Greece proceeds with border demarcation

TIRANA, Jan. 9 – The Albanian media reported that Athens has been set to soon send a map of its borders to the United Nations, which will likely create frictions with its neighbors, Turkey, Libya and also Albania.
The media continues to report that the map covers also some hundreds of square kilometers in the Albanian waters.
Four years ago Albania and Greece signed a deal on demarcation of the borders. But later that year the political parties sent a request at the Constitutional Court to declare it invalid as it had cuts a considerable space in the southern waters. The court later decided the agreement invalid, which sparked a row with Athens.
Albanian authorities say that a working group is on time to prepare a new draft of the deal.
Greece’s unilateral move could spark diplomatic rows with all the neighbors.
Greece is looking to start work on checking whether its waters, including that disputed part with Albania, have oil of gas.
That came out after a former military in Albania openly accused the government after its deal in 2009 saying that Tirana should not let free and ‘donate’ its areas so easily. That man has now become a senior leader in a small recently created political party.
The issue has turned into a big one for the political parties, but the governing Democrats, that try to show to their voters how the government had failed to keep the territorial integrity of the country.
That will be an issue in the June 23 parliamentary elections.