Chameria

This article is about a region of Epirus also known as "Chameria". For the ancient city in Latium, see Cameria.
Chameria
Çamëria
Τσαμουριά
Historical region
Approximate geographical outline of Chameria according to various views. In red, the Ottoman kaza of Çamlık. In black, the maximum extent of Albanian speech. In green, the more expansive version of the region's definition by R. Elsie.[1]
Approximate geographical outline of Chameria according to various views. In red, the Ottoman kaza of Çamlık. In black, the maximum extent of Albanian speech. In green, the more expansive version of the region's definition by R. Elsie.[1]

Chameria (Albanian: Çamëria; Greek: Τσαμουριά, Tsamouriá)[2] is a term used today mostly by Albanians[3] to refer to parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and Greece, traditionally associated with the Albanian ethnic subgroup of the Chams.[1][4] For a brief period (1909-1912), three kazas (Filat, Aydonat and Margiliç) were combined by the Ottomans into an administrative district called Çamlak sancak.[5] During the interwar period, the toponym was in common use[6] and the official name of the area above the Acheron river in all Greek state documents.[7] Today it is obsolete in Greek,[8] surviving in some old folk songs. Most of what is called Chameria is divided between parts of the Greek regional units of Thesprotia, Preveza, and Ioannina (some villages at the western side); and the municipality of Konispol at the southernmost extremity of Albania. Apart from geographic and ethnographic usages, in contemporary times within Albania the toponym has also acquired irredentist connotations.[3]

  1. ^ a b Elsie, Robert and Bejtullah D. Destani (2012). The Cham Albanians of Greece: A Documentary History. IB Tauris. ISBN 978-1-780760-00-1. p. XXIX. "Chameria is a mountainous region of the southwestern Balkan Peninsula that now straddles the Greek-Albanian border. Most of Chameria is in the Greek Province of Epirus, corresponding largely to the prefectures of Thesprotia and Preveza, but it also includes the southernmost part of Albania, the area around Konispol. It is approximately 10,000 square kilometres in size and has a current, mostly Greek-speaking population of about 150,000. As an historical region, Chameria, also spelled Chamuria, Chamouria or Tsiamouria, is sometimes confused with Epirus which is in fact a much larger area that includes more inland territory in northwestern Greece, for example, the town of Janina/loannina, and also much of southern Albania. Geographically speaking, Chameria begins to the north at the rivers Pavlle and Shalës in the southern part of Albania. It stretches southwards along the Ionian coastline in Greece down to Preveza and the Gulf of Arta, which in the nineteenth century formed the border between Albania and Greece. It does not include the island of Corfu or the region of Janina to the east. The core or central region of Chameria, known in Greek as Thesprotia, could be said to be the basins of the Kalamas and Acheron Rivers. It was the Kalamas River, known in ancient times as the 'Thyamis, that gave Chameria its name."
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gawrych23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Kretsi, Georgia.The Secret Past of the Greek-Albanian Borderlands. Cham Muslim Albanians: Perspectives on a Conflict over Historical Accountability and Current Rights in Ethnologica Balkanica, Vol. 6, p. 173: "Even more accentuated in the immediate post-socialist era, the regional denomination "Chameria" is primarily in use by Albanians with obvious irredentist undertones which refer to an "ethnic Albanian territory" which today remains inside Greek territory..."
  4. ^ Baltsiotis, Lambros (2011). "The Muslim Chams of Northwestern Greece: The grounds for the expulsion of a "non-existent" minority community". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (12). European Journal of Turkish Studies. doi:10.4000/ejts.4444. para. 5-6. "During the beginning of the 20th Century, the northwestern part of the Greek region of Epirus was mostly populated by an Albanian-speaking population, known under the ethnonyme "Chams" [Çamë, Çam (singular)in Albanian, Τσ(ι)άμηδες, Τσ(ι)άμης in Greek]. The Chams are a distinct ethno-cultural group which consisted of two integral religious groups: Orthodox Christians and Sunni Muslims. This group lived in a geographically wide area, expanding to the north of what is today the Preveza prefecture, the western part of which is known as Fanari [Frar in Albanian], covering the western part of what is today the prefecture of Thesprotia, and including a relatively small part of the region which today constitutes Albanian territory. These Albanian speaking areas were known under the name Chamouria [Çamëri in Albanian, Τσ(ι)αμουριά or Τσ(ι)άμικο in Greek]."
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hartmann118 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hammonddd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baltsiotisssss was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ The Greek encyclopedia "Papyrus-Larousse" (Πάπυρος-Λαρούς), c.1965 defines "Tsamouria" (article "Τσαμουριά") as "The older name ... of the modern area of Thesprotia" and directs to article "Thesprotia" (Θεσπρωτία).