Written by: Abedin Rakipi. Translation Petrit Latifi

Abstract

This article examines the Greek Revolution and subsequent conflicts through the lens of Albanian history, focusing on violence committed against Muslim Cham Albanians. Drawing on historical documents and testimonies, it argues that many Arvanites and Suliots—despite their Albanian origin and language—aligned themselves with Greek Orthodox nationalism. Their participation in military campaigns led to massacres, expulsions, and the destruction of Muslim Cham communities. The slogan “Forward with the cross in one hand and the knife in the other” is presented as emblematic of a religious war against Islam. The study contends that the revolution was not only anti-Ottoman but also fundamentally anti-Muslim and anti-Albanian.

The Cross in one hand and the Knife in the other: The Greek massacres against Muslim Chams

Hristo Meksi, in his article on the “Greek” uprising and the fighters who participated in it, wrote: “…in that uprising only the Albanians were left behind: on one side the Christians, on the other the Mohammedans…The Christian Albanians won”. Yes – in truth – “the Greeks won, shedding the blood of the Christian and Mohammedan Albanians.

Although they did the work first, the Greeks created Greece and called it “Hellas” (Hellenismos) with a king called “King of the Hellenes” and let them have 800,000 Albanians within those borders and let the Albanians have won the war. I make it a duty for the singers to think about these things a little and to resolve them well in their minds and hearts”. (1)

Meanwhile, Captain Odise Andreuçua, after being raised and educated militarily by Ali Pasha Tepelena, with the greatest wickedness and betrayal as they have in their blood, abandoned him in Ali’s critical moments.

His real surname was Verrùshi. He was born in Préveza; therefore he was a Cham and not an Arvanite. His father had become a brother to Ali p. Tepelena. Educated and trained as a young man in the Alipašian military school, Odiseu soon became one of his main captains.

After the siege of ApT in Ioannina, in order to facilitate the Ottoman attacks against him, he joined the ranks of the insurgents who fought against the moon for the victory of the cross. He excelled in some extremely fierce battles, such as in the famous battle of Mesolonja (August 1822). Thanks to his qualities and abilities, he managed to rise to the head of the Boeotian and Thessalian insurgents.(2)

In the “Pàrnasos” newspaper of February 1916 it was written: “Most of our soldiers among themselves speak Albanian in a way that makes the listener remember that he is in the army of the King of Albania, Prince Vidi, and not in the army of the King of Greece, Constantine… This is a bad habit… which must be eradicated with all the strict measures necessary.”(3)

So as this document also testifies, the vast majority of the Greek army was composed of Arvanites, and former Albanian Christian Suliots who had already converted to Greek. It was also the soldiers of this army that in the years 1913-1914 occupied the southern part of the Albanian state, committing the most monstrous crimes and massacres against the Muslim inhabitants of southern Albania. It was also this army that in Muslim Chameria committed the murders, tortures, rapes, and deportations of Muslim Chams. Every reader of these testimonies naturally asks the question:

Why did these soldiers, if they were truly Albanian in blood and heart, as presented by some contemporary post-democracy historians such as Arben Llalla and Hajredin Isufi, commit hundreds of the most monstrous crimes against their Muslim compatriots in Chameria and Southern Albania?

We find the answer in the motto of General Theodhori Griva, of Albanian origin but who became more Greek than the Greeks by massacring the Muslim Chams.

Bua-Griva Theodhoraq was born in 1797 in Preveza and was of Albanian origin from the family of Gjin Bue Shpates who later took the name Griva. In 1854, together with another Arvanite, Karaiskaq, he was placed at the head of a Greek-Arvanite army and with the cry: “Forward with the cross in one hand and the knife in the other” he marched through Eastern Chameria and conquered it up to the Kalamai River.

Muslim Cham villages such as Forteza, Koriqani, Luzeci, etc. almost disappeared altogether. He was defeated by Cham and Leber warriors led by Mahmut Bey Vlora and pursued them beyond Meçova. The horrors and horrors that he committed on his Muslim compatriots were described in detail by Perevoi.

As a reward for the bloodshed and atrocities he committed against his former Muslim compatriots, the Greek government in 1862 awarded him the rank of Marshal of the Greek Army. (Pyrsos p. 14)(4)

So Grive’s clear motto was “Forward with the cross in one hand and the knife in the other”, which in itself implies a pure war of the cross against Islam. But to enrich and deepen the clarity of this idea even more, I am also bringing you the call that Sulioti Marko Boçari made to the Albanian Pargarites on 28.06.1821, verbatim:

“Pargarites! The serpent was crushed with the cross. The holy flag with the cross waves everywhere over the land of Epirus.” (5)

So as is clearly shown by this evidence, all those who are presented to us today by historian Suliot Arben Llalla as Albanian heroes of the Greek Revolution clearly fought for the cross and Greece against Islam, and Muslim Albanians. This revolution was not only anti-Muslim but was also automatically anti-Albanian, before it was anti-Ottoman.

But let’s continue with the historical evidence.

In 1914, as historian Basil Kondis mentions in his book “Greece and Albania 1908-1914”, the Arvanite Pavel Kondurioti, the chief admiral of the Greek fleet, bombarded the entire coast of Chameria and Southern Albania. The official justification of the Greek government for this gesture was the final annihilation of the remnants of the Ottoman army in Albania.

It took numerous telegrams from the Vlora government to the United Nations to stop this bombing. But what is most culminating is the fact that the vast majority of his sailors spoke Albanian with the Arvanite dialect. These numerous Arvanite-Greek troops took part in the war that the Greek army waged against the Chams and the Turks in the siege of Ioannina and Bezhan. While on one side, Muslims, with all their heart and soul, were trying to keep Chameria and Ioannina within Albanian control, these nationalists fought to create the Megali-idea.

But let’s move on. Another undeniable historical fact, also confirmed by Mithat Frasheri himself, is that of Colonel Dhimiter Boçari, great-grandson of Marko Boçari. Dhimitraq Boçari was a colonel of the Crusader-Athenian-Phanarite army and in 1923 a representative of the Greek Government in the International Commission of the Albanian-Greek Border, a very bitter enemy of the Albanians.

He organized the assassination of the Italian General Telini because the latter gave some border villages to Albania. (6) While the other Boçaris, Sotir Boçari and Jorgaq Boçari, were two of the leaders of the gangs that committed the massive horrors in Paramithi in 1944. (9)

All the Arvanites and Suliotes of the Greek Revolution and later were part of the secret organization FILIQI ETERIA, an Orthodox fanatical organization, two of its three founders were of Albanian Orthodox origin. They were Nikolle Skufa and Thanas Çakalli; the third was Panajot Anagnostopulli. Finiqi Eteria in its program predicted: “Armed union of all Christians of the Ottoman Empire for the victory of the cross over the crescent.”(7)

In Finiqi Eteria, Marko Boçari, Theodore Kollokotroni, Alexander Ypsilantis, Petro Mavromihali, Kiço Xhavella, and many other Arvanites and Suliotes, such as the Zervats of Suli, were part of it. They all fought for a great independent Orthodox kingdom, and since only Greece made this possible, they became Greek by fighting against the Albanians, who in the vast majority remain Muslims and Albanians.
We also find the crimes and anti-Albanian acts of the Suliotes and Arvanites in the example of Hristo Hristovasili.

Hristo Hristovasili was born in Ioannina, the son of a well-known Sulioti family. Poet and novelist, first-rate, MP for Ioannina. Secretary of the Greek Propaganda Society “Eliniqi Eteria”, through which, together with Kazazi (the Chairman), the Albanian cause was thrown many obstacles and caused significant damage, etc.

The Albanian press of the 20th century has often attacked him as a cunning opponent, a devious man, a man with many faces… In 1914, he even participated as a Minister of the so-called Northern Epirus Government based in Gjirokaster. He died in Ioannina after a long life in the service of Greece and of course to the detriment of Albania, even though he was of Albanian nationality, and Suliot by origin, he, like many other Suliots, fought for Greece to the detriment of Albania, which clearly convinces us that the Suliots, although they were Albanian speakers, were Greek at heart, and anti-Albanian. (8)

The historical facts are so numerous that if I bring them all in this article it would become very long and boring for the readers, so I am also stopping at one last culminating point regarding this article. It is that of the Suliot Napolon Zerva who during the Second World War carried out the great emptying and massacre of Chameria. He was from Zerva, a village in the Lelove River valley, neighboring Bulmet, Dara and Qerasov in Southeastern Suli.

His ancestors are found in the Suliot league that was fought by the Chams and Ali Pashe Tepelena, who was later displaced from Suli. They were Tushe Zerva, Diamant Zerva, Dhimo Zerva, etc., who are also spoken of at length in the book “Histoire de la regeneration de la Grèce.” When the Suliotes left Suli after their agreement with Veli Pasha, the Zerva family also left under the leadership of Dhimo Zerva in 1803.

Apparently, some of them settled in the city of Narta, where Napoleon Zerva was born. He is revealed in 1926, where he appears as a loyal officer and close friend of General Arvanit Theodor Pangallos(10). After carrying out the massacre and emptying of Chameria from Muslim Chams, he declared in one of the meetings he held in Athens with his subordinates full of boasting and pride:

“The Greek nation has the duty to erect a golden statue to me, because what it had not been able to do for hundreds of years: the disappearance of Muslim Cham Albanians, I did within 6-7 months.”

While in Paris in 1950 he declared: “Now even if I die I feel calm, because I have fulfilled the task entrusted to me of cleansing Epirus from the Muslims of Chameria.” (11)

One of Napoleon’s main subordinates was Jan Dan Popoviti, also an Orthodox from the Albanian-speaking village of Popova in the north of the Suli Mountains and southeast of the city of Paramitha. The statue that Napoleon Zerva requested was erected by the Greek government in Gumenice.

That statue still stands today and shows Napoleon Zerva with a hand pointing towards Albania, symbolizing his attempt to capture as many Chams as possible. This statue stands proudly in Gumenice, while the Chams, forgetting their history, blood, homeland, and religion, are today in a deep passivity and indifference that will soon cost them never returning to Chameria.

References

(1) Hristo Meksi The Greek Uprising and the fighters who participated.
(2) Ibrahim D. Hoxha Encyclopedia of Southern Albania p. 221
(3) (“Ora” no. 5, dated 1.1.1929, p. 4-5).
(4) Ibrahim D. Hoxha Encyclopedia of Southern Albania p. 298
(5) François Pouqueville Histoire de la regeneration de la Grèce 1740-1824 vol. 3 p. 131-134.
(6) Ibrahim D. Hoxha Encyclopedia of Southern Albania p. 390
(7) Ibid p. 731
(8) Ibid p. 851 and the Albanian Effort of 1914
(9) Albanian Nationalities in the Greek State p. 362
(10) Albanian national costumes in the Greek state p. 416
(11) Bulletin « Kosovo » no. 14(68) Tirana, August 1944, p. 3