Chameria (also spelled Çameria; ; ) is a historical region along the coast of the Ionian Sea in southwestern Albania and northwestern Greece, traditionally associated with the Albanian ethnic subgroup of the Chams.Elsie, Robert and Bejtullah D. Destani (2012). The Cham Albanians of Greece: A Documentary History. IB Tauris. . 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." 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]." For a brief period (1909-1912), three kazas (Filat, Aydonat and Margiliç) were combined by the Ottomans into an administrative district called Çamlik sancak. During the interwar period, the toponym was in common use and the official name of the area above the Acheron river in all Greek state documents. The term is used today mostly by Albanians and it is obsolete in Greek,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). 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.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..."
Name and definition Name In the Middle Ages this area was known as Vagenetia.
Chameria was mostly used as a term for the region of modern Thesprotia, during the Ottoman rule.Balkan Studies By Hetaireia Makedonikōn Spoudōn. Hidryma Meletōn Cheresonēsou tou Haimou. Published by Institute for Balkan Studies, Society for Macedonian Studies., 1976NGL Hammond, Epirus: The Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas, Published by Clarendon P., 1967, p. 31 It is of uncertain etymology. It possibly derives from the ancient Greek name of the Thyamis river, called Cham (Çam) in Albanian, either through the unattested Slavic *čamь or *čama rendering the older Slavic *tjama, or a direct continuation from it.Orel Vladimir, Albanian etymological dictionary, Brill, 1998, pp 49, 50.
In European travel reports, the term appears for the first time at the beginning of the 19th century. The term was not used in Ottoman territorial administration before the 20th century.
Geography and boundaries
In modern times, the region of Chameria was reduced to the dialectological territory of the Chams, stretching between the mouth of the Acheron river in the south, the area of Butrint in the north, and the Pindus in the east.Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, , p. 113 After the permanent demarcation of the Greco-Albanian border, only two small municipalities were left in southern Albania (Markat and Konispol), while the remainder was part of the Epirus periphery of Greece.
The early 19th c. Greek author Perraivos, notable for his works on Souli and Epirus, notes that the Albanian Chams inhabit the area between the Bistrica river in the north and the Souli area south.Christoforos Perraivos, "War Memoirs", (Χριστόφορος Περραιβός, "Απομνημονεύματα πολεμικά"), 1836, vol. 1, p. 124, down. French diplomat and General Consul of France in nearby Ioannina, François Pouqueville, noticed in 1814-1816 that there is a district named Chamouri that stretches from the Thyamis all the way down to the Acheron river. In the early 1800s British colonel William Martin Leake while in the area described Chameria as stretching from the boundaries of Butrint and Delvinë until the Fanari and Paramythia areas consisting of two main sub-districts, Daghawi or Dai and Parakalamos.William Martin Leake (1835). Travels in Northern Greece. volume IV. J. Rodwell. pp. 71-72. The plain near the mouth of the Kalamá, is called Rai, and the river forms the line of separation between the two subdivisions of Tjámi (Græcè, Τζαμουριά), named Dághawi, or Dai, and Parakálamo. Dághawi comprehends the country from the Kalamá southward as far as the bounds of Paramythía, and Fanári; Parakálamo, that in the opposite direction to the boundaries of Vutzintró and Délvino. In Dághawi are Griko-khóri, Gomenítza, and Nista, situated in that order from south to north on the hills above the bay of Gomenítza: Gravá, in the plain near the mouth of the Kalamá. Between Gomenítza and Menína, which stands on the left bank of the Kalamá, in the road from Paramythía to Filiátes, are several Musulman villages, of which the principal are Súliasi, Varfaniús, and Rizaniús: to these belongs the plain of the Lower Kalamá to the left of the river. A high cliff at Zuliána, in a line between Paramythía and Fillátes, forms a very conspicuous object from Corfú." During the 19th century, the novelista and poet Nikolaos Konemenos, an Arvanite from the area placed his home district of Lakka (Λάκκας)Kokolakis, Mihalis (2003). Το ύστερο Γιαννιώτικο Πασαλίκι: χώρος, διοίκηση και πληθυσμός στην τουρκοκρατούμενη Ηπειρο (1820-1913) The late Pashalik of Ioannina: Space, administration and population in Ottoman Epirus (1820-1913). EIE-ΚΝΕ. p.373. within the bounds of Tsamouria (Τσαμουριά) or Chameria.Elias G Skoulidas (22 February 2011). Identities, Locality and Otherness in Epirus during the Late Ottoman period.(doc). European Society of Modern Greek studies. p. 7. Retrieved 27 October 2015. "Nikolaos Konemenos takes a different approach, by not denying his Albanian identity, although he participated in Greek public life. He accepts this identity and embodies it, without excluding the other identity: κι εγώ είμαι φυσικός Αρβανίτης, επειδή κατάγομαι από τα' χωριά της Λάκκας (Τσαμουριά) και είμαι απόγονος ενός καπετάν Γιώργη Κονεμένου 'λ που εμίλειε τα' αρβανίτικα κι όπου ταις αρχαίς του προπερασμένου αιώνος... είχε καταιβεί κι είχε αποκατασταθεί στην Πρέβεζα...[I too am a natural Albanian, because I originate from the villages of Lakka (Tsamouria) and I'm a descendant of a kapetan Giorgis Konemenos, who spoke Albanian and who at the beginning of the last century... had come down and had settled in Preveza]. The spelling mistakes in this passage are a good indicator of what is happening." In the early 1880s, British diplomat Valentine Chirol who spent time in the area during the Eastern Crisis defined Chameria along linguistic lines in geographic terms where Albanian speakers were found during that time. Chirol states that the Thiamis river basin, the Souli mountains, the Louros river valley up until the Preveza peninsula formed part of the district called "Tchamouria" which referred to the "southernmost Albanian settlements in Epirus". Chirol also noted that due to the spread of the Chams in the area, the toponym also applied to the centre of the region where they held "undivided sway".Chirol, Valentine (1881). Twixt Greek and Turk. W Blackwood & sons. pp. 231-232. "The limits of the Albanian-speaking districts of Epirus south of the Kalamas may be roughly defined as follows: Starting from the Kalamas near the sharp bend which that river takes to the north at the foot of Mount Lubinitza, they follow the crest of the amphitheatrical range of Suli as far as the gorge of the Acheron. In that neighbourhood, probably owing to the influence which the Suliote tribe at one time enjoyed, they drop over to the east into the valley of the Luro, and follow its basin as far as the peninsula on which Prevesa, is situated, where the Greek element resumes its preponderancy. Within these outer limits of the Albanian tongue the Greek element is not unrepresented, and in some places, as about Paramythia, for instance, it predominates; but, on the whole, the above- defined region may be looked upon as essentially Albanian. In this, again, there is an inner triangle which is purely Albanian—viz., that which lies between the sea and the Kalamas on the one hand and the waters of the Vuvo on the other. With the exception of Parga and one or two small hamlets along the shore, and a few Greek chifligis on Albanian estates, the inhabitants of this country are pure Tchamis—a name which, notwithstanding Von Hahn's more elaborate interpretation. I am inclined to derive simply from the ancient appellation of the Kalamas, the Thyamis, on both banks of which stream the Albanian tribe of the Tchamis, itself a subdivision of the Tosks, has been settled from times immemorial. From the mountain fastnesses which enclose this inner triangle, the Tchamis spread out and extended their influence east and south; and the name of Tchamouria, which is especially applied to the southernmost Albanian settlements in Epirus, was probably given to that district by themselves as an emphatic monument of their supremacy; but it cannot belong less rightfully to the centre, where they hold undivided sway."