A few weeks ago, Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the European Commission and a good friend of Albania, published a letter addressed to Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varheyli. In the letter, he suggested Albania’s negotiations with the European Union could be hindered.
He asked his colleague to intervene and to approach the Albanian authorities, else, in his words, there could be “an immediate risk that this issue will negatively affect the 2023 progress report of Albania with regards to its commitment to the promotion of the rule of law”.
He also linked it “to the issue of respecting the fundamental rights of the Greek minority in Albania, or solving the pending issue of their property rights in the municipality in question, along with accusations for the violation of their borders by the State.”
In this spirit, and with the same convictions as in the letter above, a protest was then organised by Greek politicians in the centre of Himara!
(But in all truth, this conviction of our friends is not based on any actual evidence that points to the existence of a specific property rights issue faced by the Greek minority in Albania that would differ from the inherited problem of property rights for all Albanian citizens, but this is another story, which we have treated and will continue to treat officially and through the language of facts with Athens).
To the best of my knowledge, there is no other case where the elected officials of a democratic state organise a protest in another democratic state against the authorities. In addition, they protested against the decisions of the national courts, placing ethnic affiliation above any legal norm, standard or democratic logic.
This is one of those rare situations that leaves one truly speechless and wishing to stop there. But this situation also calls for the famous Balkans proverb “burning the whole quilt to kill one flea”, so we must do everything possible to ensure this does not become a reality.
“Free Beleri and full stop!”
But how is it possible to release from jail an Albanian citizen of Greek nationality that, while running for mayor in local elections, has been accused by the Special Prosecutor against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) of committing the crime of vote buying? According to the decision of all three levels of the judiciary, he cannot leave his pre-trial detention until the finalisation of the process against him?!
Does his Greek nationality give this Albanian citizen accused by SPAK and held in custody by the country’s courts a different status from the other 48 Albanian citizens, including some former mayors of the political party I represent, that today are detained under the charges of the same institutions and with identical decisions of the same courts?
I have never shied away from voicing my positive opinion and friendly feelings towards Prime Minister Mitsotakis. From the very beginning, I have seen in him a modern European leader while continuously discovering in him an admirable man. I do not intend to hide my opinion and feelings even today when my dear colleague and friend Kyriakos will have to read my statement and thought, which does not match even close with that of the protester friends.
To me, such politicisation of an issue that is strictly under the remit of Albanian justice, to the point of organising a protest here in Albania by elected authorities in Greece, including the mayors of two of Greece’s largest cities, seems like the script for a comedy noir movie about the old stereotype of the Balkan interstate relations, but it does not have a place in the democratic reality of the European neighbourhood, nor does it have a place in the relations between an EU member country and a country negotiating its EU membership.
I also do not intend to shy away here from highlighting the satisfaction I feel at the extraordinary progress we have made in recent years, together with the Greek Prime Minister, to cultivate a genuinely European spirit between us and melt away the glaciers of our icy past, by looking at each other in the eye and addressing old issues with an open mind and goodwill.
But at the same time, I cannot hide my most profound sorrow in the face of the surreal show of interference of the Greek side in a matter of Albanian justice, to the point that the statements in Athens and whinging in Brussels, in the attempt to present this matter, treated until now by the justice system as a possible electoral crime, as a matter of Greek minority rights, escalated with a protest of this nature – unprecedented in the history of Europe, as far as I’m aware.
I am not only very sorry but also seriously concerned because this step, similar to a bull in a China shop, can risk consequences of refuelling the fire of nationalism and the mutual negative feelings felt by specific ill-informed categories and extremist groups of people who can’t wait for these occasions to through fuel in the fire – a development that I do not even doubt for a second that not only I and the Albanian government but also the prime minister and the Greek government do not want to see happen.
Whenever I try to walk “in the other person’s shoes”, I cannot find a path that leads me to justify this issue solely related to justice, and I simply cannot understand how this unprecedented problem of our neighbours and friends can be solved, except by letting justice do its work undisturbed!
Therefore, I don’t know what else I can say except to refer those interested to the Constitution of the Republic of Albania; its clear separation of powers, which, thanks to the justice reform (which Greece, along with the US and EU, has supported without reservation) and the iron will of our ruling majority to implement it without making political comments on the decisions of the courts; the very non-negotiable essential standard of the EU not to interfere in the affairs of the judiciary for any political reason; furthermore it lays also with my vision and will to never compromise foreign strategic relations with the escalation of sporadic unhappy episodes of this kind, which in the narrow Balkan way of thinking contain a dangerous potential.
But to our Greek friends who came to Himara amid the holiday season and performed their unique show amongst our people, but tourists from all over Europe too, who this year have landed more than ever on our coasts, I say that they are always welcome in Albania.
You are welcome even when you protest!
Because today’s Albania is a European country, tolerant of every contemporary protester but also historically hospitable to every foreigner, regardless of colour, language or religion; many moments in our history testify to this, from the sheltering of Jewish people during WWII to providing refuge to Afghans today and even Greeks struck by extreme poverty in the north of their country during the bloody civil war, who exhaustedly knocked on the doors of Albanian families in the southeast of our country.
In addition to that, the Albania of today is a European country with a new exemplary legislation for all minorities, where the Greek minority enjoys the same freedoms and rights as the Albanian community, where Greeks choose and are elected freely, as clearly happened during the municipal elections this year in Dropull and Finiq, after an electoral campaign with messages delivered in Greek (even by me, who unfortunately does not speak the wonderful Greek language); where the Greek flag flew freely amongst their traditional music and dances, and Greek candidates won mandates to continue governing undisturbed their communities; when under my watch, the houses illegally built during the years of transition were massively legalized for Greek families, and they were given thousands of property titles that had been denied for decades, just as they were given to the churches where the Greek orthodox followers perform their religious rituals, the property titles taken away by the communist regime and unregistered until the day my government was sworn in.
To the Greek media that have reported on this issue which pushed me to write these lines, I say they are welcome to listen to our side of the story in Tirana or even Himara if they want. There we will gladly welcome them with open hearts and truth!
Because Albania today has a government that says what it does and does what it says – same for the rights and properties of the Greek minority members that were never treated differently from Albanians.
The knot of property titles in Albania was an evil disease created by communism and worsened to the point of agony from the democratic transition, during which property rights became the object of abominable irresponsibility of the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
For this reason, we have paid special attention to property rights and the decades-long delayed process of their treatment in certain areas – from the fields of the Malesi e Madhe and the chestnut mountains in Tropoja down to the pastures and olive groves of the shores of the Ionian Sea– has been set in motion with a high sense of responsibility on the part of our government. Meanwhile, the concrete results of our difficult and continuous work are all the more evident and indisputable.
While to the Greek people, I say, come to Albania, and you will feel at home, because after a tragic isolation that separated us alive for half a century and after a dramatic transition with severe problems and great troubles, Albania is becoming each year a better place to work, invest, play music or theatre, exhibit your admirable art and culture, or to just rest by our beautiful beaches and imposing mountains.
But also because Albanians and Greeks have been friends since the beginning of time, part of a geography that has determined us to be neighbours and a history that has united us in facing common issues and problems much more than being divided by politicians lured by their lust for power and their nationalistic leanings, along the winding road of history, in a region where more history has been produced than capacities to digest its products.
Today we are closer together than ever before, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Albanians who came out of the bunker of communist poverty, who ran towards you and have now become part of your life in Greece, and thanks to our willingness to always have the door open for you.
Because you are our brothers and sisters, with whom the future unites us inextricably, as two European peoples who differ by language, but who, whether we want to admit it or not, are like in that famous Italian film by Giuseppe Tornatore, “mia fatsa, mia razza”.