TIRANA, Sept. 1 – Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, has told Athens to stay out of the country’s internal affairs, following a row over the demolition of an illegally-built Orthodox Christian shrine in the southern Albanian coast village of Dhermi.
Rama said Albania’s Orthodox Christians had their own state to protect them and Greece’s interference would not be accepted.
“Orthodox Albanians are not Greeks,” Rama said, adding everyone in Albania has equal religious rights.
Rama, a Catholic who has Orthodox family roots in the area of the shrine, said a proper church would be built on the spot of the shrine’s demolition.
He said there had been “a misunderstanding” on the role the government played in the action and it was “misused by others.”
The Greek Foreign Ministry demanded explanation from Albania, comparing the actions of the local Himara Municipality in demolishing the small chapel, built without a permit in the early 1990s, to the actions of jihadis in Syria.
Greek nationalists have for more than a century wanted to annex parts of southern Albania, identifying all Orthodox Albanians as Greeks, a view that deeply angers Albanians.
Only a small fraction of the country’s Orthodox population is ethnically Greek, census figures and independent studies show.
The area in where the chapel was located is seen by the Albanian government as ethically Albanian. However, many of its residents speak Greek at home, which makes them ethnically Greek as far as the Greek government is concerned.
The chapel’s demolition became even more complicated, because a Catholic missionary is buried on the sight, marking accusations that the Catholic Church was also involved.
More than half of Albania’s population is made up of secular Muslims. Christians, mostly Orthodox and Catholic, are a sizable minority.
Following the end of the atheist communist regime, Albania has had an excellent track record of religious tolerance and freedoms.
