“We can convincingly say that the Cham question is today stronger than ever, has won the battle against time and we remain committed to give a solution to it,” says Shpetim Idrizi
TIRANA, June 26 – “I love Chameria” This was the motto accompanying one week of cultural, historical and commemorating events dedicated to the Cham community in Albania which was expelled from their homes in current Greece during World War II.
Tirana squares and streets were decorated with “I Love Chameria” slogans and Albanian flags while footage material was screened
“This year we have taken the Cham Week from closed facilities to the main squares of the country. 100 years ago, in the Tirana squares, citizens took out to the streets protesting the omission of Kosovo and Chameria from Albania. Seventy years ago, in these squares people protested supporting the rights of Cham Albanians who were expelled during the Treaty of Lausanne. Sixty-eight years ago they welcomed the refugees, their compatriots from Chameria, who were expelled under one of the most severe genocides,” said Shpetim Idrizi, the head of the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity, representing the Cham community in the Albanian Parliament.
“This week belongs to all Albanians, because Chameria belongs to all Albanians. We can convincingly say that the Cham question is today stronger than ever, has won the battle against time and we remain committed to give a solution to it,” added Idrizi.
This week unveils the culture, tradition and history of a region, without which our nation would lack part of its identity, organizers said.
Testimonies by those who at an early age saw their relatives massacred and were forced to walk hundreds of kilometers in wintertime at their enemies’ gunpoint were at the centre of the event held from June 25 to 30.
The beauty and historical heritage of Chameria and personalities from this region were featured in several events. An exhibition on Cham culture and history opened at the National Museum of History.
The event will culminate on Saturday, June 30, when a monumental graveyard will be inaugurated in Kllogjer, Saranda, southernmost Albania. Some 3,000 Cham Albanians are estimated to have died in Kllogjer from Greek army violence during World War II expulsions of the Cham community who originally resided in the coastal region of Epirus in northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria.
The Cham cultural week will also honour renowned Cham personalities such as Hasan Tahsin and Bilal Xhaferri with a museum complex in Ninat, Saranda.
The event concludes with the perennial march of Qafe Bote border crossing point with Greece where thousands of Chams symbolically march to commemorate the mass exodus from their homes in Chameria.
Since the early 1990s, the Cham population in Albania has been demanding the return of their property in Greece which was seized after their expulsion. People born in Chameria are considered as non-grata by Greek authorities and not allowed to cross the border.
Prominent Cham personalities include Pyrrhus of Epirus, hero of the War of Greek Independence Marko Bocari, to modern times figures like writers Elena Gjika and Mitrush Kuteli, painter Kol Idromeno etc.
