Albanian Regiment (France) Albanian Regiment (France) The Albanian Regiment () was a military unit of the First French Empire formed in 1807 in Corfu. It was commanded by Colonel and served mainly as defence unit in the Septinsular Republic, then a "de facto" protectorate of the French Empire. It was disbanded in 1814. In 1807 per the treaties of Tilsit the Russian Empire abandoned the Ionian islands, which had been captured by admiral Fyodor Ushakov at the Siege of Corfu (1798–99). During their rule the Russians maintained two units, one composed of about 3,000 Souliot refugees ("Orthodox Greek-Albanian bilingual speakers, classified as Greek)"
Albanian name the surnames Hoxha (mullah, either Bektashi or Sunni) and Prifti (priest, used by both Catholics and Orthodox) remain very common. Arvanite and pre- modern Albanian surnames are also common. Many Arvanite surnames are found in Albania, in the modern Albanian form. For example, the word in Arvanitika (Arbërisht) for "brave" or "pallikari" (in Greek) being "çanavar" (Turkish canavar meaning "monster") or its shortened form "çavar" was pronounced "tzanavar" or "tzavar" giving birth to Arvanitic family names like "Tzanavaras" and/or "Tzavaras". This is a link between Albanian and Greek names. The Arvanite surname "Κριεζής" (Kriezis) is a very common Albanian surname.