Albanian communities in Greece

Albanian communities in Greece are those communities of common Albanian heritage, language and culture. Due to historical process they are divided in three main groups: Arvanites, Cham Albanians and Albanian immigrants in Greece. Arvanites are Albanian-speaking, Greek-identifying group of Greek citizens of Albanian origin, who migrated during the 14th-16th century. Cham Albanians are part of the modern Albanian nation, from whom the Muslim population has been expelled from the region of Epirus, while Orthodox Chams still live in the region called Chameria by Albanians. The third group is Albanian immigrants, who have migrated in Greece after the fall of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania.

Arvanites

Arvanites are a population group in Greece of, ultimately, Albanian origin who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a form of Tosk Albanian. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions in the south of Greece until the 19th century. [Trudgill (2000: 255).] Arvanites have traditionally self-identified themselves as Greeks,Fact|date=August 2008 and in modern times have largely assimilated into mainstream Greek culture. [Botsi (2003: 90); Lawrence (2007: 22; 156)] [ [http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/reports/arvanites.html Greek Helsinki Monitor - The Arvanites] ] Arvanitika is an endangered language due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale migrations into the cities.

Cham Albanians

Cham Albanians, or Chams are a group of ethnic Albanians whose name derives from the Thyamis River. They originally resided in areas of Epirus that correspond to the modern Greek prefectures of Thesprotia and northern Preveza. Cham Albanians speak the Albanian language and are predominantly Muslim, with a sizable Orthodox Christian minority.

After World War II, almost all Muslim Cham Albanians were expelled from their homes in Greece, because a number of them collaborated with the Axis Powers, [Mazower, Mark. "After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960". Princeton University Press, 2000, ISBN 0691058423, p. 25. "Not surprisingly, when the Italians finally took control of mainland Greece in 1942, they found Cham activists willing to call for unification of the region with Albania. Several hundred were conscripted into the anticommunist Bal Komitare to act as local gendarmes."] although approximately the same amount of muslim Albanians provided military support to the Greek resistance forces of ELAS. [Mazower, Mark. "After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960". Princeton University Press, 2000, ISBN 0691058423, p. 26. "...Elas was opposed to the idea of collective punishment of the Cham community. Several hundred Chams had enlisted in its ranks..."] No Cham criminal was ever brought to trial. [Vickers, Miranda. "The Cham Issue - Where to Now?" Paper prepared for the British MoD, Defence Academy, 2002.] Orthodox Chams remained in Greece, but they have suffered from assimilation and public suppression of their Albanian heritage and language. [Vickers, Miranda. "The Cham Issue - Where to Now?" Paper prepared for the British MoD, Defence Academy, 2002. "This is in part due to the violence they suffered historically, but also to a collective prejudice against them on both sides of the border. Many Chams were persecuted by the Albanian Communist regime, which like the Greeks, believed that they had collaborated with the Italians and Germans during the Second World War. Whereas in Albania and the diaspora Cham communities have managed to preserve their dialect, traditions and folk songs, in Greece itself those Orthodox Chams, now numbering around 40,000, who were allowed to remain in Greece, have suffered from assimilation and the public suppression of their Albanian heritage and language. As a result, Albanian is only spoken privately in the home."]

Albanian immigrants in Greece

After the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a large number of economic refugees and immigrants from Greece's neighboring countries, Albania, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Romania, as well as from more distant countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, arrived in Greece, mostly as illegal immigrants, to seek employment. The vast majority of Albanians in Greece is estimated to be between 60-65% of the total number of immigrants in Greece. According to the 2001 census, there are 443,550 holders of Albanian citizenship in Greece. [ [http://www.migrantsingreece.org/transpartner/Tables.pdf Mediterranean Migration Observatory - Tables] ]

ee also

Albanians

Minorities in Greece

Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia

Albanians in Kosovo

Albanians in Central Serbia

Albanians in Montenegro

Reference