Approximate geographical outline of Chameria according to various views. In red, the Ottoman kaza of Çamlık. In black, the maximum extent of Albanian speech. In green, the more expansive version of the region's definition by R. Elsie.[1]
Chameria (Albanian: Çamëria; Greek: Τσαμουριά, Tsamouriá)[2] is a term used today mostly by Albanians[3] to refer to parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and Greece, traditionally associated with the Albanian ethnic subgroup of the Chams.[1][4] For a brief period (1909-1912), three kazas (Filat, Aydonat and Margiliç) were combined by the Ottomans into an administrative district called Çamlak sancak.[5] During the interwar period, the toponym was in common use[6] and the official name of the area above the Acheron river in all Greek state documents.[7] Today it is obsolete in Greek,[8] surviving in some old folk songs. Most of what is called Chameria is divided between parts of the Greek regional units of Thesprotia, Preveza, and Ioannina (some villages at the western side); and the municipality of Konispol at the southernmost extremity of Albania. Apart from geographic and ethnographic usages, in contemporary times within Albania the toponym has also acquired irredentist connotations.[3]
Chameria was mostly used as a term for the region of modern Thesprotia, during the Ottoman rule.[9][10] It is of uncertain etymology. It possibly derives from the ancient Greek name of the Thyamis river, called Cham (Çam) in Albanian, either through the unattested Slavic *čamь or *čama rendering the older Slavic *tjama, or a direct continuation from it.[11]
In European travel reports, the term appears for the first time at the beginning of the 19th century.[12] The term was not used in Ottoman territorial administration before the 20th century.[12]
Geography and boundaries
Map of Thesprotia or Chamouri, Souli and Parga, by F. Pouqueville (1826)
In modern times, the region of Chameria was reduced to the dialectological territory of the Chams, stretching between the mouth of the Acheron river in the south, the area of Butrint in the north, and the Pindus in the east.[13] After the permanent demarcation of the Greco-Albanian border, only two small municipalities were left in southern Albania (Markat and Konispol), while the remainder was part of the Epirus periphery of Greece.
The early 19th c. Greek author Perraivos, notable for his works on Souli and Epirus, notes that the Albanian Chams inhabit the area between the Bistrica river in the north and the Souli area south.[14] French diplomat and General Consul of France in nearby Ioannina, François Pouqueville, noticed in 1814-1816 that there is a district named Chamouri that stretches from the Thyamis all the way down to the Acheron river.[15] In the early 1800s British colonel William Martin Leake while in the area described Chameria as stretching from the boundaries of Butrint and Delvinë until the Fanari and Paramythia areas consisting of two main sub-districts, Daghawi or Dai and Parakalamos.[16] During the 19th century, the novelista and poet Nikolaos Konemenos, an Arvanite from the area placed his home district of Lakka (Λάκκας)[17] within the bounds of Tsamouria (Τσαμουριά) or Chameria.[18] In the early 1880s, British diplomat Valentine Chirol who spent time in the area during the Eastern Crisis defined Chameria along linguistic lines in geographic terms where Albanian speakers were found during that time.[19] Chirol states that the Thiamis river basin, the Souli mountains, the Louros river valley up until the Preveza peninsula formed part of the district called "Tchamouria" which referred to the "southernmost Albanian settlements in Epirus".[19] Chirol also noted that due to the spread of the Chams in the area, the toponym also applied to the centre of the region where they held "undivided sway".[19]
Within the confines of the Ottoman administrative system (1880s) Albanians of the time claimed that Toskland (Turkish: Toskalık) was made up of three components Toskalık, Laplık and Çamlık.[2] According to the Ottoman administration of 1880s Çamlık or Chamland (Chameria) consisted of the regions Margalic, Aydonat and Filat.[2] As such those three kazas where also known as kaza of Chameria. Similarly in 1910 the kaza of Resadiye was created, also known as kaza of Chameria or Igoumenitsa and included the former kazas of Paramythia, Margariti and Filiates.[17] On the other hand, Sami Frashëri, a noted member of the Albanian national movement and Ottoman intellectual who compiled the first Ottoman dictionary Kamus al-a'lam (Universal Dictionary of History and Geography) wrote in various article entries pertaining to the region and claimed that Chameria included: Ioannina, Konitsa, Louros, Parga, Margariti, Filiates, Preveza. Thus claiming that Chameria was a much larger region and coincided with the southern part of Epirus.[20]
During the interwar period of the twentieth century British historian Nicholas Hammond traversed the region and described Chameria as consisting of main settlements like Paramythia and Margariti.[6] He also described the Chameria region as pertaining to the Thiamis river basin, covering the Margariti district and heading all the way down to coastal villages like Loutsa of the Acheron plain, which marked the most southernmost Albanian speaking settlement and the southern limit of Chameria.[6] Pre-War Greek sources say that the coast of Chameria extended from the Acheron River to Butrint and the inland reaches east till the slopes of Mount Olytsikas (or Tomaros).[21] The center of Chameria was considered to be Paramythia and other areas were Filiates, Parga and Margariti.[21] In various Greek sources of the interwar era they also at times include the Greek speaking area to the east of Filiates within Chameria, while excluding the Albanian speaking area of Fanari known also as Prevezaniko.[7] Throughout the interwar period, Chameria in official Greek government documents related to the area north of the Acheron river.[7]
The falls of the Thyamis by Edward Lear, 1851. Pencil and watercolour on paper, 16.50 × 26.00 cm.
Modern day scholarship gives descriptions of the geographical outlines or areas of Chameria. Professors of History, Eleftheria Manta, Kyriakos Kentriotis and Dimitris Michalooulos agree that Chameria extends from the Acheron River to Butrint and the inland reaches east till the slopes of Mount Olytsikas.[22][23][24] This region, besides a small part that belongs to the Albanian state is more or less equated with Thesprotia.[22] Leonidas Kallivretakis states that the Greek part of the Chameria region is limited to Thesprotia prefecture, both in Ottoman and modern times.[25] Similarly, historian Georgia Kretsi states that Chameria concerns the same region which is today called Thesprotia among Greeks, in addition to a small number of settlements on the Albanian side of the border.[26] Lambros Baltsiotis states that it includes a small part of Albanian territory, consisted of the western part of Thesprotia prefecture and north of Preveza regional unit (former Preveza prefecture), stretching down to Fanari.[4][7] German historian Hermann Frank Meyer states that the modern Thesprotia prefecture geographically coincides with Chameria.[27] Laurie Kain Hart states that Chameria as a district extends to "Epiros at least as far south as Preveza".[28] Historian Konstantinos Tsitselikis states that Chameria is part of Margariti, Igoumenitsa, Filiates and Paramythia regions.[29] Historian Sherif Delvina states that the southernmost limit of Chameria is the Acheron river.[30]
James Pettifer and Miranda Vickers state that Chameria reaches out from the Ionian coast going to the eastern Ioannina mountains and extending to the south going as near as the Preveza gulf.[31] However, in another work Miranda Vickers states that it "extends from Butrint and the mouth of the Acheron River", but at the same time also from "Lake Prespa in the north, eastward to the Pindus mountains and south as far as Preveza and the Gulf of Arta".[32]Robert Elsie states that Chameria corresponds to Thesprotia and Preveza prefectures and including a small area around Konispol town in Albania.[1] Elsie describes Chameria as containing the river basins of the Thiamis and Acheron rivers and Ionian coastline all the way down to Preveza while excluding Corfu island, the Epirote interior and the city of Ioannina.[1] In the same work Elsie states that Thesprotia is the Greek toponymic equivalent for the Albanian toponym Chameria.[33]
History
Late Middle Ages
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, however any pre-14th century Albanian migration in the region can not be confirmed.[34] The first documented appearance of Albanians which occurred in sizable numbers within the Despotate of Epirus is not recorded before 1337 in which Byzantine sources present them as nomads.[35]
In the 1340s, taking advantage of a Byzantine civil war, the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan conquered Epirus and incorporated it in his Serbian Empire.[36] During this time, 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.[37] Internal dissension and successive conflicts with their neighbours, including the rising power of the Ottoman Turks, led to the downfall of these Albanian principalities to the Tocco family. The Tocco in turn gradually gave way to the Ottomans, who took Ioannina in 1430, Arta in 1449, Angelokastron in 1460, and finally Vonitsa in 1479.[38]
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.[9][39] The wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between Russia and the Ottoman Empire negatively impacted upon the region.[40] Increased conversions to Islam followed, often forced, such as those of 25 villages in 1739 which are located in current day Thesprotia prefecture.[40]
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 Souliote warriors. After numerous failed attempts to defeat the Souliotes, his troops succeeded in conquering the area in 1803.[41]
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.[42] With the rise of the Albanian national movement in the late 19th century, the local Orthodox Albanian speaking population did not share the national ideas of their Muslim Albanian speaking neighbours.[43] Instead they remained Greek-oriented and identified themselves as Greeks.[43] In 1909, the Ottoman Empire combined the kazas (sub districts) of Filat, Aydonat, Margiliç and the town of Parga into a new administrative unit called Çamlak sancak (district), part of Yanya Vilayet (province).[5] 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.[42]
During the Ottoman era, Chameria had a feudal system of administration. The most important and older feudal clan was that of Pronjo of Paramythia (Drandakis).
The Greek census counted Muslim Chams separately from their Christian counterparts; as a result of the religious classification system in place in Greece, some of the Muslim Chams were placed alongside Muslim Turks living in Greece and were transferred to Turkey during the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey[44] while their property was expropriated by the Greek government as part of the same agreement.[45] Orthodox Cham Albanians were counted as Greeks, and their language and Albanian heritage were under heavy pressure of assimilation.[46] The region was then temporarily settled by Greek refugees from Asia Minor who were used as a demographic tool to pressure Muslim Chams to leave the area; most of these Greeks were later moved to other areas in the country after Greece decided not to send Muslim Albanian Chams en-masse to Turkey in the 1920s.[47]
In the 1930s the population of the region was approximately 70,000; Albanian-speaking Muslims were estimated to number around 18,000–20,000. All the population, independently of religion of ethnicity, were called Chams, but were not counted as such on the Greek census.[48]
(According to the 1928 census the total Muslim population in Greece was 126.017[49]).
During the interwar period, the toponym Chameria was in common use within the region[6] and was also the official name for the area above the Acheron river used in all government documents by the Greek state.[7] In 1936, the Greek state created a new prefecture called Thesprotia, from parts of Ioannina and Preveza prefectures, as to exercise better control over the Muslim Albanian Cham minority.[50]
During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1944), large parts of the Muslim Cham community collaborated with the Italian and German forces[51] as Axis forces manipulated the Cham issue to encourage beneficial resistance to Greek rule in the region.[52] In the early 1940s, 1,800 Cham conscripts were disarmed by Greek forces and set to perform hard labor on infrastructure improvements, and all Albanian males who had not yet been conscripted were deported to internment camps or placed in exile on Greek islands.[53]
At the end of World War II, Cham Albanians were systematically cleansed from the region by the guerrilla forces of the right-wing National Republican Greek League (EDES) led by Napoleon Zervas.[52][55] Some Muslim Chams who formed the Chameria Battalion provided military support to the left-wing resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). After the Cham Albanians declined to fight against ELAS, Zervas ordered a mass assault on Cham villages by forces which mainly consisted of EDES and local Greek peasantry eager to exact their revenge on the richer minority of Cham Albanians.[53]
Maximum extent of Cham Albanian dialect: 19th century till 1912/1913 (Hatched line), according to Kokolakis.M. Population (irrespective of linguistic background) shown by religion: Muslim majority (Brown), Orthodox majority (Pink), Mixed (Light Brown). Colored areas do not imply that Albanian-speakers formed the majority of the population.
Since the Medieval Ages, the population of the region of Chameria was of mixed and complex ethnicity, with a blurring of group identities such as Albanian and Greek, along with many other ethnic groups. Information on the ethnic composition of the region over several centuries is almost entirely absent, with the strong likelihood that they did not fit into standard "national" patterns, as the 19th-century revolutionary nationalist movements wanted.
Historical
In the early 19th century, Greek scholar and secretary of the local Ottoman ruler Ali Pasha, Athanasios Psalidas, stated that Chameria was inhabited by both Greeks and Albanians. The later were divided between Christians and Muslims, while Greeks were the dominant element of Chameria.
[58] An Ottoman population census held in 1908 recorded a total of 73,000 inhabitants in Chameria, of which 93% were Albanian.[59]
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[46] 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. During the interwar period, the numbers of Albanian speakers in official Greek censuses varied and fluctuated, due to political motives and manipulation.[60]
An estimation by Italian occupational forces during World War II (1941) included Orthodox communities of Albanian ethnicity. According to this in the region lived 54,000 Albanians, of whom 26,000 Orthodox and 28,000 Muslim and 20,000 Greeks.[45] After the war, according to Greek censuses where ethno-linguistic groups were counted, Muslim Chams were 113 in 1947 and 127 in 1951. In the same Greek census of 1951, 7,357 Orthodox Albanian-speakers were counted within the whole of Epirus.[61]
Greek census.[45] 7,357 Orthodox Albanian-speakers were also counted within the whole of Epirus.[61]
Current
With the exception of the part of Chameria lying in Albania, Chameria is inhabited mostly by Greeks at the end of World War II,[69] and the subsequent assimilation of remaining Chams. The number of ethnic Albanians still residing in the Chameria region is uncertain, since the Greek government does not include ethnic and linguistic categories in any official census.
Muslims
The Greek census of 1951 counted a total of 127 Muslim Albanian Chams in Epirus.[70] In more recent years (1986) 44 members of this community are found in Thesprotia, located in the settlements of Sybota, Kodra and Polyneri (previously Koutsi).[71] Moreover, until recently the Muslim community in Polyneri was the only one in Epirus to have an imam.[72] The village mosque was the last within the area before being blown up by a local Christian in 1972.[72] The number of Muslim Chams remaining in the area after World War II included also people who converted to Orthodoxy and were assimilated into the local population in order to preserve their properties and themselves.[73][74][75]
Christian Orthodox
According to a study by the Euromosaic project of the European Union, Albanian speaking communities live along 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 regional unit.[76] The Albanian language is still spoken by a minority of inhabitants in Igoumenitsa.[77] In northern Preveza prefecture, those communities also include the region of Fanari,[78] in villages such as Ammoudia[79] and Agia.[80] In 1978, some of the older inhabitants in these communities were Albanian monolinguals.[81] The language is spoken by young people too, because when the local working-age population migrate seeking a job in Athens, or abroad, the children are left with their grandparents, thus creating a continuity of speakers.[81]
Today, these Orthodox Albanian speaking communities refer to themselves as Arvanites in the Greek language and self-identify as Greeks, like the Arvanite communities in southern Greece.[82] They refer to their language in Greek as Arvanitika and when conversing in Albanian as Shqip.[83][84] In contrast with the Arvanites, some have retained a distinct linguistic [85] and ethnic identity, but also an Albanian national identity.[86][dubious – discuss] In the presence of foreigners there is a stronger reluctance amongst Orthodox Albanian speakers to speak Albanian, compared to the Arvanites in other parts of Greece.[87] A reluctance has been also noticed for those who still see themselves as Chams to declare themselves as such.[88] Researcher Tom Winnifirth concluded that it was impossible to find Albanian speakers in the main towns of the region assuming that there may be a number in some villages inland.[89] and concluded in later years that Albanian had "virtually disappeared" in the region.[90] According to Ethnologue, the Albanian speaking population of Greek Epirus and Greek Western Macedonia number 10,000.[91] According to the author Miranda Vickers, Orthodox Chams today are approximately 40,000.[92] Amongst some Greek Arvanites like those in the village of Kastri near Igoumentisa, there has been a revival in folklore, in particular in the performance of "Arvanitic wedding".[93]
^ abcdElsie, Robert and Bejtullah D. Destani (2012). The Cham Albanians of Greece: A Documentary History. IB Tauris. ISBN978-1-780760-00-1. p. XXIX. "Chameria is a mountainous region of the southwestern Balkan Peninsula that now straddles the Greek-Albanian border. Most of Chameria is in the Greek Province of Epirus, corresponding largely to the prefectures of Thesprotia and Preveza, but it also includes the southernmost part of Albania, the area around Konispol. It is approximately 10,000 square kilometres in size and has a current, mostly Greek-speaking population of about 150,000. As an historical region, Chameria, also spelled Chamuria, Chamouria or Tsiamouria, is sometimes confused with Epirus which is in fact a much larger area that includes more inland territory in northwestern Greece, for example, the town of Janina/loannina, and also much of southern Albania. Geographically speaking, Chameria begins to the north at the rivers Pavlle and Shalës in the southern part of Albania. It stretches southwards along the Ionian coastline in Greece down to Preveza and the Gulf of Arta, which in the nineteenth century formed the border between Albania and Greece. It does not include the island of Corfu or the region of Janina to the east. The core or central region of Chameria, known in Greek as Thesprotia, could be said to be the basins of the Kalamas and Acheron Rivers. It was the Kalamas River, known in ancient times as the 'Thyamis, that gave Chameria its name."
^ abcGawrych, George (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. London: IB Tauris. p. 23. ISBN9781845112875. "According to the Ottoman administrative system of the 1880s, Albanians claimed Toskalık or Toskland as encompassing the sancaks of Ergiri, Preveze, Berat and Yanya in the province of Yanya and the sancaks of Görice, Manastir, and Elbasan in the province of Manastir. Toskalık also divided into three parts, Toskalık, Laplık and Çamlık... Chamland (Çamlık) encompassed Margalic, Aydonat, and Filat."
^ abBaltsiotis, Lambros (2011). "The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece: The grounds for the expulsion of a "non-existent" minority community". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (12). European Journal of Turkish Studies. doi:10.4000/ejts.4444. para. 5-6. "During the beginning of the 20th Century, the northwestern part of the Greek region of Epirus was mostly populated by an Albanian-speaking population, known under the ethnonyme "Chams" [Çamë, Çam (singular)in Albanian, Τσ(ι)άμηδες, Τσ(ι)άμης in Greek]. The Chams are a distinct ethno-cultural group which consisted of two integral religious groups: Orthodox Christians and Sunni Muslims. This group lived in a geographically wide area, expanding to the north of what is today the Preveza prefecture, the western part of which is known as Fanari [Frar in Albanian], covering the western part of what is today the prefecture of Thesprotia, and including a relatively small part of the region which today constitutes Albanian territory. These Albanian speaking areas were known under the name Chamouria [Çamëri in Albanian, Τσ(ι)αμουριά or Τσ(ι)άμικο in Greek]."
^ abcdHammond, Nicholas (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Clarendon Press. ISBN9780198142539. p.27. "The present distribution of the Albanian-speaking villages bears little relation to the frontier which was drawn between Greece and Albania after the First World War. In Map 2 I have shown most of the Greek speaking villages in Albanian Epirus and some of the Albanian-speaking villages in Greek Epirus. The map is based on observations made by Clarke and myself during our travels between 1922 and 1939."; p.27. "This wave extended further down the coast into the low-lying area of the Kalamas, the Tsamouria."; p. 28. "Tsamouria is a word which..... Clarke and I were both familiar with it, and it was in common use."; p.50. "Loutsa lies on a saddle of the ridge, which forms the watershed between the Acheron plain and the streams running south-west into the sea, and it is the most southerly of the villages of Tsamouria, the Albanian speaking area of which Margariti and Paramythia are centres."; p.76. "The canton of Margariti. This canton forms the heart of the Tsamouria, the region of Albanian-speaking villages."
^ abcdeBaltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. footnote 2. "In certain sources Chamouria includes the Greek-speaking area to the east of the city of Filiati and does not include the Albanian speaking area of Fanari, named alternatively "Prevezaniko". The official name of the area north of the Acheron river is Chamouria in all Greek state documents for the whole Interwar period."
^The Greek encyclopedia "Papyrus-Larousse" (Πάπυρος-Λαρούς), c.1965 defines "Tsamouria" (article "Τσαμουριά") as "The older name ... of the modern area of Thesprotia" and directs to article "Thesprotia" (Θεσπρωτία).
^ abBalkan Studies By Hetaireia Makedonikōn Spoudōn. Hidryma Meletōn Cheresonēsou tou Haimou. Published by Institute for Balkan Studies, Society for Macedonian Studies., 1976
^NGL Hammond, Epirus: The Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas, Published by Clarendon P., 1967, p. 31
^ abKornrumpf, Hans-Jurgen (1984). "Der Sandschak Camlik. Anmerkingen zu einem Kurzlebigen Spatosmanischen Verwalitungsbezirk". Balcanica (15): 122. In der osmanische Territorialverwaltung wurde das Wor vor dem 20. Jahrundert nicht verwendet", "In den europaischen Reiseberichten erscheint die Cameri sie dem Begin des 19. Jahrunderst im Zusammenhang mit dem Busuchen westlicher Gasandter bei Tepedelenli Ali Pasha
^Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN978-1-86064-541-9, p. 113
^William Martin Leake (1835). Travels in Northern Greece. volume IV. J. Rodwell. pp. 71-72. The plain near the mouth of the Kalamá, is called Rai, and the river forms the line of separation between the two subdivisions of Tjámi (Græcè, Τζαμουριά), named Dághawi, or Dai, and Parakálamo. Dághawi comprehends the country from the Kalamá southward as far as the bounds of Paramythía, and Fanári; Parakálamo, that in the opposite direction to the boundaries of Vutzintró and Délvino. In Dághawi are Griko-khóri, Gomenítza, and Nista, situated in that order from south to north on the hills above the bay of Gomenítza: Gravá, in the plain near the mouth of the Kalamá. Between Gomenítza and Menína, which stands on the left bank of the Kalamá, in the road from Paramythía to Filiátes, are several Musulman villages, of which the principal are Súliasi, Varfaniús, and Rizaniús: to these belongs the plain of the Lower Kalamá to the left of the river. A high cliff at Zuliána, in a line between Paramythía and Fillátes, forms a very conspicuous object from Corfú."
^Elias G Skoulidas (22 February 2011). Identities, Locality and Otherness in Epirus during the Late Ottoman period.(doc). European Society of Modern Greek studies. p. 7. Retrieved 27 October 2015. "Nikolaos Konemenos takes a different approach, by not denying his Albanian identity, although he participated in Greek public life. He accepts this identity and embodies it, without excluding the other identity: κι εγώ είμαι φυσικός Αρβανίτης, επειδή κατάγομαι από τα' χωριά της Λάκκας (Τσαμουριά) και είμαι απόγονος ενός καπετάν Γιώργη Κονεμένου 'λ που εμίλειε τα' αρβανίτικα κι όπου ταις αρχαίς του προπερασμένου αιώνος... είχε καταιβεί κι είχε αποκατασταθεί στην Πρέβεζα...[I too am a natural Albanian, because I originate from the villages of Lakka (Tsamouria) and I'm a descendant of a kapetan Giorgis Konemenos, who spoke Albanian and who at the beginning of the last century... had come down and had settled in Preveza]. The spelling mistakes in this passage are a good indicator of what is happening."
^ abcChirol, Valentine (1881). Twixt Greek and Turk. W Blackwood & sons. pp. 231-232. "The limits of the Albanian-speaking districts of Epirus south of the Kalamas may be roughly defined as follows: Starting from the Kalamas near the sharp bend which that river takes to the north at the foot of Mount Lubinitza, they follow the crest of the amphitheatrical range of Suli as far as the gorge of the Acheron. In that neighbourhood, probably owing to the influence which the Suliote tribe at one time enjoyed, they drop over to the east into the valley of the Luro, and follow its basin as far as the peninsula on which Prevesa, is situated, where the Greek element resumes its preponderancy. Within these outer limits of the Albanian tongue the Greek element is not unrepresented, and in some places, as about Paramythia, for instance, it predominates; but, on the whole, the above- defined region may be looked upon as essentially Albanian. In this, again, there is an inner triangle which is purely Albanian—viz., that which lies between the sea and the Kalamas on the one hand and the waters of the Vuvo on the other. With the exception of Parga and one or two small hamlets along the shore, and a few Greek chifligis on Albanian estates, the inhabitants of this country are pure Tchamis—a name which, notwithstanding Von Hahn's more elaborate interpretation. I am inclined to derive simply from the ancient appellation of the Kalamas, the Thyamis, on both banks of which stream the Albanian tribe of the Tchamis, itself a subdivision of the Tosks, has been settled from times immemorial. From the mountain fastnesses which enclose this inner triangle, the Tchamis spread out and extended their influence east and south; and the name of Tchamouria, which is especially applied to the southernmost Albanian settlements in Epirus, was probably given to that district by themselves as an emphatic monument of their supremacy; but it cannot belong less rightfully to the centre, where they hold undivided sway."
^Frashëri, Sami. "Description of Chameria". Retrieved 27 October 2015. "Description of Chameria... This dictionary contains numerous entries on the towns and regions of Chameria or southern Epirus... Janina [Ioannina]... Konica [Konitza]... Lurus [Louros]... "This town is also known as Paramythia. It is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Vilayet and Sandjak of Janina that is situated in Chameria, the southeastern part of Albania... Filati.This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the territory of Albanian Chameria... Parga.This is a kasaba and the capital of a nahiye on the southern coast of Albania, in the Vilayet of Janina, Sandjak of Preveza and the kaza of Margëlliç. Although ships cannot dock here, it is the chief port of Chameria, with sailing ships coming and going to Corfu and Trieste and conducting much trade. The nahiye of Parga includes the central part of the plain of Chameria and belongs to the kaza of Margëlliç... Preveza.This is a kasaba in southern Albania, to the west of Arta. It is situated in the Vilayet of Janina and is a sandjak of the same name and a centre of Chameria... Sandjak of Preveza.This is the smallest of the sandjaks in the Vilayet of Janina. It is situated in the southern corner of Albania and forms the southern half of Chameria. It borders to the north on the Sandjak of Janina, to the east on Greece, to the south on Arta and the channel of Preveza, and to the west and southwest on the Greek Sea."
^ abDrandakis Pavlos (editor), Great Greek Encyclopedia, vol. 23, article Tsamouria. Editions "Pyrsos", 1936–1934, in Greek language.
^E. Manta, Ματιές στην Ιστορία: Τσάμηδες και Tσαμουριά: "Τσαμουριά ονομάζεται η περιοχή εκείνη της Ηπείρου, που εκτείνεται κατά μήκος της ακτής ανάμεσα στις εκβολές του ποταμού Αχέροντα και μέχρι το Βουθρωτό και ανατολικά μέχρι τους πρόποδες του όρους Ολύτσικας (Τόμαρος). Η περιοχή ταυτίζεται με τη Θεσπρωτία και ένα μικρό της τμήμα ανήκει σήμερα στην Αλβανία με κέντρο την κωμόπολη Κονίσπολη."
^Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography." In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias, Kouloubis Theodoros A. & Thanos M. Veremis (eds). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. p. 51. "AM Αλβανοί Μουσουλμάνοι" p. 36: "II περιφέρεια της Τσαμουριάς υπαγόταν στα τέλη του περασμένου αιώνα... Η χάραξη της οριστικής ελληνοαλβανικής μεθορίου, το Νοέμβριο του 1921, διαιρώντας την Ήπειρο στα δύο, διαίρεσε και την Τσαμουριά μεταξύ Αλβανίας (Νομός Δελβίνου & Αγίων Σαράντα) και Ελλάδας (σημερινός Νομός Θεσπρωτίας)."
^Hart, Laurie Kain (Feb 1999), "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece", American Ethnologist, 26 (1), Blackwell Publishing: 207, doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.196, JSTOR647505 "Like the Greeks, they made territorial demands, claiming for themselves, on the grounds of a majority Albanian-speaking Muslim population, the district of Chameria (or Tsamouria, that is, Epiros at least as far south as Preveza) and the (largely Vlach) Pindus."
^Delvina, Sherif (2006). Low Albania (Epirus) and Cham issue. Pub. House "Eurorilindja". ISBN9789994386109. OCLC124184965. Cameria - This is the name of the Albanian area which includes the regions of Paramythia, Filat, Parga, Margariti (Margellic) and some villages of Delvina region. It is limited in the West by Ionian Sea, it is extended from Acheron gorge to Butrinto and goes deep to Tomariti ib Heels
^Vickers, Miranda; Pettifer, James (1997). Albania: From anarchy to a Balkan identity. Washington Square: New York University Press. pp. 207. ISBN9781850652908. kanun. "The region of Chameria extends from the Ionian coast to the Ioannina mountains in the east, and in the south almost as far as the Preveza gulf."
^Vickers, Miranda. "The Cham Issue"(PDF). Conflict Studies Research Centre. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
^Giakoumis, Konstantinos (2003), Fourteenth-century Albanian migration and the ‘relative autochthony’ of the Albanians in Epeiros. The case of Gjirokastër." Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 27. (1), p. 176-177: "The presence of Albanians in the Epeirote lands from the beginning of the thirteenth century is also attested by two documentary sources: the first is a Venetian document of 1210, which states that the continent facing the island of Corfu is inhabited by Albanians; and the second is letters of the Metropolitan of Naupaktos John Apokaukos to a certain George Dysipati, who was considered to be an ancestor of the famous Shpata family.... Are we obliged to see a possible earlier Albanian migration in the Epirote lands... I believe that the use of hypothetical immigrations as a basis to interpret sources that indicate the presence of Albanians in the Epeirote lands prior to the thirteenth-fourteenth century is somewhat arbitrary.... the immigration movements of the fourtheenth century are documented fact."
^Survey of International Affairs, By Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Veronica Marjorie Toynbee, Royal Institute of International Affairs. Published by Oxford University Press, 1958
^ abGiakoumis, Konstantinos (2010). "The Orthodox Church in Albania Under the Ottoman Rule 15th-19th Century." In Oliver Jens Schmitt (ed.). Religion und Kultur im albanischsprachigen Südosteuropa. Peter Lang. p. 85. "In the 18th century Islamization increased and a large number of inhabitants of Labëri, Filiates, Pogon and Kurvelesh converted."; p. 86. "In 1739, twenty five villages in Thesprotia were forced to convert to Islam en masse. It has also been noted that conversions intensified after the wars of Russia with the Porte (1710-1711, 1768-1774, 1787-1792, 1806-1812)."
^Fleming, Katherine Elizabeth. The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece. Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN0-691-00194-4, p. 59.
^ abBarbara Jelavich. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN978-0-521-27458-6
^ abBaltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The Albanian-speaking, Orthodox population did not share the national ideas of their Muslim neighbors and remained Greek-oriented, identifying themselves as Greeks."
^Kristin Fabbe. "Defining Minorities and Identities – Religious Categorization and State-Making Strategies in Greece and Turkey". Presentation at: The Graduate Student Pre-Conference in Turkish and Turkic Studies, University of Washington, October 18, 2007.
^ abcDimitri Pentzopoulos, The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and Its Impact on Greece, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, ISBN978-1-85065-674-6, p. 128
^Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "Two years earlier, Greek refugees from Asia Minor had been settled in the area. These newcomers were used as a tool for applying more pressure against Muslims for them to decide to leave Greece. The newcomers took advantage of the land expropriations, and settled in the houses of Muslims. These actions were in accordance with legal provisions applicable to the whole territory of Greece.61 It is highly probable, therefore, that some Muslims, pressed by the legislation relating to expropriation and the presence of refugees who presented a threat to them, sold their estates and remained landless. ... [Note 61] The great majority of the refugees were resettled when it was decided that the Muslim population would not be exchanged."
^Drandakis Pavlos (editor), Great Greek Encyclopedia, vol. 23, article Tsamouria. Editions "Pyrsos", 1936–1934, in Greek language, p. 405
^Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "Finally, so as to exercise better control over the minority, the Greek state created in late 1936 a new prefecture, that of Thesprotia, consisting of areas that previously belonged to the Prefectures of Ioannina (Yanina) and Preveza, embodying all the Muslim population.... According to the suggestion of the General Administration of Epirus to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (24 October 1936), the presence of Albanian Muslims and the difficulties in "administrating" them from a far away capital calls for the creation of a new prefecture (HAMFA, 1937, A4/9)."
^Meyer, Hermann Frank (2008) (in German). Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-Division im Zweiten Weltkrieg [Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII]. Ch. Links Verlag. ISBN978-3-86153-447-1. pp. 152, 204, 464, 705: "Die albanische Minderheit der Tsamides kollaborierte zu grossen Teilen mit den Italienern und den Deutschen. [The Albanian minority of the Chams collaborated in large parts with the Italians and the Germans]".
^Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "In the official censuses of the Greek State in the Interwar period there is major manipulation involving the numbers of the Albanian speakers in the whole of the Greek territory.... The issue here is not the underestimation of the numbers of speakers as such, but the vanishing and reappearing of linguistic groups according to political motives, the crucial one being the "stabilization" of the total number of Albanian speakers in Greece."
^ abBaltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "The Orthodox Albanian-speakers' "return" to Southern Greece and Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace also present at this time, at the 1951 census (7,357 are counted in Epirus)."
^including Greek Thesprotia as well as parts of the Albanian municipalities of Konispol, Xarre and Markat. Excludes Preveza prefecture.
^In the Ottoman census and the works of Amadore Virgili, Muslims are not differentiated by ethnicity but are assumed to be mainly Albanian
^for historic Chameria, boundaries are not exact, but the kazas of Paramythia, Margariti and Filiates (which includes the area around Filiates in modern Greece as well as parts of the Xarre, Konispol and Markat municipalities in Albania) are combined, roughly equalling the area of Greek Thesprotia plus Albanian North Chameria
^ abLambros Psomas in Synthesis of the Population of Southern Albania (2008) argues that Virgili undercounts the number of Aromanians, for example Aromanians do not even appear in Metsovo, which is known to be a major center of Aromanian culture (page 257).
^Ktistakis, 1992: p. 9 (citing Krapsitis V., 1986: Οι Μουσουλμάνοι Τσάμηδες της Θεσπρωτίας (The Muslim Chams of Thesprotia), Athens, 1986, p. 181.
^ abBaltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011
^Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011. "A few hundred Muslims stayed behind. 127 of them were counted in the 1951 census, while the rest, whose number remains unknown and in need of research, converted to Christianity and intermarried with Greeks..... Except for two small communities that mostly avoided conversion, namely Kodra and Koutsi (actual Polyneri), the majority of others were baptized. Isolated family members that stayed behind were included in the Greek society, and joined the towns of the area or left for other parts of Greece (author's field research in the area, 1996-2008)."
^Sarah Green (2005). Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian border. Princeton University Press. pp. 74-75. "Over time, and with some difficulty, I began to understand that the particular part of Thesprotia being referred to was the borderland area, and that the 'terrible people' were not all the peoples associated with Thesprotia but more specifically peoples known as the Tsamides –though they were rarely explicitly named as such in the Pogoni area. One of the few people who did explicitly refer to them was Spiros, the man from Despotiko on the southern Kasidiaris (next to the Thesprotia border) who had willingly fought with the communists during the civil war. He blamed widespread negative attitudes toward the Tsamides on two things: first, that in the past they were perceived to be 'Turks' in the same way as Albanian speaking Muslims had been perceived to be 'Turks'; and second, there had been particularly intense propaganda against them during the two wars –propaganda that had led to large numbers of Tsamides' being summarily killed by EDES forces under General Zervas. Zervas believed they had helped the Italian and later German forces when they invaded Greece, and thus ordered a campaign against them in retribution. Spiros went on to recall that two young men from Despotiko had rescued one endangered Tsamis boy after they came across him when they were in Thesprotia to buy oil. They brought him back to the village with them, and Spiros had baptized him in a barrel (many Tsamides were Muslim) in the local monastery. In the end, the boy had grown up, married in the village, and stayed there."
^Georgia Kretsi (2002). "The Secret Past of the Greek-Albanian Borderlands. Cham Muslim Albanians: Perspectives on a Conflict over Historical Accountability and Current Rights". Ethnologia Balkanica.(6): 186. "In the census of 1951 there were only 127 Muslims left of a minority that once had 20,000 members. A few of them could merge into the Greek population by converting to Christianity and changing their names and marital practices. After the expulsion, two families of Lopësi found shelter in Sagiáda and some of their descendants still live there today under new names and being Christians. Another inhabitant of Lopësi, then a child, is living in nearby Asproklissi..... The eye-witness Arhimandritēs (n. d.: 93) writes about a gendarmerie officer and member of the EDES named Siaperas who married a very prosperous Muslim widow whose children had converted to Christianity. One interviewee, an Albanian Cham woman, told me that her uncle stayed in Greece, "he married a Christian, he changed his name, he took the name Spiro. Because it is like that, he changed it, and is still there in loannina, with his children". A Greek man from Sagiáda also stated that at this time many people married and in saving the women also were able to take over their lands."
^Tsitsipis, Lukas (1981). Language change and language death in Albanian speech communities in Greece: A sociolinguistic study. (Thesis). University of Wisconsin. Ann Arbor. 124. "The Epirus Albanian speaking villages use a dialect of Tosk Albanian, and they are among the most isolated areas in Greece. In the Epiriotic village of Aghiá I was able to spot even a few monolingual Albanian speakers."
^ abFoss, Arthur (1978). Epirus. Botston, United States of America: Faber. p. 224. ISBN9780571104888. "There are still many Greek Orthodox villagers in Threspotia who speak Albanian among themselves. They are scattered north from Paramithia to the Kalamas River and beyond, and westward to the Margariti Plain. Some of the older people can only speak Albanian, nor is the language dying out. As more and more couples in early married life travel away to Athens or Germany for work, their children remain at home and are brought up by their Albania-speaking grandparents. It is still sometimes possible to distinguish between Greek- and Albanian-speaking peasant women. Nearly all of them wear traditional black clothes with a black scarf round their neck heads. Greek-speaking women tie their scarves at the back of their necks, while those who speak primarily Albanian wear their scarves in a distinctive style fastened at the side of the head."
^Hart, Laurie Kain (1999). "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece". American Ethnologist. 26 (1): 196. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.196. Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2017-09-09. Speaking Albanian, for example, is not a predictor with respect to other matters of identity .. There are also long standing Christian Albanian (or Arvanitika speaking) communities both in Epirus and the Florina district of Macedonia with unquestioned identification with the Greek nation. .. The Tschamides were both Christians and Muslims by the late 18th century [in the 20th century, Cham applies to Muslim only]
^Moraitis, Thanassis. "publications as a researcher". thanassis moraitis: official website. Retrieved 18-4-2015. "Οι Αρβανίτες αυτοί είναι σε εδαφική συνέχεια με την Αλβανία, με την παρεμβολή του ελληνόφωνου Βούρκου (Vurg) εντός της Αλβανίας, και η Αλβανική που μιλιέται εκεί ακόμα, η Τσάμικη, είναι η νοτιότερη υποδιάλεκτος του κεντρικού κορμού της Αλβανικής, αλλά έμεινε ουσιαστικά εκτός του εθνικού χώρου όπου κωδικοποιήθηκε η Αλβανική ως επίσημη γλώσσα του κράτους..... Οι αλβανόφωνοι χριστιανοί θεωρούν τους εαυτούς τους Έλληνες. Στα Ελληνικά αποκαλούν τη γλώσσα τους «Αρβανίτικα», όπως εξ άλλου όλοι οι Αρβανίτες της Ελλάδας, στα Αρβανίτικα όμως την ονομάζουν «Σκιπ»"..... "The Albanian idiom still spoken there, Çamërisht, is the southernmost sub-dialect of the main body of the Albanian language, but has remained outside the national space where standard Albanian has been standardized as official language of the state..... Ethnic Albanophone Christians perceive themselves as national Greeks. When speaking Greek, members of this group call their idiom Arvanitic, just as all other Arvanites of Greece; yet, when conversing in their own idiom, they call it "Shqip"."
^Tsitsipis. Language change and language death. 1981. p. 2. "The term Shqip is generally used to refer to the language spoken in Albania. Shqip also appears in the speech of the few monolinguals in certain regions of Greek Epirus, north-western Greece, while the majority of the bilingual population in the Epirotic enclaves use the term Arvanitika to refer to the language when talking in Greek, and Shqip when talking in Albanian (see Çabej 1976:61-69, and Hamp 1972: 1626-1627 for the etymological observations and further references)."
^Baltsiotis. The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece. 2011 "The Albanian language, and the Christian population who spoke it- and still do- had to be concealed also, since the language was perceived as an additional threat to the Greekness of the land. It could only be used as a proof of their link with the Muslims, thus creating a continuum of non-Greekness."
^Banfi, Emanuele (6 June 1994). Minorités linguistiques en Grèce: Langues cachées, idéologie nationale, religion (in French). Paris: Mercator Program Seminar. p. 27.
^Adrian Ahmedaja (2004). "On the question of methods for studying ethnic minorities' music in the case of Greece's Arvanites and Alvanoi." in Ursula Hemetek (ed.). Manifold Identities: Studies on Music and Minorities. Cambridge Scholars Press. p. 59. "Among the Alvanoi the reluctance to declare themselves as Albanians and to speak to foreigners in Albanian was even stronger than among the Arvanites. I would like to mention just one example. After several attempts we managed to get the permission to record a wedding in Igoumenitsa. The participants were people from Mavrudi, a village near Igoumenitsa. They spoke to us only German or English, but to each other Albanian. There were many songs in Greek which I knew because they are sung on the other side of the border, in Albanian. I should say the same about a great part of the dance music. After a few hours, we heard a very well known bridal song in Albanian. When I asked some wedding guests what this kind of song was, they answered: You know, this is an old song in Albanian. There have been some Albanians in this area, but there aren't any more, only some old people". Actually it was a young man singing the song, as can he heard in audio example 5.9. The lyrics are about the bride's dance during the wedding. The bride (swallow" in the song) has to dance slowly — slowly as it can be understood in the title of the song Dallëndushe vogël-o, dale, dale (Small swallow, slow — slow) (CD 12)."
^Sarah Green (2005). Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian border. Princeton University Press. pp. 74-75. "In short, there was a continual production of ambiguity in Epirus about these people, and an assertion that a final conclusion about the Tsamides was impossible. The few people I meet in Thesprotia who agreed that they were Tsamides were singularly reluctant to discuss anything to do with differences between themselves and anyone else. One older man said, 'Who told you I'm a Tsamis? I'm no different from anyone else.' That was as far as the conversation went. Another man, Having heard me speaking to some people in a Kafeneio in Thesprotia on the subject, followed me out of the shop as I left, to explain to me why people would not talk about Tsamides; he did not was to speak to me about it in the hearing of others: They had a bad reputation, you see. They were accused of being thieves and armatoloi. But you can see for yourself, there not much to live on around here. If some of them did act that way, it was because they had to, to survive. But there were good people too, you know; in any population, you get good people and bad people. My grandfather and my father after him were barrel makers, they were honest men. They made barrels for oil and tsipouro. I'm sorry that people have not been able to help you do your work. It's just very difficult; it's a difficult subject. This man went on to explain that his father was also involved in distilling tsipouro, and he proceeded to draw a still for me in my notebook, to explain the process of making this spirit. But he would not talk about any more about Tsamides and certainly never referred to himself as being Tsamis."
^Winnifrith, Tom (1995). "Southern Albania, Northern Epirus: Survey of a Disputed Ethnological Boundary." Society Farsharotu. Retrieved 18-4-2015. "I tried unsuccessfully in 1994 to find Albanian speakers in Filiates, Paramithia and Margariti. The coastal villages near Igoumenitsa have been turned into tourist resorts. There may be Albanian speakers in villages inland, but as in the case with the Albanian speakers in Attica and Boeotia the language is dying fast. It receives no kind of encouragement. Albanian speakers in Greece would of course be almost entirely Orthodox."
^Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth. pp. 25-26, 53. "Some Orthodox speakers remained, but the language was not encouraged or even allowed, and by the end of the twentieth century it had virtually disappeared..... And so with spurious confidence Greek historians insist that the inscriptions prove that the Epirots of 360, given Greek names by their fathers and grandfathers at the turn of the century, prove the continuity of Greek speech in Southern Albania since their grandfathers whose names they might bear would have been living in the time of Thucydides. Try telling the same story to some present-day inhabitants of places like Margariti and Filiates in Southern Epirus. They have impeccable names, they speak only Greek, but their grandparents undoubtedly spoke Albanian."
Note: Forms of nationalism based primarily on ethnic groups are listed above. This does not imply that all nationalists with a given ethnicity subscribe to that form of ethnic nationalism.
![Approximate geographical outline of Chameria according to various views. In red, the Ottoman kaza of Çamlık. In black, the maximum extent of Albanian speech. In green, the more expansive version of the region's definition by R. Elsie.[1]](File:Tsamouria.Chameria.png)
