An accident, not an ethnic incident

A highway accident that unfortunately ended with the death of a resident in Himare, a town in southern Albania, has become a highly politicized issue after allegations that the man was hit by a car for speaking in Greek to the Albanian drivers.
The local leader of the the Greek minority in Albania, who is also the mayor of Himare, Vasil Bollano says the killing happened because the victim was a member of the Greek minority.
To many outside Albania, a murder in the Balkans based on ethnic hate would seem plausible, however, the controversy stemming out of this is case is a storm in a teapot.
But now, the Greek government, through its foreign ministry has made a public statement about the case, backing Bollano’s view.
If we look at the relations between the Greek minority and the Albanian majority in the south, there is no evidence of a non-friendly relations.
Also, the recognized Greek population in Albania is about 40,000 to 50,000 people. And Himare has been object of debate whether its inhabitants qualify as members of the Greek minority at all. There is no doubt that many of Himare’s residents speak Greek, but most of the population in Durres speaks fluent Italian too. Based on the same logic, are we to see them as ethnic Italians?
There have been a lot of claims by leaders of the Greek minority in Albania about not enough education opportunities in the mother tongue, which are more or less groundless.
Vangjel Dule, the head a small party that identifies itself with the Greek minority in Albania, has even asked for an international investigation of the case, even-though it appears to be an accident. The author of the accident surrendered to police and apologized, explaining that everything that happened was an accident.
To take a car accident and turn into an international incident through the statements of the Greek government is not right. It’s also wrong of Dule to take the position that Albanian police and courts are not good enough because they can’t be fair on ethnic grounds.
In fact, it is the typical political reaction by the Greek government that is the only problem between Albanians and the country’s small Greek minority. And historically these two communities have gotten along just fine.
This is in essence another example reflecting the banality and low political maturity often seen in the Balkans where politicians find it convenient to wave the flag of nationalism.
There is more when it comes to relations among countries that share ethnic minorities too. Every time leaders of the Balkans, speak of minorities as bridges, they are practically asking for the status quo to be preserved in relations between the countries concerned. These leaders do not speak of substance, issues, the breach or respect of minority rights. They speak of statuses or use of national flags. They are simply uninterested in what actually happens to the minorities beyond their borders but through a very simplistic rhetoric they seek to garner populist support back home, to keep them in power as long as possible.
Albania, in fact, is the only country of the Balkans to have an excellent record when it comes to minorities and respect for them. There are no facts to the contrary .
Albania’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Belgrade and while there, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia raised the issue of the Serb minority in Albania. Everybody was stunned. There has hardly ever been a Serbian minority in Albania, not even during our honeymoon with former Yugoslavia. Even then, Tito did not deem it beneficial to fabricate a Serbian minority presence in Albania. That would have made Tito quite ridiculous. And even though an authoritarian leader, he at least was never ridiculous.
In 1994-1995, the Greek government generated a huge diplomatic storm, stating that Albania was violating the rights of the Greek minority, when even the Greeks know that Albania is an example in the region for respect of minorities, starting from the Greek one. The Albanian administration of the time offered full and incontestable evidence proving the opposite.