Cham Albanian collaboration with the Axis
During the Axis occupation of Greece between 1941 and 1944 parts of the Cham Albanian minority (Albanian: Çamë, Greek: Τσάμηδες, Tsamides) in the Thesprotia prefecture, northwestern Greece, collaborated with the occupation forces. Fascist Italian as well as Nazi German propaganda promised that the region would be awarded to Albania (then in personal union with Italy) after the end of the war. As a result of this pro-Albanian approach, many Muslim Chams actively supported the Axis operations and committed a number of crimes against the local population both in Greece and Albania. Apart from the formation of a local administration and armed security battalions, a paramilitary organization named Këshilla and a resistance paramilitary group called Balli Kombetar Cam were operating in the region, manned by local Muslim Chams. The results were devastating: many Greek and Albanian citizens lost their lives and a great number of villages were burned and destroyed. It appears that the Mufti and many beys did not approve of the Cham helping the Wehrmacht to burn Greek villages. With the retreat of the Axis forces from Greece in 1944, most of the Cham population fled to Albania and revenge attacks against the remaining Chams were carried out by Greek guerrillas and villagers. When the war ended, special courts on collaboration sentenced 2,106 Chams to death in absentia. However, the war crimes remained unpunished since the criminals had already fled abroad. According to German historian Norbert Frei, the Muslim Cham minority is regarded as the "fourth occupation force" in Greece due to the collaborationist and criminal activities that large parts of the minority committed.
| Cham Albanian collaboration with the Axis | |
|---|---|
Memorial of the massive executions in Paramythia | |
| Location | Thesprotia, Greece Konispol, Albania |
| Date | 1941-1944 |
| Target | Population hostile to the Axis occupation |
Attack type | Mass murder by firing squads, rapes, burning of villages, massacres, destruction of settlements and cultural heritage sites, transport of civilians to Nazi concentration camps, wide scale looting and banditry |
| Deaths | In Greece: 1,065 Operation Augustus: 600 Paramythia Executions: 201 In Albania: 550 Operation Augustus: 50 Operation Horridoh: 500 |
| Victims | Civilian population of Thesprotia, Greece, Konispol Albania |
| Perpetrators | Cham Albanian paramilitary, Këshilla 1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht), Nuri Dino battalion (Wehrmacht), Geheime Feldpolizei |
| Motive | Ethnic Cleansing, Annexation of Thesprotia to Albania |
| Verdict | Collaboration with the Axis occupation units,
Plain murder |
According to the Lieutenant Colonel Palmer of the British Military Mission in Albania, 2,000–3,000 collaborated in an organized manner, while a report of Pan-Epirotic EAM-Commission names 3,200 Cham collaborators from the Dino clan. Although not everyone in the community actively collaborated, historiography agrees that the Cham minority completely accepted the Axis occupation and benefited from the presence of occupation troops by providing them with guides, connections, informants and other forms of support. Mainly due to their collaboration in World War II the Chams later became a controversial if not suspect community for the leaders of the Peoples Republic of Albania (1945-1991).