4th "Ali Demi" Battalion - Background

Background

Following the Italian invasion of Albania, the Albanian Kingdom became a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italians used the Albanian minority in Greece, as an excuse to start the war. The final alibi was the alleged murder by Greek agents of a Cham Albanian leader. Although fascist Italy was defeated in the Greco-Italian War, a rapid German Blitzkrieg campaign followed in April 1941, and by the middle of May, Greece was under joint occupation by three Axis powers: Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. At this time Italy introduced a local administration called Këshilla in Thesprotia, which was supported by several hundred Cham Albanians. Some hundreds of Chams participated in the formation of the Ali Demi Battalion and the Chameria battalion

One of the major resistance groups in Greece was the communist-led National Liberation Front (EAM), with its armed branch, the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), founded in 27 September 1941. EAM evolved into the largest resistance group and the largest mass movement seen until then in Greece. ELAS initiated actions against the German and Italian forces of occupation in Greece on 7 June 1942 and it would become the resistance group in which Cham Albanians would found their battalion. Cham Albanians had been fighting the occupiers in unorganized small groups, under the lead of the National Anti-Fascist Liberation Army of Albania (NAFLA), which was created in September 1942, as the armed wing of the National Liberation Movement (NLM), inspired by the Communist Party of Albania. Later these Chams would create the "Chameria" battalion, under the Albanian Army.