MASSACRES AND ROBBERY PERPETRATED BY GREEK CHAUVINISM

MASSACRES AND ROBBERY PERPETRATED BY GREEK CHAUVINISMAGAINST THE ALBANIAN POPULATION OF CHAMERIA (1940-1945)

Killed persons:

1940-1941: Internment of all male persons from 16 to 75 years of age, started by the Metaxa regime two months before Greece’s occupation by fascist Italy and continued. Thousands of Chams were interned to the islands of the Aegean Sea.
During the internment, 450 people died of tortures.

June 27, 1944	Men	Women	Total
Paramithi, Margellic, Gumenice and villages:	800	230	1.030
Parge:	130	-	13

August 1944	Men	Women	Total
Filat and villages:	198	61	259

March 1945	Men	Women	Total
Filat and villages:	372	59	431
Deaths in internment:	450	-	450
Total:	1950	350	2300

Deaths en route (diseases and afflictions): 2 400
Victims (total): 4 700
Raped women: 475
Kidnapped women: 76

MATERIAL DAMAGE:

villages / burnt houses
Parge, Preveze, Arta Paramithi, Margellic: 21 / 2300
Gumenice: 26 / 2300
Filat: 44 / 1200
_________________
Total: 91 villages / 5800 burnt houses

RELIGIOUS OBJECTS BURNT DOWN:

Paramithi (town) 7 mosques“(villages) 54 "
Gumenice and villages :25 "
Filat (town) 2 "“ (villages):22 "
_________________________
Total: 102 mosques

Large scale plunder of agricultural and livestock products, as well as more than 46 000 sheep and 5 137 cattle

This is a false and an untrue "hypothesis".

- To consider the Chams criminals at a time when they have shed their blood together with the Greeks for liberation is a political-diplomatic crime.
Because:

* The Chams did not collaborate with occupiers of any kind; they are their victims.
* If Chameria had some "collaborators" (a common phenomenon for all the states under Nazi-Fascist occupation during World War II, what about the 30.000 such people in Greece, with general Ralis at the head. Nobody accuses them in Greece, on the contrary they are Eehabilitated by the general amnesty of the Greek state.
* It is a historical fact that the Chams were the first to take part in the Greek resistance against the invaders (together with ELAS and EAM).
* Documents that testify to the undeniable truth of the Cham tragedy, do exist.
* There are documents of the German state which prove that Napolon Zervas, one of the persons, most responsible for the genocide against the Chams, was a collaborator of the German Gestapo.
The Greek official stand does on honour to the Greek democratic government, which has signed all the international documents on human rights, we don’t blame it today for this tragedy, but it is not human to be a partner of the authors of gravest tragedies in Europe, following World War II, by using false accusations in order to hide the truth.

THE CHAM TRAGEDY MEANS:

* GENOCIDE
* ETHINC CLEANSING
* RELIGIOUS WAR
* VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

A PROBLEM THAT MUST BE SOLVED

The Albanian martyr population of Chameria wants that today’s Europe of human dimension, all the international fora, all European political-diplomatic circles, the USA and other countries, the Greek government and people support and help meet its legitimate human demands:
1. We request that the Greek Democratic government as a member of the European Community, as a state that has signed all International Acts on Human Rights and respect for national minorities, recognizes our denied rights
2. We request that the Greek state and government should accept the historical reality of the Cham question.
3. It should recognize the civil and legal rights of the Albanians evicted from their own territories in 1944-1945, as well as their right as legitimate owners of the property they have been robbed of.
4. We request that the Greek state and government should allow and make possible the free movement of this population to visit its ancestors’ land.
5. On February 2, 1943, at Markat (Konispol), the Chameria umt was formed Later on, it grew in size and assumed the name of the "Chameria" battalion, composed mamly of partisans from the Chamena province.
6. In the spring of 1944, in the village of Qeramice, Filat, the fourth mixed battalion was set up as part of the 15th regiment of the Greek ELAS, including about 500 members from the Albanian minority of Chameria. Chami’officers led some of these formations and their subordinate units.
7. Albanians from the Chameria province took part in all the formations of the Albanian National Liberation Anny.
8. Fighting formations composed of Albanians from the Chami minority fought such battles against the Nazi-fascist occupiers inscribing glorious pages in the history of the Greek and Albanian peoples as:
- The 55 day long battle against German forces in August 1944 m the Konispol region on the border between Greece and Albania.

The battles along the Skolim-Filat-Gumenica-Janina line.

Many Albanians from Chameria shed their blood in these battles, giving their lives on the same trenches as the Greek partisans for their joint liberation. They were, just to mention a few, the hero of the Albanian people Ali Demi, Bido Sejko, Muharrem Myrteza, Ibrahim Halluni, Husejn Vejseli and dozens of others who fell on the Qeramica Pass, in Konispol and in many other battles that were fought at that time.
The attitude adopted by the Greek officials, including the present-day official authonties of Greece, to the effect that the Chami people were collaborators of the Nazi-Fascist occupiers, hence, they were war criminals, negates all this contribution of the Albanians of Chameria, slinging mud at the blood they shed for the liberation of the two, Albanian and Greek, peoples. This Greek accusation which is made in an effort to justify and disguise the truth about the Chami tragedy and the ethnic cleansing against the Albanians of Chameria at the hands of Greek theocratic chauvinism in the 1944-1945 period, does not bear scrutiny, it does not hold as an argument either in time and runs counter to the historical truth. In so doing, the present Greek government becomes an accomplice of the authors of the crime and genocide against an innocent and defenseless population.