Greece keeps an eye on Albania’s Greek minority

TIRANA, June 1 – In a speech to parliament, Greece’s Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas spoke about Albania and the ethnic Greek minority, its situation and prospects in their northern neighbor.
Droutsas answered a question concerning improvement of the situation of the Greek National Minority in Albania.
He said that Greece’s strong and longstanding economic presence in Albania and the important development programmes and infrastructure projects we are funding there contribute to creating the right conditions for members of the Greek national minority in Albania to stay at their hearths, and for those who have left those hearths – out of need – to return to them at some point.
To strengthen the position of the Greek National Minority and the prospect for those who have left to return, it is very important that property-related problems in Albania be resolved. To this end, the Greek Foreign Ministry is co-funding an OSCE programme for the first and full inventory of property on the southern coast of Albania.
In any case, Albania’s European course will be of pivotal importance for the future of Greek-Albanian relations. The country’s progress in this direction also ensures the interests of the Greek National Minority. One of the commitments Albania has made to the EU is to carry out a census in 2011, as the MPs who submitted this question correctly noted. And we see it as positive that the questionnaire being prepared by the Albanian authorities includes a question on ethnic origin, which has been a standing demand of the Greek National Minority.
During the last two post-communist decades relations with Greece have been strained, mostly over the treatment of Albanian immigrants in Greece and of the ethnic Greek minority in Albania.