TIRANA, May 19 – Albania has engaged in high-risk diplomatic demands against Greece with Turkey’s backing, which has left Athens fuming with anger, a major Greek newspaper reported this week, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources in the Greek foreign ministry.
Last week Tirana handed over a letter to Greek counterparts asking Athens to revise its plans for hydrocarbon exploration in the Ionian Sea on the grounds it would encroach on Albanian territorial waters as the two countries have yet to reach an agreement on their maritime border.
However, according to the Kathimerini newspaper, Tirana also requested Greek officials to make available land surveys of the Epirus region in northwestern Greece.
Speaking to Kathimerini, diplomatic sources interpreted the move as a bid to question existing borders between the two countries.
On a political level, the demarche is seen as a high-risk initiative for Albania and bilateral relations, according to the Kathimerini, one of the country’s oldest conservative newspapers.
The newspaper also reported that Greek analysts suspect that Albanian protests are being fueled by Turkey, which is working against Greek interests in the area, tying Albania’s request to last week’s visit of Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan, when he met with officials from the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity, whose supporters are mainly descendants of Cham Albanians.
The Chams were ethnically cleansed by Greek militias at the end of World War II and have been asking for their properties confiscated by the Greek state, which considers the matter closed.
Frictions between the two countries that have always brought about negative consequences to Albanian migrants working in Greece and bilateral economic cooperation.
More than 500,000 Albanian citizens live and work in Greece, while the Albanian National Institute of Statistics reports that more than 500 Greek businesses operate in Albania and more than 300 Greek businesses have recently sought information regarding investing in Albania.
There is an increasing tendency of Greek businesses to establish in Albania in the past years. Investments with Greek capital have reached 1.1 billion euros from 782 million euros in 2012.
The main fields where these businesses operate in the country are the banking system, the construction sector, health care services, telecommunication as well as trade and education.
Albania’s previous government, led by former premier Sali Berisha signed a deal with Athens in 2009 on the maritime border in southern Albania. The agreement was widely seen in Albania as handing over too much to the Greeks and was challenged in the Constitutional Court. The court voided the deal and Albania and Greece relations have been chilly ever since.
Albania-Greece ties have continuously been with bumps during the last two and a half decades of the post-communist times in the tiny western Balkan country.
Greece, itself in difficult financial crisis, is looking forward to digging for possible oil reserves in the Ionian Sea which is close to and also part of the debated area with Albania. Tirana is also looking to do some oil exploration of its own in the area.
