Greece furious with EU Commissioner Hahn over recognition of Cham issue

Greece’s Foreign Ministry has accused EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn of siding with Albania on the Cham issue, as Greece insists that the issue does not exist on the bilateral agenda.

In an unprecedented intervention, Mr. Hahn referred to the Cham property rights claims, as an issue on the bilateral agenda between Greece and Albania, while praising the cooperation between the two neighboring countries

The majority of the so called ‘Chams’, an ethnic Albanian minority group who lived in the Epirus region, today spread over the border between Greece and Albania, were forcefully expelled by Greek authorites towards the Albanian border at the end of World War II after alleged collaboration with Italian and German occupation forces.

The Cham community of Albania has long sought the return of properties left behind as well as an official apology by the Greek state. Some Chams have referred to their expulsion as an act of genocide.

While the Cham community today counts more than 300,000 people across Albania and 6 seats in Parliament under the Party for Justice Integration and Unity (PDIU) logo which is part of the governing coalition of PM Edi Rama, the Greek Government continues to maintain that the issue is non-existent and that there is nothing to be discussed.

The angry comments from Greece emerged after MEP Maria Spyraki asked Commissioner Hahn on Albania’s “irredentism” over the topic and whether this should be taken into account on the EU progress report.

Mr. Hahn said that the issue is an “existing one” between Albania and Greece that needs to be resolved along with other matters, going against the Greek line and acknowledging the existence of the ‘hot’ issue.

Hahn said that a joint mechanism would be created for both countries to organize periodic meetings to discuss suspended matters, including the Cham case along with other conflicts such as the definition of the continental shelf, Greek-Albanian maritime areas and minority rights.

The Greek Foreign Ministry accused Hahn of lacking impartiality on the matter and indicating a bias towards Albania in his response to the Greek MEP.

“As is known, there is no Cham issue and, as a result thereof, never has it been accepted as a topic in negotiations between the governments of Greece and Albania,” said a statement released by Greece on Thursday. “Commissioner Hahn through his untruthful response demonstrates his failure to exercise his duties on the basis of the impartiality principle so that the common interest of the Union may be promoted as provided for in Article 17 of the Treaty of Lisbon. He has already been asked for, and is obligated by virtue of his institutional role to, immediately provide convincing explanations as to the unacceptable and erroneous content of his contentious reply.”

During a televised debate on Albania’s Ora News, PDIU Chair and Deputy Speaker of Albanian Parliament Shpetim Idrizi praised the ‘courage’ of Mr. Hahn as an historic step and said that the Cham issue has now gained international momentum and his party is working with a top London based law firm to take the case to Strasbourg on a human rights basis against Greece.

On December 10, 2012, Shpëtim Idrizi and Dashamir Tahiri, two members of the Albanian Parliament from the so called Cham Party PDIU tabled a motion asking from Greece reparations in the amount of 10 Billion Euros for the Expulsion of Cham Albanians.

Chams being expelled from Greece. — The Cham exodus from Greece in 1945.

The Cham issue is an issue which has been raised by Albania since the 1990s over the repatriation, return of citizenship and property rights of the Cham Albanians, who were expelled from the Greek region of Epirus between 1944 and 1945, at the end of World War II, citing the collaboration of some of their number with the Nazis. While Albania presses for the issue to be re-opened, with several top Albanian officials openly talking in the past two decades, Greece considers the matter closed.

In 1913, the area of Chameria, as the whole of Southern Epirus came under Greek control, taken from dissolving Ottoman rule. Cham Albanians were given no minority status and they were largely discriminated. Muslim Chams were counted as a religious minority, and some of them were transferred to Turkey, during the 1923 population exchange, while their property was alienated by the Greek government, this being a term of the Turkish-Greek peace agreement. Orthodox Cham Albanians were counted as Greeks, and their language and Albanian heritage were under pressure of assimilation.

At the end of World War II, nearly all Muslim Chams in Greece were expelled to Albania. Greece claims they had collaborated with occupation forces against Greek forces, while Cham representatives say their fathers and grand-fathers fought as partizans against Nazi occupation in Greece and Albania.