Albanian president turns down voices of a Greater Albania

TIRANA, July 14 – In an interview with the Serbian Beta news agency, Albanian President Bamir Topi said that, following the creation of Kosova as a new state, Tirana had no prejudice or conditions for Belgrade and that both countries would profit from their ties.
Topi also said that Tirana had no intention to create a Greater Albania after Kosova’s independence.
“All this is employed for another lofty goal, integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, so that we return the region to the space of peace, stability and progress, to the field of politics of mutual understanding and cooperation,” Topi said.
Topi said that Tirana supported Serbia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration, wishing for her to be part of an accelerated rhythm of the western Balkans coming closer to Brussels.
“Kosovo’s independence was the last political, but also psychological, nightmare of the final solution of the former Yugoslavia’s disintegration,” he said, adding that “independence took into account the important and transparent process that was supervised by empowered foreign factors, and that could not have taken forever”.
He went on to say that Albania has unequivocally projected its NATO and EU future, and that it wishes to see “Kosovo as well as Serbia” become members of these organizations, “as the newly formed [Serbian] government has announced”.
“The future of Albanians is not Greater Albania, but Greater Europe”, said Topi, and added that the EU is “a family” where each country ought to have its “equal place, fulfilling standards, with its dignity and identity”. (Tirana Times Staff)