of Greece by the
German army, the Muslim Cham population of the region of Chameria was composed of women, children and the elderly. The adult male Muslim Chams would be restored to their land only after fascist Italy gained control of the region. In 1941, Greece was occupied by German, Italian and
Bulgarian armies, who divided the country in three distinct
occupation zones.
Occupied Greece and collaboration with the Axis (1941–1944) Italian occupation Prior to the outbreak of
World War II, 28 villages in the region were inhabited exclusively by Muslim Chams, and an additional 20 villages had mixed Greek-Cham populations. Germany was against the annexation of the region to Albania that time. Nevertheless,
Fascist Italian as well as
Nazi German propaganda promised that the region would be part of
Great Albania after the end of the war. After the defeat of Greece, the establishment of the Italian occupation authorities in Epirus was completed up until middle May 1941 and the following month the first armed units consisting of Cham Albanians were active in the region. As a result of this pro-Albanian approach, large parts of the Muslim Cham population actively supported the Axis operations and committed a number of atrocities against the local population in Greece and Albania. Apart from the formation of an Axis collaborationist local administration and armed battalions, a paramilitary organization named
Këshilla and a paramilitary group called
Balli Kombëtar Çam The results were devastating: many Greek, but even some Muslim Albanian and Orthodox Albanian speakers (Arvanites) lost their lives and a great number of villages were burned and destroyed. Assassinations of Greek officials, Albanian community leaders and other notables from both communities followed that perpetuated a cycle of revenge and retribution that worsened communal relations.
German occupation From 29 July-31 August 1943, a combined German and Cham force launched an anti-partisan sweep operation codenamed
Augustus. During the subsequent operations, 600 Greek and 50 Albanian citizens were killed and 70 villages were destroyed. On 27 September, combined Nazi-Cham forces launched large scale operation in burning and destroying villages north of Paramythia: Eleftherochori, Seliani, Semelika, Aghios Nikolaos, killing 50 Greek villagers in the process. In this operation the Cham contingent numbered 150 men, and, according to German Major Stöckert, "performed very well". In another incident, on 27 September, Cham militias arrested 53 Greek citizens in Paramythia and
executed 49 of them two days later. This action was orchestrated by the brothers Nuri and Mazar Dino (an officer of the Cham militia) in order to get rid of the town's Greek representatives and intellectuals. According to German reports, Cham militias were also part of the
firing squad. On 30 September, the Swiss representative of the
International Red Cross, Hans-Jakob Bickel, while visiting the area, concluded that Cham bands are completely out of control, terryfing and committing atrocities against the unarmed Greek population. After the capitulation of Fascist Italy, in September 1943, the local British mission proposed an alliance to the Chams and to fight together the Germans, but this proposal was rejected. Collaborationist Cham bands were also active in southern Albania. German General and local commander
Hubert Lanz decided to initiate armed operations with the code name
Horridoh in the region of
Konispol, in Albania. Albanian nationalist groups participated in these operations, among them a Cham battalion of c. 1,000 men under the leadership of Nuri Dino. The death toll from these operations, which began on 1 January 1944 in the region of
Konispol, was 500 people within Albania. Whereas, it appears that, most of the local beys, the majority of whom were part of the nationalist resistance group
Balli Kombëtar On 18 June 1944, EDES forces with Allied support launched an attack on Paramythia. After short-term conflict against a combined Cham-German garrison, the town was finally under Allied command. Soon after, violent reprisals were carried out against the town's Muslim community,
Resistance, Greek Civil War, repatriation by ELAS and final expulsion As the end of World War II drew near, a small number of Muslim Chams became part of the
Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), In the ELAS, a mixed Cham Albanian-Greek battalion named
IV "Ali Demi" battalion was formed, named after a Cham Albanian who was killed in Vlora fighting against the Germans. At the time of its creation in 1944, it consisted of 460 men, some of whom were Chams. Having limited support in Epirus due to the right-wing EDES dominance in the area and in preparation of taking up the country's control after the German withdrawal from Greece, turned to the Chams for conscription. Seeing the omens several hundred Muslim Chams enlisted in its ranks. Local ELAS forces with the participation of those Chams volunteers, aided with ELAS forces from the central Greece, attacked EDES in Epirus and succeeded to take the control in the
Thesprotia region in late 1944. while Miranda Vickers says that they were 25,000 that fled into Albania. After the war, only 117 Muslim Cham Albanians were left in Greece.
Postwar situation (1945–1990) Muslim Chams who fled to Albania were given refugee status by the
communist-led Albanian government and were organized under the aegis of the
Anti-Fascist Committee of Cham Immigrants (CAFC). The Albanian state gave them homes in specific areas in the south of the country, so as to dilute the local Greek element in the region (known as
Northern Epirus to Greeks). The new post-war
Communist government of Albania took the Cham issue to the
Paris Peace Conference, demanding the repatriation of the Chams and the return of their property. The following month a delegation of the CAFC was sent to Athens to lodge a protest with the government of
George Papandreou. These demands were never answered. The
United Nations Assembly in New York did however acknowledge the humanitarian crisis facing the refugees, and gave
US$ 1.2 million via the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), specifically for refugees from northern Greece. In 1953, the Albanian government gave all Chams the Albanian citizenship and forced them to integrate into Albanian society. Despite this, many older Chams still regard themselves as refugees deprived of their Greek citizenship and claim the right to return to their property in Greece. In 1949, during the
Greek Civil War (1946–1949), the leadership of the People's Republic of Albania tried to mobilize the Cham community in order to fight with the communists. After their negative response they were labelled "reactionaries" and suffered a certain degree of persecution within Albania. Moreover, the Cham issue was neglected by the local regime. In 1947 the regime revealed a conspiracy in which 85 Chams were allegedly part in the creation of an armed nationalist group named "Balli Kombëtar". In 1960 another anti-communist conspiracy was uncovered under
Teme Sejko, a Cham admiral of the Albanian navy from Konispol. The alleged perpetrators, among them also 29 Chams, were accused as agents of "American, Yugoslav and Greek separatists". As a result, Sejko was executed and several of his relatives persecuted, while other members of the Cham community were imprisoned. == Current situation ==