Margariti

Margariti () is a village and a former municipality in Thesprotia, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Igoumenitsa, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 149.223 km2. Population 2,491 (2011).
Name.
The toponym Margariti refers to a "Margaritos", a pirate of the Emirate of Sicily to whom the Crusader Normans surrendered their holdings on the Ionian coast in the 12th century. In Albanian, it is known as "Margëlliç" and in Ottoman Turkish as "Margliç".
History.
The Ottoman fort of Margariti was built in the first half of the 16th century. Margariti was the administrative center of the nahiye of Mazaraki which in 1551 was renamed to Margariti. It had 38 and 35 villages in 1551 and 1613 respectively. Margariti itself had 17 and 20 households in 1551 and 1613 respectively. It was located on the Venetian-Ottoman borderlands of the time. The locals of the areas of Paramythia, Parakalamos and Margariti were specifically harassed by the Venetians and the inhabitants of Venetian Corfu in violation of the Ottoman-Venetian treaty of 1540. In 1570, the Venetian commander Girolamo Zane unsucccesfuly attacked the fort of Margariti. In 1571, a group of Albanians from Margariti traveled to Corfu and asked for assistance to take the fort of Margariti from the Ottomans. The Venetian governor of Corfu initially assessed that the force of the group was too small (200-250 men) for the attack. After the Battle of Lepanto crucial support was provided by Greek armed units during the second siege of Margaritio (November 10-14, 1571); revolutionary leader Petros Lantzas became a key figure by organizing the military movements and securing the cooperation of the population in the surrounding region. As such, a larger force which also included local groups from Parga and Paramythia under the Venetian commander Sebastiano Venier was assembled and attacked the fort of Margariti, which was seized and burnt after a four-day siege. The fall of Margariti had a profound impact in the Christian states of the West as well as among the Greek population of Epirus that lived under Ottoman rule. Venice commissioned a painting for Doge's Palace to commemorate the destruction of the fort of Margariti. This was one of the last acts of Venetian incursions in Ottoman territory and in the following decades, the region stoppen being a battleground district.
Local Muslim converts appear in Margariti as early as 1613. A century later, when Evliya Çelebi passed through Margariti he noted that within the citadel of Margariti were 200 houses and another 1,200 were located in the town which had developed around it. The local Albanian family of Çapari emerged in this era. By the end of the 18th century, Hasan Çapari the leading figure of the family owned the entire plain of Fanari (to the south of Margariti). Cham Albanian landlords of Margariti and Paramythia were in conflict with Ali Pasha of Yannina during much of the Pashalik of Yanina era.
In February 1913, Margariti was taken by the Greek army and joined Greece following the Treaty of London. During that period all village elders of the region gathered and declared that they would resist the incorporation of the area into Greece, while some local beys were ready to accept Greek control. At that time the town had a mixed population of Greeks and Cham Albanians until the final expulsion as a result of the Cham collaboration with the Nazi occupation forces. Population movements to the town that occurred from the middle of the 19th century weakened the Muslim elite and led to the gradual Hellenization of former Albanian-majority towns in the area such as Margariti in the 1920s. During the interwar period, Margariti was among the important towns of the Cham Albanian community located in the coastal region of the Greek part of Chameria and a centre of the Albanian speaking area. 
Almost all Cham Albanian monuments of Margariti were destroyed during World War II. During the end of World War II most Muslim families of the region were relocated north of Ioannina under Nazi German instructions. The region of Margariti together with Mazaraki, was among the first to produce resistance units in Thepsrotia in order to deal with the activity of Muslim Cham Albanian groups. 
Province.
The province of Margariti () was one of the provinces of the Thesprotia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipal units Margariti and Perdika. It was abolished in 2006.