Courts in southern Albania want Constitutional Court to rule on nationality issue.
TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, March 17 – Several courts in the southern Albania have suspended review of applications for change of nationality. The decision comes after persistent media reports that the system was being abused by Albanians switching to become Greek for economic benefits rather than through a Greek heritage.
The courts have gone as far as asking the Constitutional Court of Albania to rule whether allowing courts to change nationalities is compatible with the country’s constitution. Albania’s civil registry includes a person’s nationality in addition the citizenship at birth.
The news is part of a trend related to Albania’s proposed self-declaration census which could dramatically alter the perceived ethnic make-up of the country since many ethnic Albanians in the south have resorted to changing their nationality to Greek to gain direct and indirect financial benefits from the Greek government.
A petition is currently gathering thousands of signatures to have the self-declaration census cancelled.
On the other hand, the Party of Human Rights and Greek minority organization Omonia have called the census to be conducted so the standard minority rights provided by the registration process can be granted.
The Albanian government has delayed the census, which was scheduled for April, arguing it did not want to interfere with the local elections scheduled for May 8.
