Chameria through various intimidation tactics, both subtle and violent. The population was harassed and hundreds of young men were deported to various camps by Paramilitary bands. When Italian troops replaced the Greek administration with an Albanian one in 1917 in parts of Chameria, Albanians retaliated due to previous oppression by plundering Greek villages. Muslim Chams were counted as a religious minority, and some of them were transferred to Turkey, during the 1923 population exchange, although they were not officially part of it, while their property was alienated by the Greek government. Muslims in general were seen as backwards and were excluded "from the concept of the Greek nation". During the interwar period, the numbers of Muslim Chams declined and estimates to their numbers varied between 22,000 in official reports, while the census registered 17,000 in 1928 and other Greek government sources gave 19,000 as the number in 1932. Although the relationship between Cham Albanians and the Greek state improved during the early 1930s, things worsened again under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas. Under the Metaxas regime (1936–1940), the gendarmerie used increased intimidation methods toward the Cham populace through imprisonments, arbitrary arrests, violence, beatings, house searches for discovery of weapons and the prohibition of Albanian language, books and newspapers. In 1928, Cham protests were brought to the League of Nations, however the Cham demands were ignored and the Greek positions were accepted instead. The League of Nations also rejected Albanian demands about property issues and the recognition of the Cham minority as a distinct minority. During the 1930s Albanian and Italian irredentist efforts were intensified for the incorporation of the region into Albania. At April 1939 a committee of Cham representative called Fascist Italy to annex the region and to hand it over to Albania. World War II Cham involvement in the invasion against Greece Italian policy calling for Cham irredentism Following the Italian invasion of Albania, the Albanian Kingdom became a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italians, especially governor Francesco Jacomoni, used the Cham issue as a means to rally Albanian support. Although in the event, Albanian enthusiasm for the "liberation of Chameria" was muted, Jacomoni sent repeated over-optimistic reports to Rome on Albanian support. As the possibility of an Italian attack on Greece drew nearer, he began arming Albanian irregular bands to use against Greece. As the final excuse for the start of the Greco-Italian War, Jacomoni