Understanding diverging perceptions key to relationship, Albanian and Greek researchers say

ATHENS, Dec. 19 – Albanians and Greeks hold diverging perceptions of each-other and the neighborhood, but understanding these differences offers a way to develop a better relationship between the two countries, Albanian and Greek researchers said at a join event in Athens.
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation – Athens Office organized the public event “Greek-Albanian relations: The findings from opinion polls in Greece and Albania” as part of the joint project that ELIAMEP and the Albanian Institute for International Studies carried out together in 2013.
Following a similar event held in Tirana, where the presentation of the main results of the public polls on perceptions between Greeks and Albanians were issued, the Athens event was also successful in raising a constructive debate on contemporary map of perceptions, misunderstandings and potential for developing the relations that the polls indicate.
Those attending included important members of Greek academia, foreign policy community, think tanks but also members of the Albanian Diaspora in Greece, including students and journalists.
Thanos Dokos, Director General of ELIAMEP and Christos Katsioulis, Director of FES Athens, both praised the innovative study as an important step in investing for a better relationship between the neighboring countries.
Albert Rakipi, Executive Director of the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) reiterated the need to surpass the status quo in the relations, highlighting the fact that there seems to be a development with the new government in Albania, which is also strengthened by the recent official visits to Albania of both Foreign Affairs Minister Venizelos and President Karolos Papoulias.
In the roundtable discussion on the findings of the reports from both countries, Lambros Baltsiotis, Adjunct Lecturer at the Panteion University contextualized the findings in the political landscape of Greece and mentioned some of the long held beliefs that separate the two countries. One of the issues most discussed was the complexity of the Cham issue with its many elements among which the property rights.
Participating from Albania, Remzi Lani of the Albanian Media Institute and Pirro Misha of the Institute from Dialogue and Communication also pondered on the close relation that bonds the two countries and on various aspects of the media coverage that influences them on both sides as well as on the lack of a sold cultural and educational collaboration that hampers the development of better ties.
The context of the financial and economic crisis in Greece was also brought to the debate several times as it helped to explain some results on the Greek side such as the perception of Germany as a threat in the Greek public or the split opinion among Greek citizens about Albanian immigrants.