The Cham’s cause has gained support in Albania as the community has been able to use its numbers to gain political clout at the ballot box.
TIRANA, Dec. 11 – Two lawmakers of the Justice, Integrity and Unity Party handed want the Albanian parliament to approve a resolution they have charted to seek support for the Cham Albanian community’s claims in Greece.
The party’s primary goal is to support the Cham cause, which has gained support in Albania as the community has been able to use its numbers to gain political clout at the ballot box.
Turning the Cham issue into the top item of the agenda is a big step for the party and its two lawmakers. But it is also a big test for the government as the Cham representatives are part of the ruling coalition. For the moment, it is only the other small Socialist for Integration Movement party, also in the governing coalition that has declared it will support such a resolution.
There are also rumors that the opposition Socialists may support it. For the moment, the top party in parliament, the governing Democrats have not reacted.
The Cham issue is a big due to the friction that it may cause with neighboring Greece. Athens has made it clear that it thinks the issue does not really exist.
The Chams were brutally expelled from Greece at the end of WWII, accused of cooperation with the invading Italian and German troops. Stripped of Greek citizenship and property, the community’s descendents, granted Albanian citizenship by the communist regime, want to exercise their rights again.
Athens gets irritated with the simple idea of a resolution on the Cham issue. Its content is not that important at this moment other than the fact that it is being debated in the Albanian parliament.
For sure there will be much pressure coming from Greece on the Albanian political circles, the same as some years ago when another resolution was attempted in parliament. It did not pass.
This time things might be different. Prime Minister Sali Berisha has raised his nationalistic rhetoric frightening Greece and the other neighbors. Chams may get the support of the LSI, and even the Socialists, but it is still unknown if either large party wants to start another fight with neighboring Greece over a resolution that has no enforcement powers.
Democrats and Berisha face the biggest test, because they have shown during the last seven years of their governing they have been so close to the Greeks. They are in a political friction in the country, and now also with Athens, for the agreement on the sea border delimitation which has been turned down by the Tirana Constitutional Court.
On the other hand, the joining of the Chams and LSI is a clear indication to Berisha that he as to cater to his smaller allieds. Berisha will very likely prolong the discussion on the resolution before it will go to vote in the session. But it will have to come to a vote at some point.
