[24] At the beginning of World War II, when the Greek state announced its full mobilization prior to the Italian invasion, Cham Albanians were alienated further by it, and were treated as a hostile population and experienced discrimination and oppression, while their community leaders were exiled.

[33] Collaboration with the Axis fueled resentment by the Greek side and in the aftermath of World War II, despite the assurances of the EDES guerillas, most of the Muslim Cham community fled, or were forced to flee, to Albania.

[56] In January 1907 a secret agreement was signed between Ismail Qemali, a leader of the then Albanian national movement, and the Greek government which concerned the possibility of an alliance against the Ottoman Empire.

[62] Muslim Chams were not keen to fight on the side of the Ottoman army, but already from autumn 1912 formed armed bands and raided the entire area as far north as Pogoni.

[22] Under the Metaxas regime (1936–1940), the gendarmerie used increased intimidation methods toward the Cham populace through imprisonments, arbitrary arrests, violence, beatings, house searches for discovery of weapons and the prohibition of Albanian language, books and newspapers.

[74] As the final excuse for the start of the Greco-Italian War, Jacomoni used the killing of Daut Hoxha, a Cham Albanian, whose headless body was discovered near the village of Vrina in June 1940.

[76] In October 1940, 1800 Cham conscripts were disarmed and put to work on local roads, and in the following months all Albanian males not called up were deported to camps or to island exile.

[74][77][verification needed] During 28 October – 14 November while the Italian army made a short advance and briefly took brief control of part of Thesprotia, bands of Cham Albanians raided several villages and burned a number of towns, including Paramythia, Filiates, Sagiada and Igoumenitsa, while local Greek notables have been killed.

[80] Under these circumstances,[17] as Italy managed to control most of Greece after the German invasion, Cham Albanians formed armed groups and provided active support to the occupation forces.

[80] These armed bands under the leadership of gendarmerie officers Nuri and Mazar Dino participated in the Axis operations (village burnings, murders, executions) and committed a number of crimes in both Greece and Albania.

[30] Although the Italians wanted to annex Chameria to Albania, the Germans vetoed the proposal, most probably due to the fact that Epirus periphery was inhabited by a vast majority by Greeks.

[85] On 10 August 1943, the National Republican Greek League (EDES) and the Cham Balli Kombëtar (BK) held a meeting in Parga, attended by representatives of the two organizations including Mazar Dino.

You should inform all the guerrillas and the civilian population about this and make them predisposed toward accepting this"The British Military Mission attempted to mediate an agreement between the resistance groups and the Cham community after the Italian capitulation, but that was rejected by the Muslim notables.

Approximately 300 Chams took part in a series of anti-guerrilla sweeps in Thesprotia and within four days (in August 1943), 150 people were murdered, while hundreds more were taken hostage and transported to prison camps in Ioannina.

The operations continued well into the autumn when several villages were burned by a joint Cham-German force, culminating in the executions of 49 notables of Paramithia as reprisals for a guerrilla attack.

In early 1944 the Albanian notables appointed their own council presidents, militia men and rural guards, and imposed a compulsory tax on the agricultural products and any transactions of the Greek peasants.

[94] According to British reports, the Cham collaborationist bands managed to flee to Albania with all of their equipment, together with a half million stolen cattle as well as 3,000 horses, leaving only the elderly members of the community behind.

[95] The advance was carried out in two phases: in July and August with the participation of EDES Tenth Division and the local Greek peasants, eager to gain revenge for the burning of their own homes.

The total number of the Cham Albanians killed in the town, as well as in similar incidents in Karvounari, Parga, Trikoryfo (ex-Spatari), Filiates and the surrounding settlements of Paramythia are estimated from 300-600; men, women and children.

[10] Some of the EDES units, in particular the regiments of Agoros and Galanis, refrained from looting and tried to limit the activity of the undisciplined groups, thus arresting a number of fellow resistance fighters in the process.

[99] Indeed, atrocities were not encouraged by the EDES leadership and the British mission, but both were unable to prevent this turn of events,[45] as a great number of low rank officers and civilians were eager to take revenge.

[101] Towards the end of the Greek occupation, the communist-controlled ELAS, having limited people's support in the Epirus region due to the right-wing EDES dominance in the area and in preparation of taking up the country's control after the German withdrawal from Greece, turned to the Chams for conscription.

But after the final defeat of ELAS during the battle of Athens and its capitulation (see Varkiza Agreement), EDES quickly regained control of the region, eager to take revenge for the Cham's participation in the attack against its forces.

[17] The active involvement of Albania in the internal affairs in Greece in that period (see Greek civil war) and the anomalous political situation also played a role in the disguise of the case.

[3][17][106] During the Cold War period the Greek origin theory of Muslim Chams became a central theme,[3] appearing even in scientific works,[3] and the Albanian linguistic tradition of the area was continuously downplayed.

[3] The leader of EDES, and hero in the eyes of the state, Napoleon Zervas,[3] in a letter dated 1953 wrote to one of his comrades "Our fellow country men of the area must recall once more who got rid of the Muslim Chams who were pushing down the neck of Hellenism for five hundred years.

[3] Historian Spyros Tsoutsoumpis states that the reluctance of EDES leadership to prosecute certain individuals was likely due to fear of it resulting in defections and a considerable drop in support.

[45] In an attempt to give a solution, in 1992 Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis proposed a trade-off in relation to their properties, only for the cases where their owners had certifiably not been convicted or participated in crimes against their fellow Greek citizens.

Mitsotakis also proposed that the Albanian government likewise compensate ethnic Greeks who had lost properties due to alleged persecution during the communist regime in Albania.

[30] The positions of the Greek government, which considers the Cham-issue non-existent, are generally based on the principles of international law, and therefore there is no obligation against the Cham community since it does not constitute a minority in Greece.