WORLD COUNCIL OF EPIROTES ABROAD

PRESS RELEASE

EPIROTES UNITE IN CONDEMNING ALBANIA FOR TRYING TO JAIL ETHNIC GREEK LEADER

Photo: NICK GAGE, THE PRESIDENT OF WORLD COUNCIL OF EPIROTES ABROAD

The Panepirotic Federation of America, the World Council of Epirotes Abroad, and the Panepirotic Federation of Europe denounced the Albanian government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha for indicting Vasilios Bolanos, the mayor of Chimara in Northern Epiros, for removing road signs in his region that did not identify areas in Greek as well as Albanian.

Prosecutors filed charges against Bolanos on May 28 accusing him of abuse of power for removing signs last December that were not bilingual, Mr. Bolanos, who is also president of Omonia, the human rights organization that represents the ethnic Greek minority in the country, removed the signs saying that they should have been in Greek as well as Albanian.
“Indicting Vasilios Bolanos now that he has been elected president of Omonia for actions that occurred last year is a blatant effort to intimidate him not to protest too loudly about continued abuse of the Greek minority by Albanian authorities,” said Fotios Galitsis, president of the Panepirotic Federation of America.

“The flimsy charges against the Mayor are not worthy of a country that wants to join the European Union,” said Chrysostomos Dimou, president of the Panepirotic Federation of Europe. He noted that all countries in Europe except Albania have signed a Council of Europe agreement that calls for bilingual signs in areas where ethnic groups in a country are concentrated.

“Albania has been promising since 1991 to sign the agreement but has yet to do it, which shows clearly that Albania refuses to grant rights to its minorities that are common in all democratic countries,” said author Nicholas Gage, president of the World Council of Epirotes Abroad, which unites Epirot communities throughout the world.

The Albanian government’s own State Committee on Minorities has repeatedly urged Prime Minister Sali Berisha to sign the agreement, but he has refused to do it so far, according to Menelaos Tzelios, head of the political action committee of the Panepirotic Federation of America. Mr. Berisha was president of Albania in 1994 when he ordered the arrest of five leaders of Omonia on false charges of espionage. They were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms but were released after 10 months as a result of an international outcry against the injustice.

Mr. Berisha’s relentless efforts to persecute the Omonia leaders on patently false charges ultimately undermined his international standing, especially in Washington, and he fell from power in 1997. He moderated his stance, declaring that Albania’s minorities were an asset for the country, and his party won the 2005 elections, returning him to power.

“The attempt to persecute Bolanos now on such bogus charges, coupled with his refusal to sign the Council of Europe agreement, shows that Berisha has not learned as much from his past mistakes as he should,” Mr. Galitsis said. “Washington, Europe and the rest of the world should take notice and we will do everything we can to make sure they do,” Mr. Gage declared .

Mr. Dimou, who is the WCEA vice president, said all major Epirote organizations have sent Mr. Bolanos pledges of support and were coordinating efforts to reverse the injustice against him.
Mr. Tzelios said the Epirote leaders met in New York last Sunday to forge a common strategy on the Bolanos persecution and to finalize plans for the first convention of the World Council of Epirotes Abroad to be held in Ioannina, the capitol of Epiros, from July 24 to 27. The group was formed by Epirote groups in all five continents in 2006.

2 June 2008

For more information contact: Menelaos G. Tzelios

11-25 30th Avenue, L.I.City, NY 11102
e-mail: mtzelios@yahoo.com

Tel. 718 809-4005 FAX 718 956-9583