IV "Ali Demi" battalion

The 4th "Ali Demi" Battalion (Albanian: Batallioni IV "Ali Demi", Greek: Δ' Τάγμα "Αλή Ντέμη") was a battalion under the 15th Regiment of Greek People's Liberation Army, founded during the Second World War. It comprised both from Cham Albanians and Greeks, of the region of Epirus and was established in May 1944. It consisted of 460 Muslim Albanians and 340 Orthodox Greeks, at the time of its creation. However, during the World War II occupation the majority of the elites of the Cham community had become corrupted by the occupying forces and the atmosphere against the local Greeks who had suffered under Germans, Italians and Chams, led to an explosive polarization which would have constrained any motivation for joint Greek-Cham resistance.

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

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