See also
 | This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Chams. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
The Chams are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia.
Chams may also refer to:
| | This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Chams. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
Cham in briefly refer to: a member of an indigenous people of Vietnam and Cambodia, who formed an independent kingdom from the 2nd to 17th centuries AD.
Cham Albanians or Chams, are a sub-group of Albanians who originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in Northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. The Chams have their own peculiar cultural identity, which is a mixture of Albanian and Greek influences as well as many specifically Cham elements. A number of Chams contributed to the Albanian national identity and played an important role in starting the renaissance of the Albanian culture in the 19th century. The Chams speak their own dialect of the Albanian language, the Cham Albanian dialect, which is a Southern Tosk Albanian dialect and one of the two most conservative ones; the other being Arvanitika.
Çam may refer to:
Chameria is a term used today mostly by Albanians for parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and the historical Greek region of Epirus, traditionally associated with an Albanian speaking population called Chams. For a brief period (1909-1912), three kazas were combined by the Ottomans into an administrative district called Çamlak sancak. Apart from geographical usages, in contemporary times within Albania the toponym has also acquired irredentist connotations. During the interwar period, the toponym was in common use and the official name of the area above the Acheron river in all Greek state documents. Today it is obsolete in Greek, surviving in some old folk songs. Most of what is called Chameria is divided between the Greek regional units of Thesprotia and Preveza, the southern extremity of Albania's Sarandë District and some villages in eastern Ioannina regional unit. As the Greek toponyms Epirus and Thesprotia have been established for the region since antiquity, and given the negative sentiments towards Albanian irredentism, the term is not used by the locals on the Greek side of the border.
The Cham issue refers to a controversy which has been raised by Albania since the 1990s over the repatriation of the Cham Albanians, who were expelled from the Greek region of Epirus between 1944 and 1945, at the end of World War II, citing the collaboration of the majority of them with the occupying forces of the Axis powers. While Albania presses for the issue to be re-opened, Greece considers the matter closed. However, it was agreed to create a bilateral commission, only about the property issue, as a technical problem. The commission was set up in 1999, but has not yet functioned.
Margariti is a village and a former municipality in Thesprotia, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Igoumenitsa, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 149.223 km2. Population 2,491 (2011).
Albanians in Greece are divided into distinct communities as a result of different waves of migration. Albanians first migrated into Greece during the late Middle Ages. The descendants of populations of Albanian origin who settled in Greece during the Middle Ages are the Arvanites, who have been fully assimilated into the Greek nation and self-identify as Greeks. Today, they still maintain their distinct subdialect of Tosk Albanian, known as Arvanitika.
Ali Demi was an Albanian hero of World War II and a communist, born in Filiates, Greece. He was killed in battle fighting German forces in Vlora, Albania in 1943.
The Cham Albanian dialect is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Cham Albanians, an ethnic Albanian minority in the Epirus region of northwestern Greece.
The National Political Association "Çamëria", a pressure group advocating the return of the Chams to Greece, receipt of compensation and greater freedom for the Orthodox Chams in Greece, was founded on 10 January 1991.
The Chameria Human Rights Association is a non-governmental organization, based in Washington, DC, United States, which protects and lobbies for the rights of Cham Albanians.
The expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece was the forced migration of thousands of Cham Albanians from parts of the Greek region of western Epirus after the Second World War to Albania, at the hands of elements of the Greek Resistance; the National Republican Greek League (EDES) (1944) and EDES veteran resistance fighters (1945).
Këshilla was an Albanian administration in Thesprotia, Greece, during the Axis occupation of Greece (1941-1944). It was set up during the Fascist Italian occupation with the aim of annexing the Greek region into a greater Albanian state and continued its operations under Nazi German occupation until the defeat of Axis Powers and the end of World War II. This initiative was undertaken by the Cham Albanian leaders of the Dino family, in particular the brothers Nuri and Mazar Dino and received support by the majority of the Cham community, who had collaborated with the Axis. The policy of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Këshilla and other paramilitary organisations under the Dino clan was used by EDES resistance forces at the end of the war to expel the Muslim Cham community from the region, with the exception of small groups who had not followed them.
The 4th "Ali Demi" Battalion was a battalion under the 15th Regiment of Greek People's Liberation Army, founded during the Second World War. It comprised both from Cham Albanians and Greeks, of the region of Epirus and was established in May 1944.
The Chameria battalion was a battalion of the National Anti-Fascist Liberation Army of Albania during the Second World War. It was formed from the organized resistance groups of Cham Albanians on 15 June 1943 and was renamed as the IV Chameria Group in October 1943, which ceased to exist after the Liberation of Albania. It included at the time of its creation more than 500 armed troops, the vast majority of whom were Albanians from the Greek part of Chameria region and the rest from the Albanian part, and about 40 members of the Greek minority in Albania.
The Anti-Fascist Committee of Cham Immigrants was an organization created by Cham Albanians, when they were expelled from Greece, with the help of the newly established communist government of Albania. It was established, during the first wave of refugees, and it aimed to make Greece allow, the returning of Chams in their homes. They organized two congresses, adopted a memorandum and sent delegates in Greece and in European allies. After three years activity, the organization did not manage, neither to re-allocate Chams in Chameria, nor to internationalize the Cham issue. Greece did not acknowledge that EDES had expelled Chams, saying that they fled and that they could return, although this was impossible. The international community did not respond to Chams plea, but they acknowledged the humanitarian disaster. Since 1947, the Committee was charged with the normalization of living situations of Cham refugees in Albania. In 1951, Chams were forcibly given the Albanian citizenship and the committee was disbanded. The Cham issue did not regain momentum until 1991, when the communist regime collapsed, and the National Political Association "Çamëria" was established.
During the Axis occupation of Greece between 1941 and 1944, large parts of the Albanian minority in the Thesprotia prefecture in Epirus, northwestern Greece, known as Chams collaborated with the occupation forces. Fascist Italian as well as Nazi German propaganda promised that the region would be awarded to Albania 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 as well as Albanian citizens lost their lives and a great number of villages was burned and destroyed. 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. 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 that belonged to the Dino clan.
The Paramythia executions, also known as the Paramythia massacre was a combined Nazi and Cham Albanian war crime perpetrated by members of the 1st Mountain Division and the Muslim Cham militia in the town of Paramythia and its surrounding region, during the Axis occupation of Greece, in World War II. In this, 201 Greek villagers were murdered and 19 municipalities in the region of Paramythia were destroyed. The years after the end of the war and the defeat of the Axis Powers, a series a war crime trials condemned these actions, however not a single defendant was ever arrested and brought to trial, as they already had fled into Albania. At the Hostages Trial in Nuremberg (1948), the American judges reached the decision that the executions of Paramythia were "plain murders".
The Song of Çelo Mezani is an Albanian polyphonic folk song. It is considered to be the best-known Cham Albanian song. The song increased the awareness in Albania about the Chameria region and its history.
A came is a divider bar used in glass panes.