Violence, resistance and collaboration in a Greek borderland: the case of the Muslim Chams of Epirus

The ethnic infighting that took place in Thesprotia between the Greek and Albanian communities during the Axis occupation has been described as a forgotten conflict. Indeed, until recently, the only existing studies were those of local «organic» intellectuals who argued that the Albanian Muslim minority collaborated collectively first with the Italian and then with the German occupiers in the hope that an Axis victory would lead to the eventual creation of a Greater Albanian state. The article will challenge these views and argue that the conflict was shaped by local issues and antagonisms that predated the war and were often unrelated to nationalist agendas. Politics were used by local actors of all nationalities as a means of expressing local differences; however, the root of the conflict must be sought in communal relations. Both the victims and the perpetrators knew each other, shared common cultural codes and often had longstanding grievances. But this was not a parochial conflict waged between pre-modern peasants. Violence became possible solely as a result of the war and the presence of supra-local actors – the Resistance organisations, the Axis militaries and the British Military Mission – who gave peasants the opportunity and means by which to settle their differences. The presence of these groups served to nationalise the ongoing local struggles and led ultimately to an escalation of violence, resulting in the bloody stand-off that took place in the summer of 1944