By Arben P. Llalla
Part Two
– The Greek Collaborators, Planners and Leaders of the Genocide in Chameria (1944-1945) – The Truth about the Collaboration of the Chams with the Germans –
PREFACE
Memorie.al / The period I started writing the book was from 2008-2016, collecting materials little by little. It was extremely difficult to find original photographs and some Greek-language newspapers from the years in question. The Greek state, with its state structures, has been feeding domestic and foreign opinion for about 70 years with books and writings of lies about what actually happened from 1936-1945 regarding the Albanian minority in Chameria – Southern Epirus.
Continued from the previous issue
There are many photographs deliberately misinterpreted by Greek historians and publicists regarding the unsubstantiated accusation of the collaboration of the Chams with the Germans. After many years of work, I was able to find the truth about those photographs that the Greeks claim are Cham collaborators with the Germans. I believe that my several years of work to publish this book will be rightly appreciated by readers and critics. There was never a collective collaboration of the Cham population with the Italian and German occupiers; the purpose of the Greek Genocide was to ethnically cleanse Chameria – Southern Epirus of Muslim Albanians, to seize their property, and to settle Orthodox refugees who came over the years from Asia Minor.
During the operation to relocate the Jews of Ioannina to concentration and extermination camps, the Germans, in cooperation with the Greek Gendarmerie, also relocated dozens of anti-fascist Chams. This clearly shows that the Albanians of Chameria were on the side of the Greek partisans. The Greek state’s preservation of the private homes and land, whose real owners are Albanians, clearly shows that the ethnic cleansing of Chameria of the Albanian element had a political background and was not based on any fact regarding the accusation of collaboration with the Germans. Without a solution to the delicate Cham issue, there can be no good neighborliness or sincere friendship between Greeks and Albanians, who are more united by ties of interest than divided.
I think that an objective scientific evaluation of the phenomena and facts I present and analyze should prevail over passion. We are publishing original photographs that clearly show the collaboration of the Greek state and high-ranking clerics of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece with the Italian and German occupiers. True history is not a history written with half-truths mixed with half-lies. True history is a history written based on real documents, no matter how bitter they may be. We thank the benefactor Hysni Omer Idrizi from Margëlliç for the financial support he gave for the publication of this book, in memory of his ancestors in Chameria.
The Nazi-Fascist Greece of Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1941)
As early as 1933, when Panagis Tsaldaris was Prime Minister of Greece, the first signs of Nazi ideology had appeared. On May 21, 1933, at a parade held in Corfu, the Nazi swastika was noticed on the Greek royal flag. We see the view from the Greek flag with the Nazi cross in a photo from that time where it is written on the back: “Corfu People’s Youth Organization” (Λαϊθής Οργάλωζες Νέωλ Κερθύρας). This action for the propaganda of the Greeks with the Nazi cross took place only a few months after Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.
After the elections of January 26, 1936, even though Eleftherios Venizelos won them, he could not form a government. Thus, King George II, after the sudden death of the then Prime Minister Konstantinos Demertzis on April 13, 1936, authorized Ioannis Metaxas as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Greece. Upon taking power, Ioannis Metaxas installed the fascist dictatorship known as the “Fourth of August Regime of 1936.” This regime was characterized by a series of external fascist symbols. Serving Hitler’s Third Reich, Metaxas elaborated the notion of the “Third Hellenic Civilization.”
Students in schools honored with fascist gestures with an outstretched hand, as Hitler was honored. The fascist dress of the Mussolini regime type, black shirts, became the official uniform for students from primary school to university. The National Youth Organization (EON) was created, through which, in the absence of old bases of popular support, Metaxas tried to institutionalize his power; it was nothing more than a pale imitation of the Hitler Youth.
On September 20, 1936, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda of Germany, Joseph Goebbels, came to Athens, where he was received with high state honors. At the airport, he was welcomed by the Mayor of Athens, Konstantinos Kotzias. The next day, September 21, the German minister Goebbels met with Prime Minister Metaxas, with whom he spent the whole day. He visited several archaeological sites in Greece. On the morning of September 28, Joseph Goebbels, together with his wife, left for Germany after a very successful visit. Before leaving, Goebbels left a check of 150,000 drachmas, as a token of gratitude for the Greek national security people who accompanied him during his days in Greece, to the diplomat Dh.Vikella.
From the signing of the agreement between Turkey and Greece, on November 1-4, 1913, where Greece would recognize the property rights over agricultural real estate owned by private persons with documents from the Ottoman state, before their possession, they would be recognized by the Greek state. The Kingdom of Greece did not stand by this agreement to implement it for immovable properties, but during the years 1913 and onwards, it had issued various Laws that seized the properties of the Chams, violating the agreement in question.
During the Government of Ioannis Metaxas 1936-1941, many other laws were also voted that took away the right of ownership, giving these properties to the Orthodox refugees who came from Asia Minor. The government of the dictator Metaxas, in August 1936, with the nationalist policy it pursued, further increased the discriminatory measures against Muslim Albanians. He placed the whole of Chameria under complete surveillance. Thinking that the center of Chameria, Filat, was located beyond the Kalamas River, near the Albanian-Greek border, he gave priority to Igoumenitsa as the center of Chameria. The Metaxas government made these administrative changes because it did not see the Chams as reliable citizens of the Hellenic state.
The healthy Greek opinion noted with despair that the revenge taken by Metaxas, known for his fascist ideas against the Cham Albanian minority, would have tragic consequences, not only for the Muslim Chams but for all of Greece. During the years 1939-1940, about 2,000 Cham boys were called to do military service, but by prejudicing them, the Metaxas Government kept them in separate units and in unarmed service.
During the Greco-Italian war, the Albanian soldiers from Chameria who served in the Greek army were not entrusted with weapons to fight the Italian occupiers but were used in the rear as labor to build new bridges and roads. Before the Italian fascist army entered Greece, the Greek government began a new campaign of massacres and most monstrous crimes against the Albanian population of Chameria. Two months before the Greco-Italian conflict, the fascist government of Metaxas committed an unprecedented act in world history.
All males from 16-70 years old, over 5,000 men, were imprisoned and sent to the remote Aegean islands. This action was carried out on the basis of a decision previously taken in Igoumenitsa by a meeting headed by the Bishop of Ioannina, Spyridon, which was also attended by the Deputy Prefect of Igoumenitsa, Giorgo Vasilako, the commander of the Gendarmerie, and representatives of the Greeks of Chameria. During the period of Metaxas’ rule, the forced assimilation of minorities in Greece, such as Albanians, Bulgarians, Turks, Vlachs, began, also violating the Treaty of Lausanne.
The 4th of August Regime of Metaxas tried to impose on the minorities living in Greece the use of only the Greek language in public places and within their family circle. Thus, the Albanian, Jewish, Bulgarian, and Slavic-Macedonian minorities became victims of the dictatorial regime of Metaxas. Thousands of people were imprisoned just because they did not belong to the Greek ethnicity. These prisoners, 3 months after the death of Metaxas, were handed over to the Italian and German occupiers, and many of them were executed by these occupiers of Greece.
The dictator Ioannis Metaxas built a regime where every opponent had to be imprisoned, tortured, and then worked with to become a collaborator of the secret police. In the first days of the Metaxas regime, many leaders of the Greek Communist Party – KKE were imprisoned, among them Niko Zachariadis, whom he imprisoned in the infamous prison of Corfu. The regime closed opposing newspapers. Until 1938, about 600 high-ranking communist leaders had been imprisoned; in a way, the Communist Party no longer existed.
Many communists went into the service of the Metaxas regime to escape imprisonment and torture. The two communist deputies, Michalis Tirimos and Manolis Manoleas, after being imprisoned on the island of Corfu, later agreed to serve in the regime’s secret security. Ioannis Metaxas called himself “Protos Agrotis” (The First Peasant) and “Protos Ergatis” (The First Worker), “The Leader,” “The Father of the Nation,” overestimating himself.
His populist, anti-plutocratic rhetoric, which nevertheless did not lack sincerity, rarely matched practice. He forced young people to join the National Youth Organization, which he had conceived as a means to perpetuate his ideals after his death, and he vented his anger against the entire spectrum of the “political class,” nurturing a special disgust for the extreme left.
The figure of Prime Minister Metaxas was hated by the popular part of the population; he did not find widespread support for the fascist and Nazi propaganda he promoted. However, he won the sympathy of the Greeks only when, on October 28, 1940, he said “No” to the peaceful occupation of Greece by Mussolini’s Italy. Ioannis Metaxas organized numerous voluntary military forces in the name of Greek patriotism, for the liberation of Northern Epirus, causing national unity feelings to be ignited among the Greeks, to defeat Italy. In a short time, the Greek army entered near Vlora. After the death of Metaxas, Greece was very quickly occupied by German, Bulgarian, and Italian forces, who divided it into three parts.
With the start of the Greco-Italian war, an order was given to isolate and arrest the main figures of the Albanians of Chameria. The commander of the Filat gendarmerie, Zambeta, and other post-commanders in Chameria, had received orders to arrest the most selected dignitaries of the Albanians in every center and Muslim village of Chameria. This action of Metaxas was another serious mistake, which was followed by all kinds of meaningless actions.
The arrests of the Cham dignitaries began in Filat and were immediately followed throughout the Chameria region. The first arrested from the dignitaries of Chameria were figures who had shown that they were anti-fascists of the first hour, such as: Musa Demi, Shuapi Metja, the Mufti of Filat: Mehmet Zeqirjai, Sako Braho, Samet Murati, Shaban Demi, Gali Xhaferi, all of them from Filat. Likewise in Paramithi, Varfanj, Margëlliç, Igoumenitsa, Volë, Arpicë, Karbunar, etc11.
The actions of the Greek government to the detriment of the Albanians of Chameria have always found a reason, a baseless accusation, stating that the Chams are collaborators of the Italians and want to unite with Albania. While at the same time, the Greek army had occupied the entire Albanian south, and little by little, the Greek language was also introduced into the administration of the cities of Korça, Pogradec, Gjirokastra, Tepelena, Përmet, Saranda.
On November 10, 1940, by Greek royal decree, law 2636, Greece declared war on Italy and Albania. This was a cunning action by Greece to seize the properties of the Albanians of Chameria but also as a reason to expel them from their lands forever. The royal decree announced in November 1940 to declare war on Albania was one-sided, as Albania had been occupied by Italy for more than a year, its King Zog I was in exile, the Albanian royal forces on April 7, 1939, had fought as much as they could against the Italian occupying army.
After the Italian occupation of Albania, the general population was in illegal resistance against the Italian occupation. At the end of January 1941, Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas died; in his place, Alexandros Koryzis was elected. Following the occupation of some parts of Greece by Nazi Germany and after a conversation with King George II, Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis killed himself in his house on April 18, 1941. A few days after the prime minister’s suicide, Greece signed its capitulation and collaboration with Nazi Germany.
The Greek Collaborative Governments (1941-1944)
After a resistance of the Greek army against the Italians, November 1940-April 1941, the fighting of which mainly took place in the territory of Albania, the Greek army, generally led by high-ranking military officers of Vlach origin, easily surrendered to the Germans. On April 20, 1941, Easter Sunday, the general of the First Corps, Panagiot Demestichas, the general of the Second Corps, Georgio Bako, the Metropolitan of Ioannina, Spyridon, who was also a Vlach from Pogonia, signed the surrender and collaboration of the Greek army of Epirus with the Germans and Italians.
(The Metropolitan of Ioannina, Spyridon, was a rabid anti-Albanian; he had been Minister of the Interior in the government of the Autonomy of Northern Epirus in 1914. The Metropolitan of Ioannina, Spyridon, in 1949-1956, was the Archbishop of Greece, he was known among the people by the name Spyridon the Vlach, but the family’s last name was Sito). On April 10, 1941, the high-ranking leaders of the city of Alexandroupolis in Evros, Greek Thrace, sent a letter of thanks to Adolf Hitler, where they wrote:
“Addressed to the Führer of the German people. The entry of German troops restored law and order to Greece. A letter addressed to the Führer of the German people from the People’s Commission of Alexandroupolis (formerly Dedeagac), the capital of the Greek district of Evros, offers special confirmation of this fact:
‘The population of Alexandroupolis, who for three days have been living in the territory occupied by the glorious German troops, have gathered today voluntarily to express their heartfelt thanks to your Excellency thanks to the Supreme Commander of the glorious German Army. They pledge that they will always give their testimony of their determined gratitude for the great civilization and true chivalry expressed by the brave occupation troops towards the population.
Life, honor, property, as well as national customs and traditions have remained untouched. The aforementioned is demonstrated by the fact that in this regard everything continues to flow as before. Alexandroupolis, April 10, 1941. The People’s Commission of Alexandroupolis wishes to convey its admiration and thanks to your Excellency. The Metropolitan, Pataron Meletios President, Anas. Pentzos Members: Nik. Stiropoulos, Konst. Saridis Secretary-General, Manganaris.'” / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue.
