TIRANA, July 19 – Himara Mayor Gjergj Goro has been stripped of his Greek citizenship for holding positions against Greece’s national interests, according to a decision of Greek Interior Minister Panos Skurletis published in that country’s official gazette and quoted by several media outlets.
Goro, a representative of Albania’s Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama, has been able to win elections against an Athens-friendly candidate in the southwestern Albania coastal town, where many residents speak Greek as their first language.
Goro, himself a member of Himara’s Greek-speaking community, was embroiled in a conflict relating to the demolishing of several homes and businesses as part of an urban renewal process in the town located at the heart of the Albanian Riviera and known as a tourist hotspot.
The actions drew ire in Athens, with Greek officials there saying the rights of local ethnic Greeks were being violated and that Tirana aimed to change the ethnic makeup of the town through the development.
Tirana does not recognize Himara’s Greek-speaking community as ethnically Greek, a point of contention with Athens for years. However, several other areas at the southern edge of Albania recognized as Greek minority areas, with ethnic Greeks making up less than 1 percent of Albania’s population, according to the 2011 census.
Albania’s government has responded to Greek criticism that urban renewal projects are taking place in towns and cities across Albania, and that Himara is no different.
Greece routinely grants residency and citizenship to people from Albania who can claim Greek ethnicity and heritage. Goro appears to have gained citizenship through that mechanism.
Grece’s interior minister, however, has the power to strip dual citizens of their Greek citizenship if they act against national interest.
Albanian media reported secessionist elements among Albania’s ethnic Greek minority had lobbied authorities in Greece to punish Goro for cooperating with the Socialist government in Tirana, seen as deeply unfriendly to Greece.
Goro has not spoken to the media about the matter.
Alfred Bejleri, a local leader of the Greek-speaking community, said Omonia, the largest ethnic Greek organization in Albania, had not asked the Greek government to take action.
“Omonia, the Unity Human Rights Party, any other organization working to protect property, cultural and heritage rights in Himara has never filed a complaint on the matter of his citizenship,” Bejleri told a local television station.
Bejleri said the organizations he represent opposed Goro’s stances because they fear the urban development he support, with large buildings downtown, will change the ratio of people living in downtown Himara, altering the population and diluting the Greek-speaking indigenous population he says lives there.
