Albania's Cham community - exiled from Greece after World War II - aims to take an important step towards demanding its properties rights in Greece, by registering and collecting relevant documents.
Fatjona Mejdini
BIRN
Tirana
The baner hanged during Albania-Switzerland football match that sparked debates between Greece and Albania. Photo: Facebook
The Cham community in Albania is to create a register of its lost property in Greece for the first time, with a new database containing all existing documents about their property claims.
Ethnic Albanians who originally lived in the Epirus region of northern Greece, from 1944 onwards around 30,000 Chams were expelled to Albania after the Greek authorities accused them of collaborating with Nazi Germany during the occupation.
The head of the Chameria association, Abaz Hodo, told BIRN that the essence of a collaboration memorandum signed on Saturday between the association and the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity, PDIU, was a registration process that is to start in September.
"We are going to create a compelling database, that for the first time not only identifies the exact size of the purely Cham community but offers thorough information also for families who have one of the parent of Cham origin or even one grandparent," he said.
"One of the most important element is that... during the registration process we will collect all their property claims and documents and the locations of their properties left behind in Greece," he continued.
For the first time, the association and PDIU will also attempt to include in the database Chams who migrated to the United States and Turkey after being expelled from Greece.
The process will start through questionnaires for people related to the community to fill out, after which their answers and documents will be converted into an online platform.
On the other hand, the online service will enable people to identify themselves and their property rights.
The measures are part of steps by the Cham community in Albania to reclaim their property rights in Greece, which has been not possible until now as a result of judicial restrictions from the Greek side.
Over the last month, the Cham issue sparked fresh debates between Greek and Albanian diplomats.
On his last visit to Albania on June 7, the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias encountered protests from members of the Cham community in Tirana at a press conference with his counterpart, Ditmir Bushati, when he explained how Greece see this issue.
"There were also Chams who collaborated with the German conquerors, who created ‘committees’ for controlling and looting the property of the rest of the population in areas of Epirus, and who were condemned by the Greek courts based on Greek and international law, and who, in contrast to other collaborators in Europe, fled the country and were not executed," he said.
The Cham community strongly contested the claim, accusing the Greeks of concealing "a genocide" against the Albanian Chams, including women and children.
The issue resurfaced at the Euro 16 football tournament in France, when Albania played Switzerland, when fans unfurled a banner accusing the Greeks of genocide. "Greece is guilty, rember of the genocide," it read. Greece protested to UEFA, calling it a provocative act.
"The Albanian side was asked to condemn this brazen action officially. So far, Albania appears not to have grasped the necessity of such a move, but the required actions will be taken to make this necessity understood," a statement from the Greek ministry said.
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