ALBANIANS OF CHAMERIA IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE NAZI-FASCIST INVADERS DURING WORLD WAR II

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OF THE ALBANIANS OF CHAMERIA IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE NAZI-FASCIST INVADERS DURING WORLD WAR II - AN INCONTESTIBLE HISTORICAL TRUTH

Chameria and the Chams contributed to the great antttascist war physically, materially and morally; they unreservedly joined total war the occupiers.

1. It were the Chami patriots of Konispol, Filat such as Bido Sejko, Nakije Sejko and Muharrem Demi, Sami Murati from Spatar, Maze Hodo from Koska who, together with other patriots of the Chameria province, called on the people on April 7, 1939 to fight arms in hand against the fascist occupiers by laying ambushes at the Bogaz Pass, at a time when the Greek frontier authorities, under instructions of their government, rejected the request to let the passage of the forces that would fight against the occupiers to both sides of the Greek-Albanian border, with the excuse that they did not want to aggravate relations with fascist

2. The appeal for struggle of the Greek government to the Greek citizens, met immediate positive response from the Albanian population of Chameria, who ‘expressed its readiness to line itself up alongside the Greek people in order to cope with the common threat. The Greek government of loanis Metaxa responded to the readiness of the Albanian population to fight with neglect and increasing disbelief. At the meeting on the eve of the declaration of war by fascist Italy with the commander of the 8th division of the Greek army, general Kacimitro, the Chami soldiers asked him for arms to fight the common enemy, for until then they were kept disarmed. In reply to their request, the Chami soldiers were supplied with pickaxes and shovels to open up trenches,thereby treating them as prisoners of war. However, though insulted by the attitute of the Greeks, the Albanian population of Chameria committed itself fully on the side of the Anti-Fascist Coalition in order to make its own contribution to the fight against the invaders.

3. In early 1942, an illegal group of anti-fascist resistance was organised at Filat.
The group also comprised such well- known anti-fascist fighters as Vehip Demi, Mustafa Sulo Dauti, Dervish Dojaka, Sami Alushi, Tahir Demi, Muharrem Demi, Rexho Huso, Vehip Huso and others.

4. In March 1943, the Chami fighting unit set up at Filat and a Greek unit formed the first mixed partisan formation, the second fighting formation in Epirus.

EFFORTS TO INTERNATIONALIZE THE CHAMI ISSUE
(1944-1947)

1. By the end of September 1944, at the Shales conference (Konispol), considered at that time the first Congress of the Chami refugees, the Chamis in exile raised their voice calling for cooperation against the occupi&s and the injustice committed by the Greek monarcho-fascists against them.

2. A commission of the Chami Anti-Fascist Council was sent on October 30, 1944 to Athens to lodge a protest with the Greek government of Mr. Papandreou against the Greek massacres in Chameria. The Greek government took no pledge or measure.

3. On October 30, 1944, the Chami Anti-fascist Council senf a vote of protest to the government of the Greek National Union, the Mediterranean General Command, the allied governments, the Central Committee of EAM, against the attrocities of the Greek fascists in Chameria.

4. On May 9, 1945, the Chami Anti-fascist Committee sent the Allied Military
Missions the copy of the telegram addressed to the president of the San Francisco Conference as regards the rights of the Chami people under the Atlantic Charter.

5. On June 25, 1945, a Telegram of Protest against the massacres in Chameria addressed by the Chami Anti-fascist Committee to the Democratic Government of Albania, the Allied Military Missions (British, American, Soviet, French, Czechoslovak), the Yugoslav Legation, the Albanians in the USA, Italy and Bulgaria.

6. Memorandum to the Allied Foreign Ministers' Conference in London by the delegates to the Chami Congress on September 4, 1945.

7. On September 23, 1945, the Second Chami Congress held in Viora, sent a memorandum to the London Conference, requesting that the Chami issue be taken up for discussion and those who caused the bloodshed be condemned.

8. Telegram to the JJNRRA General Headquarters by the Chami Anti-fascist Council asking relief (September 25, 1945)

9. Aide-memoire to Mr. Hutchinson, Labour deputy (Great Britain on November 26, 1945.

10. Memorandum to the United Nations Assembly by the Chami Anti-fascist Council on the 11th of January, 1946.

11. Memorandum to the United Nations Assembly in New York by the Chami Anti-fascist Council on October 25, 1946.

12. Memorandum by the Anti-fascist Committee of the Chami refugees to the Investigation Commission of the United Nations Security Council on the inhuman treatment of the Albanian minority of Chameria in Greece and the massacre perpetrated against it (Tirana, 1947).