Romanian president calls for official recognition of Aromanian national minority

TIRANA, June 8 – Romanian President Traian Basescu made a visit to Tirana Tuesday where he met with his host counterpart Bamir Topi, Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli.
But beside the warm protocol words he also asked at the news conference together with Topi that the Albanian authorities recognize the Aromanians as a national minority.
“In the discussion that we held I asked that the Aromanians in Albania be recognized as a national minority,” said Basescu.”The Aromanians have proven to be trustworthy Albanian citizens and have shown this throughout history.”
The comments seemed to have caught Topi by surprise.
The Aromanians/Vlachs in Albania are currently recognized as a language minority, also sometimes called a cultural minority. Some members of the community would like their status to be upgraded to national minority.
Aromanians are a Romanic people of northern and central Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. Their language is a Romance language called Aromanian, which linguists say is one of the four main dialects of the Romanian language.
Currently Albania has given three minority groups the status of national minority: the Greek minority, the Macedonians and the Montenegrins.
The last census data on minorities in Albania was carried out in 1989, while clear data on their numbers are a source of tension between the state and the minorities. Currently a new census is under way, which will register the population’s ethnicity through self-declaration. The census is expected to be completed in 2011
Basescu also repeated the opposition to the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state. He said Kosovo resembled Georgia and that Bucharest would never change its stance based on respect of the international law.
Romania is one of the five EU member countries that has not recognized Kosovo, together with Greece, Spain, Slovakia and Cyprus.
During his first official visit to Albania on Tuesday, Romania’s President Traian Basescu reiterated Romania’s support for Albania’s European prospects, voicing hope that Albania will take important steps toward fulfilling the requirements for acceding to the European Union.
On the visa liberalization for Albanians, Basescu encouraged the speeding up of efforts to clarify technical aspects that will allow for a positive outcome this autumn.
‘I believe that extending the liberalized visa regime to include the Albanian nationals will consolidate the Albanians’ trust in the concrete aspects of their European prospects,’ said Basescu in a joint news conference with Albanian President Bamir Topi..
Basescu also mentioned that a Romanian-Albanian business forum was scheduled to be held this autumn.
‘I underscored the importance for solutions to be sought to consolidate economic cooperation so that the effects of the world recession will not affect the bilateral economic ties. The documents signed today in the areas of communications and information society as well as in the area of maritime transport is a first step in the process of consolidating the bilateral economic ties,’ said Basescu.
‘Together with Mr. President, I analyzed the political situation in our geographical area, the Balkans, and discussed the Kosovo issue, on which Romania has preserved its official stance previously stated,’ Basescu said.