[11][12][13] Fascist Italian as well as Nazi German propaganda promised that the region would be awarded to Albania (then in personal union with Italy) after the end of the war.

As a result of this pro-Albanian approach, many Muslim Chams actively supported the Axis operations and committed a number of crimes against the local population both in Greece and Albania.

[20] Mainly due to their collaboration in World War II the Chams later became a controversial if not suspect community for the leaders of the People's Republic of Albania (1945-1991).

[21] The region inhabited by the Chams, known among Albanians as "Chameria", consisted chiefly of the Thesprotia prefecture in Greece, as well as a few villages in southwestern Albania.

[27] Once Epirus passed to Greek hands in 1913 as a result of the Balkan Wars however, the Muslim beys lost their political influence, while retaining their economic weight.

During the Interwar period, the Greek state did not take any serious effort to encourage their assimilation, although a number of complaints by the Chams to the League of Nations bear witness to a sense of grievance.

[30] Relations between the various social groups were complicated in the region and were characterized primarily by an intense honor culture featuring clans and blood feuds among all major groups, antagonisms between the pastoralist (Vlach) and sedentary (Greek and Albanian) populations, religious rivalries between landowning Muslims and often land-starved Christian itinerant farmers who worked in "deplorable" conditions, and the exploitation of religious affiliations by both Christians and Muslims to win disputes.

[27] Further stress was placed on interreligious relationships by conflicts over land and resources, the allotment of formerly Muslim-controlled resources to refugees from Turkey, anti-Albanian policies by the Metaxas government beginning in 1936 which included suppression of the Albanian language and harassment of Muslim notables, and finally in 1939 the beginning of irredentist pressures emanating from Italy and Italian occupied Albania calling for the annexation of Thesprotia to Albania.

[31] In the event, Albanian enthusiasm for the "liberation of Chameria" was muted,[31] but as Italian invasion became imminent in fall 1940, the Greek authorities disarmed the Cham conscripts in the Army, and later rounded up the male population and sent it to internal exile.

[33] The establishment of the Italian occupation authorities in Epirus was complete up until middle May 1941[38] and the following month the first armed units consisting of Cham Albanians took action in the region.

[40] According to post-war courts decisions and testimonies, during the Italian occupation these armed units were responsible for large scale criminal activity: murders, rapes, village burnings and looting.

[33] From 29 July – 31 August 1943, while the region was typically under Italian occupation, a combined German and Cham force launched an anti-partisan sweep operation codenamed Augustus.

[5] In 21 settlements in the vicinity of Kanallaki 400 inhabitants were arrested and forced to march to the nearest concentration camp in Thessaloniki (KZ Pavlos Melas).

The German commander of Paramythia, in need of the support of the Cham population, repeated to the Albanian community the promise that the region would become part of Greater Albania after the war.

Their support was appreciated by the Germans: Lt Colonel Josef Remold remarked that "with their knowledge of the surrounding area, they have proved their value in the scouting missions".

This action was orchestrated by the brothers Nuri and Mazar Dino (an officer of the Cham militia) in order to get rid of the town's Greek representatives and intellectuals.

[45] On 30 September, the Swiss representative of the International Red Cross, Hans-Jakob Bickel, visited the area and concluded:[46] 20,000 Albanians, with Italian and now German support, spread terror to the rest of the population.

[48] [7][10] Due to increasing resistance activity at the end of 1943 in southern Albania, German General and local commander Hubert Lanz, decided to initiate armed operations with the code name Horridoh in this region.

[49] The results were disappointing and in a 1944 proclamation ELAS noted that: "Mazar and Nuri Dino found easy prey for their fascist plans in great part of the Cham people, which was thirsty for national liberation".

[52] During the summer of 1944, when the German withdrawal was imminent, the right-wing head of the National Republican Greek League (EDES), Napoleon Zervas, asked the Cham Albanians to fight against his rivals, the Communist-controlled EAM-ELAS.

After their negative response, and in pursuit of orders given by the Allied forces to EDES to push them out of Greece and into Albania, fierce fighting occurred between both sides.

[53] According to British reports, the Cham bands managed to flee to Albania with their full equipment, together with half million stolen cattle and 3,000 horses, leaving only the elderly members of the community behind.

[54] In the post-war years a number of trials concerning the war crimes committed during the Axis occupation occurred, however not a single defendant was arrested or imprisoned, as they had already fled the country.

Niri Dino lived in Germany and had a small business in Munich, where he kept contact with the former German Lieutenant Colonel Josef Remold [de].

[45] Also numerous Cham representatives who found refuge in the People's Republic of Albania were imprisoned as "collaborators of the occupation forces", "war criminals" and "murderers of the Greeks" by the local regime.