By Arben P. Llalla
Part Seven
-Greek collaborators, the planners and leaders of the genocide in Chameria (1944-1945). The truth about the collaboration of Chams with the Germans
FOREWORD
Memorie.al / The period during which I started writing the book was from 2008-2016, collecting materials little by little. It was extremely difficult for me to find original photographs and some Greek-language newspapers for the years in question. For about 70 years, the Greek state and its state structures have fed domestic and foreign public opinion with books and lies about what truly happened from 1936-1945 concerning the Albanian minority in Chameria-Southern Epirus.
Continued from the previous issue
CHAPTER V
The Albanians of Chameria during the years 1941-1945
In the period 1941-1944, four governments and several different resistance groups were operating in Greece. As we have said, they often fought against each other, even collaborating with the occupiers of Greece. This situation was so tragic that the Albanian population in Chameria created the Chameria National Council. This Council had no legal force or authority to arrest or punish; it simply played the role of a guide and advisor, with the good intention of preventing fratricide among residents of different ethnicities and religions.
The ruined economic situation and the foreign occupation brought psychological and emotional hardship to the residents of Chameria, whether they were Albanians, Vlachs, Greeks, Roma, or Jews. To secure food and protection from the chaos that had engulfed Greece, people became collaborators with the Bulgarian, Italian, and German occupiers. However, these were individuals who did not play any significant role in society.
From 1913 onwards, Greek governments, through racist laws, had appropriated the properties of Muslim Albanians in Greece and given them to Orthodox Albanians, Vlachs, and refugees who came from Asia Minor. This strategy, this way of dividing people into categories based on religion and nation, had incited hatred among the residents of Chameria. And what can a person do when their property is unjustly taken and given to someone else?! At certain moments, as a result of events, they will commit murder to reclaim what was once taken from them by state violence.
On January 12, 1942, the police chief in Paramithi, Ilia Niko, killed two prominent Cham figures, the wealthy landowner Tefik Qemali and the doctor Ahmet Qazimi. Armed Chams retaliated by killing the prefect of Thesprotia, Georgios Vassiliakos.
The police chief, Ilia Niko, was not alone when they killed Tefik Qemali from Karbunara and Ahmet Qazimi from Margëllëçi; he was also assisted by the EDES captain, Koço Nikola from Vojnik-Prodromi, whose real name was Konstantinos Georgiou-“Kokonikolas.”
This dark event took place at Sotir Triandafilu-Neli’s cafe. Tefik and Ahmet were celebrating with Lake Abazi, who had just been released from prison. At the cafe, Ilia Nikos started arguing with Tefik Qemali. Afterward, Ilia Niko, along with Nikola Koço, ambushed Tefik Qemali and Ahmet Qazimi, whom Nikola Koço killed. Since Ilia Niko was the police chief of Paramithi and would have had an easy time justifying these two murders, he took on the responsibility for this act.
In December, another Cham personality, Jasim Sadiku from Margëlliç, was killed. The next day, a Christian from Spathari, Vasil Çupi, and the priest Spiridon Nuçi were found dead. Jasim Sadiku, also known as Jasimin Haxhiu, was ambushed by Harallambos Sherifi and his cousin, Vasilis Ballumis. At first, Harallambos shot at Jasim Sadiku, but the bullet missed; then Vasil Ballumis shot and seriously wounded Jasim. According to post-war testimonies, Jasimin Sadiku died on December 6, 1942, from bleeding, on the way to Margëllëç, at Musa Aga’s valley.
The killer, Vasil Ballumi, was a fugitive from prison and wandered the mountains to escape arrest by the Italian law enforcement forces. To escape these forces, he joined Napoleon Zervas’s EDES. Unfortunately, Vasil Ballumi and Harallambos Sherifi were Orthodox Albanians from the village of Spatharë in Margëllëç. This is how the murders began among Albanian and Greek fellow villagers, between Muslim Albanians and Orthodox Albanians.
One side would kill, and then the other side would kill. These murders were not of a national character, but a result of the confiscation of Cham property by Greek governments, which was given to Greek villagers, most of whom were newcomers who had arrived after 1913.
Until the capitulation of fascist Italy in September 1943, no massacre, collective or individual execution had been carried out in Chameria by the Italians or by the irregular Cham groups, who had weapons for self-defense. Also, the Greeks who were police, gendarmes, and resistance groups had not carried out any attacks against Muslim Albanians. This is besides the aforementioned killings of a personal nature, property theft, and blood feuds.
The historiography of Greece, the English, Italian, German, etc. documents of that time, do not provide any evidence that in Southern Epirus-Chameria, during the Italian occupation from April 1941 to September 1943, collective massacres or village burnings were carried out, in which the Albanians of Chameria participated.
The Italians carried out a massacre in the village of Domeniko on February 13, 1943, where they killed 194 people and burned the entire village. On March 12 of the same year, the Italians burned the village of Caricani-Tsaritsani and executed 40 residents. In the same month, March 1943, the Italians burned the village of Servia.
These two villages are located near Larissa, Elassona, and Kozani, where the Vlach “Roman Legions” that collaborated with the fascist Italians were operating. These massacres were carried out because the villagers of these areas were helping the EAM-ELAS resistance forces.
The execution of 49 citizens in September 1943 in Paramithi
After Fascist Italy capitulated in September 1943, the areas it controlled were handed over to the Germans, who were supported by the Greek Security Battalions and SS troops. On September 24, in Shkallë of Paramithi, six German soldiers were killed by resistance forces. The German commander’s order was that for every wounded or killed German soldier, ten Greeks would be executed.
For 4-5 days, the Germans arrested 52 Greek citizens to execute them as revenge for the killing of their soldiers. On September 29, they executed 49 citizens of Paramithi. According to the data, the Germans had information for some time about the citizens of Paramithi, knowing who had ties to the EAM ELAS partisans and belonged to the communist ideology.
Panajoti Camatos, a professor at the University of Ioannina, on the occasion of the execution of the 49 citizens of Paramithi in September 2015, presented a document showing that the German command of Paramithi had data as early as August 1943 on who was helping EAM-ELAS and belonged to the communist ideology. If we look at the surnames of the 49 executed, 32 of them have surnames derived from the Albanian language and 17 have Orthodox surnames.
From a CIA document published in 2000, provided by the Greek Information Service and accepted during 1944, which shows the official figures of war crimes committed by the German Nazis, such as executions, murders, and arson. In the paragraph on Nazi crimes in Epirus, the following information is given:
INFORMATION BULLETIN “C”
No. 43, February 1944
Pg. 11. EPIRUS – From the data we have, the number of people executed in Paramithi is 60 and not 49.
Joani Bayakos, Georgio Sismas, Apostolos Hrisohos, Pericklis Kikouris, Costandinos Ziakas, Konstandinos Yannakis, Spiros Mitsos, Konstandinos Kotsiuris, Georgio Morettas, Andreas Moretas, Andreas Tsougaris, Sotiris Allijanis, Konstandinos Allijanis, Dimitri Allijanis, Joanis Allijanis, George Tsoukas, Theodoros Tsoula, Konstadinos Tsoulas, Vassili Papathanasiou, Nikolas Tsamatos, Konstandinos Tsois, Efthimios Evangelou, Nikolas Manos, Joanis Mitsonis, Athanassios Rignos, Pagos Pagoz, Konstandinos Kostojanis, Panajot Kostojanis, Nikolaos Brabas, Spiridon Barbas, Spanos Sotiriou, Spanos Sotirioz, Konstandinos Kathsoulis, Dimitri Klimis, Apostolos Apostolodis, Leonidas Pashos, George Moutzelemis, Stavros Moztzelemis, Haralambis Drimitsas, Thomas Vatsios, George Pashos, Evangelos Pashos, Konstandinos Tsylis, Athanassion Raptis.
Signed commander of department IIa, E. VOURLAKIS
The document provided by the CIA, which was given by the Greek Information Service (HELLENIC INFORMATION SERVICE – IIa), based in Cairo, Egypt, claims that 60 citizens were executed on September 30, 1943, in Paramithi and lists only 44 names of the executed, with one name repeated twice. Meanwhile, the memorial plaque in Paramithi, where an annual event is organized in their memory, has only 49 names.
In the document in question, it is stated that they were executed by a German platoon. In all the Greek books that write about this event, it is said that the Albanians of Chameria did not participate in the execution, but they were collaborators. An accusation that was never proven with facts: were the Chams collaborators?! The majority of the executed were Albanian-speakers and supporters of the partisan army, EAM-ELAS.
The Chams in the EAM-ELAS partisan army
The majority of the Albanian population in Chameria supported the left-wing forces aligned with the EAM-ELAS partisan army. This support was also linked to the fact that the Albanians in Chameria hated the right-wing political forces, which over the years fed the people with Greek extremist nationalism against minorities, but also to the fact that the Albanians in Albania were fighting against the occupiers as a left-wing partisan liberation army.
From the latest data we read in the book of the late academic Prof. Dr. Kristo Frashëri, we learn that the leader of the right-wing guerrilla forces, Napoleon Zerva, had several times made an offer to the Albanian leaders in Chameria to join EDES.
At the EDES headquarters, the ground was prepared for the first meeting between Nuri Dino and Zervas to take place through English missionaries. The English liaison officer, Myers, who was operating near the EDES headquarters, made it possible for the meeting to be held at the Paganion monastery in the village of Selan of Paramithi, at the end of May 1943. The EDES side was represented by the English Colonel Myers, Captain Zhupa, and 2-3 other officers. The Cham ‘Balli Kombëtar’ side was represented by Masar Dino, the mufti of Paramithi, Ferhat Kaso, and Sali Meto. The representatives of the EDES side asked the forces of the Chameria ‘Balli Kombëtar’ to join Napoleon Zervas’s forces against EAM and ELAS.
In Parga, on August 10, 1943, the representatives of both sides, EDES and ‘Balli Kombëtar’, met. This time, the Cham ‘Balli Kombëtar’ was represented by Masar Dino and some of his Cham collaborators. Napoleon Zervas’s side demanded from ‘Balli Kombëtar’: 1. The immediate disarmament of the Chams and that all armed Cham forces, as well as those capable of fighting, should come under the command of EDES. 2. A new administration in the form of a council, named EA (Ethiniki Agona), should be organized in Chameria. 3. The aid that would be collected from the population should go to EDES. 4. In the regions that were under the jurisdiction of EDES, no armed Cham should enter.
I do not agree with that part of the historians who write that ‘Balli Kombëtar’ operated in Chameria. I consider the expressed opinions of some Albanian historian, who is sick with communist ideology, that ‘Balli Kombëtar’ existed in Chameria as a military and political formation, to be a mistake. This is a theory invented by the communist ideology of Albania. No Greek author, in any book published over the years by former members of EDES, mentions that ‘Balli Kombëtar’ operated in Chameria. Until today, no document has emerged that proves this, no photograph of the military formations of ‘Balli Kombëtar’ in Chameria has been found.
The only photograph is that of Nuri Dino with a traditional Cham qeleshe and an Italian jacket with the rank of colonel. That photograph was taken within the territory of Albania and not in Greece. This indicates that there were no regular Albanian military formations in Chameria, but rather irregular, self-organized groups for maintaining peace and protecting property from thieves.
In contrast to the irregular formations of the Dino brothers, who collaborated with the Italian and later German administration, the National Liberation Council was founded in Chameria. The well-known figure Musa Demi was placed at the head of the Cham National Liberation Council. Many young men from Chameria such as: Muharrem Demi, Petrit Musa Demi, Dervish Dajaka, Mustafa Dauti, Qamil Izeti, Ismail Hamiti, Gani Demi, etc., were enlisted in the mixed battalions from the beginning.
On February 2, (1943), within the framework of the National Liberation Front, a small resistance group, the “Çamëria” detachment, was formed in Konispol. Its field of action was mainly in the areas of southern Albania and the border line. This detachment simultaneously maintained contacts and collaborated with the ELAS forces.
In March 1943, the “Çamëria” detachment and one of the ELAS resistance groups agreed to collaborate in the military field. At the same time, members of these two groups went through the villages of the Theollogos area in Northern Epirus and organized a meeting of representatives of the villages of the Filat area, where they spoke about the common goals of the war, as well as about lining up together in the fight against the occupiers.
A group of ELAS partisans, in March 1943, composed of Chams and Greeks, Petrit Demi, Taqis Theologjis, Panajotis Micis, Kostas Sternaras of ELAS, met in the villages of southern Albania with partisans Janis Kondis, Vangjel Pulis and two others. This information was stated by the Greek minority teacher, Panajotis I. Mici, from Finiq.
The “Çamëria” detachment was expanded into a battalion and in November 1943, it was named “Thoma Lulo,” in honor of the Greek fighter from Gjirokastra who had been killed at that time. Now Greeks and Albanians of Chameria were fighting together against the German occupiers.
From the Albanian population of Chameria, over 1,000 fighters were included in the Albanian and Greek military formations, not counting hundreds of others who worked in the field. In the ranks of ELAS alone, 68 Cham partisans gave their lives.
According to German authorities’ documents, in early 1944, the German occupiers created a half-strength Cham battalion structure of 300 people, but they stationed it in Konispol and not in the far side of Chameria (within Albanian territory), so as not to create political complications with the friendly Greek government of J. Rallis.
On January 10, 1944, on the initiative of the 15th regiment of ELAS and with the approval of the Albanian National Liberation Front, a mixed battalion was formed for the region of Chameria. The co-commanders of the battalion were initially appointed Muharrem Demi and Spiro Shqevi, but later, after the battalion came under the exclusive command of ELAS, Joannis Sarafis was appointed its commander.
Thus, from various sources, the conclusion is that the majority of the Albanian population in Chameria was aligned with the left-wing resistance forces of ELAS and EAM, unreservedly supporting the war for liberation from the Italian and German occupiers. Greece, led by the Quisling governments of Tsolakoglou, Logothetopoulos, and Rallis, had created such confusion among the population that during that period there were several parallel Greek governments and various resistance forces, which sometimes clashed with each other, forgetting the national war for the liberation of Greece! / Memorie.al
Continued in the next issue
