Troubled waters could once again test Albania’s relationship with Greece as media reports indicate high-level behind-the-scenes negotiations are taking place trying to settle the maritime border between the two countries. Tirana Times
TIRANA, Aug 2 – When Albania’s Constitutional Court voided in early 2010 an agreement reached the prior year between Tirana and Athens over the demarcation of the maritime border, the issue had drawn up so much passion among Albanians who feared their country was getting a raw deal, Albania’s leaders must have known a cool-off period was needed before they could deal with the issue again.
Now, more than two years latter, the issue has resurfaced, as Greek and Albanian media report that the two governments are negotiating behind the scenes at the highest levels. Driven by economic interests, Athens and Tirana want to reach a second attempt at the clear demarcation of their maritime border in the Ionian Sea so exclusive areas for oil and gas exploration are clearly defined.
A Greek trade publication specializing in energy issues and a private Albanian television station both say they have confirmed the negotiations are taking place.
“Discussions to get the ball moving again on the 2009 agreement on the border demarcation with Albanian have taken place at the highest level, between Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his Albanian counterpart, Sali Berisha,” Greece’s Energypress writes.
Albania’s Top Channel television station also quoted Greek foreign ministry sources, confirming the negotiations had taken place.
If confirmed to be true, these negotiations would be the highest level talks between the two countries since 2010, when the relationship between Greece and Albania became unusually cool, marking a period of no reciprocal high-level official visits.
Government officials on both sides have neither confirmed, nor denied that the negotiations are taking place, and have not answered direct media questions on the matter.
However, a lack of reaction from the Albanian government to what essentially became the top news of the week is an indication that these negotiations are indeed taking place, according to Mentor Nazarko, an independent analyst and columnist in several Albanian media outlets.
“Albanians must be vigilant,” Mr. Nazarko writes in his Panorama column this week. “The fear that Albania could end up signing a new agreement that in essence respects the old agreement Šis a justified fear.”
Mr. Nazarko uses terms like “vigilant” and “justified fear,” because the 2009 agreement, which aimed to set the borders according to international law, ended up making many Albanians furious. Once the terms were made public, some experts noted the Albanian side had been incompetent and ceded too much, giving Greece the ability to calculate the half-way point using questionable geographic methods. Various interest groups and retired military experts denounced the deal, saying Albania would lose as much as 225 square kilometers of territorial waters if the agreement were ratified.
“You can’t really speak ill of the the Greeks,” says Myslym Pashaj, a retired Albanian army colonel who authored a damning study featured in many Albanian media that showed Albanians how much territory they could lose under the deal. “The Greeks protected their strategic interests, and we can’t really blame them, while our side bowed down, they acted as inferiors and they came out as losers — we all came out as losers,” Mr. Pashaj said during a press conference in 2010.
Mr. Pashaj has since become one of the leaders of Albania’s new nationalist movement, Black and Red Alliance, which has made the border dispute and the Constitutional Court decision declaring the 2009 agreement as unconstitutional a cause cꭨbre.
According the media reports, Mr. Berisha had recently told his Greek counterpart he faces a lot of pressure at home from movements like the Red and Black Alliance, making reaching an agreement difficult.
Just a few days after the news of possible renewed negotiations came up, a boat of Red and Black Alliance activists together with jet skis waving the Albanian flags went past a police sea protest ban to lay symbolic markings somewhere in the middle of the waters of the Corfu Canal to signify the border, following reports the Greek Coast Guard has been harassing Albanian fishermen to respect the borders set by the nullified 2009 agreement.
In typical dramatic fashion, Kreshnik Spahiu, leader of the Red and Black Alliance, declared that those who negotiate to give away Albanian territory would be seen as traitors to the nation.
“Haggling between Antonis Samaras and Sali Berisha cannot move the Albanian border,” said Mr. Spahiu. “We are here to say that there is no son of Albania can Šsell our territory, even if it is the prime minister himself.”
The latest media reports indicate the agreement under discussion now does not differ very much from that of 2009, making it very likely that it will once again encounter tough opposition in Albania. Lack of transparency then and now, only fuels opposition, experts note.
Mr. Berisha could try to push the agreement forward with minor changes – there are fewer checks and balances against his power now than there were back in 2010 – experts note. But there could be a tough political price to pay ahead of the 2013 elections were the opposition would certainly use the agreement as a rallying cry against the ruling coalition.
And, as one American diplomat put it, few outside Albania can fully understand the gravity on the Albanian national psyche when it come to any leader perceived as giving up even a small piece of territory to a neighboring country.
Since the 2010 court decision was unanimous, a rare show of harmony, an analysis by U.S. diplomats shows they believed the high court’s decision had the support of the Albanian government, despite the public support it showed for the agreement, according to one of the cables leaked last year.
Citing observers, the cable notes the Albanian government “was caught off guard by the public backlash against the treaty, and may have nudged the Constitutional Court towards rejecting the treaty as a way of limiting the domestic political damage, while at the same time saving face with Greece.”
And if the reaction in the Albanian press and opposition is any indication this week, unless the agreement is drastically different, the Albanian government will have a hard time again selling it to the Albanian public, even though both governments might be eager to move over for economic reasons.
International arbitration as final option
If the two countries don’t agree, there is always international arbitration, which has been used in similar cases elsewhere, says Sokol Sadushi, who was a Constitutional Court judge at the time of the 2010 decision.
Speaking at Ora News’ Tonight television program, Mr. Sadushi said national interest and fairness intersected in voiding the 2009 agreement.
“If the two sides are unable to reach an understanding through joint negotiations, the only remaining solution is to go to the International Court,” he said, adding that with an agreement like that of 2009 “if the case would go to the International Court, I’m certain Albania would get a better deal.”
Economic considerations drive need for solution
The fact this issue is resurfacing now is not a coincidence, economic experts note. Facing an economic collapse as a result of its sovereign debt crisis Athens is looking for a plan to increase revenue – and gas and oil exploration in its maritime exclusive zones are on top of the agenda, as they are in those of many countries around the world.
Having no set border with Albania in the Ionian impedes that exploration, because the disputed area is home to some of the richest underwater reserves in the region, according to some independent surveys.
Of course, a lack of agreement hurts Albania too, as Tirana wants to also have foreign companies search for oil and gas in its maritime territory, the experts say, noting that often the same exploration companies work on behalf of both Tirana and Athens.
Holding pipeline project hostage?
Greece is now using the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project as a bargaining chip in the border demarcation agreement, according to media reports.
TAP is a natural gas pipeline project that would start in Greece, cross Albania and the Adriatic Sea and come ashore in southern Italy, allowing gas to flow directly from the Caspian region to European markets.
Albania has been lobbying hard to get TAP going through various levels, including straight at the sources of the gas in Azerbaijan, where Mr. Berisha lobbied directly with that country’s president in a recent official visit.
Azerbaijani Ambassador to Tirana Rahman Mustafayev, in an interview with Tirana Times, said that his country supports the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project, as it does the NABUCCO pipeline, a competing project.
Mr. Mustafayev says reaching an agreement and presenting a single front for TAP ultimately falls on Albania, Greece and Italy, where the pipeline passes. “Azerbaijan cannot want progress of TAP more than the governments of Greece, Albania and Italy do,” he says.
But if the media reports from Energypress hold true, Greek officials are threatening the pull the plug on the project if they don’t their way in the sea border agreements. “For that support, Greece wants to first sort the exclusive economic zones issue with Albania, an agreement with a lot of political, diplomatic and economic issues,” writes Energypress.
