Tirana, Dec 13 — Albania’s King Leka I condemned on Thursday the ethnic Greek mayor from the town of Himara who asked Greece not to back a key deal seen as a vital step in Albania’s EU bid.
“The actions of Omonia [the organisation headed by mayor Vasil Bollano] are a flagrant offence to the Albanian people, which have been hosting the Greek minority for more than two centuries,” said Leka I at a press conference.
“The actions of Omonia are being transformed into a chauvinist policy to thwart Albania’s European Union integration,” he added.
Leka called on the organisation to stop disseminating hate propaganda among ethnic groups. He also called on Greece to recognise the rights of the Albanian Cam minority expelled during the Second World War.
“Time has come to put a request toward Greece, the most ancient democracy in the world, to recognise legally and to guarantee according to international law, the human rights of the autochthonous Cam Albanians of Northern Greece, expelled violently during the Second World War,” Leka I said.
According to a memo leaked to the local media, Bollano, who is also the head of the Greek minority organisation Omonia, asks the Greek parliament not to ratify Albania’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.
Bollano who confirmed the authenticity of the memo, also asks for a series of other requests, among them the recognition of all of southern Albania as Greek minority land.
Bollano also asks that the Albanian constitution should be changed to recognise this as a minority region.
At the end of 2007, Bollano added fuel to the fire by ordering the destruction of Albanian-language signs on the highway linking the port of Vlora with the southern town of Saranda because they were also not written in Greek.
This has prompted prosecutors to open a case against the mayor for abuse of power and destruction of public property.
Tirana has also turned down his demands for special status, arguing that the size of the local Greek community is too small for the area to warrant it. At the same time, Tirana treads carefully with the mayor on account of its powerful neighbour to the south, who is an EU member.
However, the government’s softly-softly approach has angered some Albanians who feel Tirana has been too soft on Bollano. They have been infuriated by his warnings that if the authorities make any moves against him, Albania’s EU aspirations will be compromised.
That Greece is host to Albania’s largest emigrant community in Europe, and that their remittances are a lifeline for its weak economy, especially in the south, is another factor in the equation. Although Athens broadly supports Albania’s goal of eventual EU and NATO membership, it has shown it is ready to use the fate of the almost countless Albanian immigrants in Greece as a pawn when the going gets tough.
