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Chameria


Chameria (Albanian: Çamëria, Greek: Τσαμουριά Tsamouriá, Turkish: Çamlık) is a term used today mostly by Albanians for parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and northwestern Greece traditionally associated with an Albanian speaking population called Chams. Apart from geographical usages, in contemporary times within Albania the toponym has also acquired irredentist connotations. 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. Today it is obsolete in Greek, surviving in some old folk songs. Most of what is called Chameria is divided between the Greek regional units of Thesprotia and Preveza, the southern extremity of Albania's Sarandë District and some villages in eastern Ioannina regional unit. As the Greek toponyms Epirus and Thesprotia have been established for the region since antiquity, and given the negative sentiments towards Albanian irredentism, the term is not used by the locals on the Greek side of the border.

Chameria was mostly used as a term for the region of modern Thesprotia, during the Ottoman rule. It is of uncertain etymology. It possibly derives from the ancient Greek name of the Thyamis river, which in the Albanian language is called Cham (Çam), through the unattested Slavic *čamь or *čama rendering the older Slavic *tjama.


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