PSEVA – ΠΣΕΒΑ

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF NORTHERN EPIRUS ISSUE

P.O. BOX 6434, CLEARWATER, FL 33758 USA dodonaios@aol.com

Prot. No. 0825/2010

To the President of the European Commission

Mr. José Manuel Barroso

Notification:

-Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy of the European Union

Mr. Stefan Fuele

-Albanian Parliament

-Hellenic Parliament

-European Parliament

-Congress and Senate of the United States of America

-Media

Subject: Albania, its joining to the European Union and the Greek Ethnic Minority

Honorable Mr. President

As we know, the basic EU principles, principles that have to be respected by the member states and those states that wish to join, are the respect of human life and the non promotion of nationalistic demands.

Among the criteria set by the European Union (EU) to the candidate states, are issues dealing with the minorities and the elimination of any kind of discrimination against them. In order for a candidate state to join the EU all of these conditions must be met.

During the EU meeting with Albania (Tirana 13.01.2003), EU urged them to assume the responsibility to meet all the conditions of eligibility, among which are the full respect and the protection of rights of the Greek Ethnic Minority.

This was also confirmed in the “Thessaloniki Agenda for the Western Balkans: Path towards European Integration” (Thessaloniki, June 2003) as well as in the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement at the start of the process of integrating Albania into the European Union (June 2006).

At the same time EU sets as one of the conditions for the European integration of a state, the respect of borders and the elimination of nationalistic movements that threaten stability.

In reality though, although Albania agreed to implement a series of commitments in order to proceed with the integration process, it is still creating obstacles for the Greek minority on a daily basis.

As examples we mention the following:

-Feeling of insecurity

The most recent example is the assassination of the Greek Aristoteli Gouma in Himara.

Such a brutal action is not only an insult to human life but also to the presence of the native Greek minority in Albania. It is a provocation to human and minority rights, a provocation which reminds us of the times that we all want to forget. Back then, during the Hoxha regime, the Greek existence was undesirable in Albania and had to be eliminated. Thousands of those murdered, even more persecuted and imprisoned during that period, is a harsh reality that everyone wants to forget. The murder though in Himara brings it all back.

In Himara, where most of the Greek population of Albania lives for many decades, every principle of law and protection of human rights is violated. There is no freedom, and besides nationalism and racism are a daily routine. The examples are many and most of the times the attacks on the Greek minority have the support of the Albanian State.

-Greek Property

The Greek minority in its historic course was a permanent target of the Albanian nationalism. With the collapse of the totalitarian regime in the early 1990’s, a great majority of Greeks from Albania emigrated to Greece leaving behind their property which was either bought or confiscated by Albanians who came from the North looking for better fortune in the fertile coast.

The goal is obvious: The Albanians or the state itself to seize their property, by claiming it with documents of questionable authenticity, which are known to the local communities to belong to Greeks and therefore rightfully belong to their descendants as well.

The confiscating of land belonging to Greeks, who have emigrated, is accompanied by blackmail and threats to force them to surrender the land and buildings. Notably the state itself is involved in illegal activities, trying to govern the church property or the community property that the Hoxha regime had nationalized.

All these, aim to the expulsion from their ancestral homes and the de- Hellenization of areas where the Greek minority lives.

-Operations of the Albanian state that would undermine the presence of the Greek minority.

We mention the arbitrary geographic restriction of the minority, the statistical genocide, the violent ethnic alteration of the Greek villages, the expulsion of Greeks from the so-called “minority area”, the cultural de-Hellenization, repression and assimilation policies, a constant effort to reduce the representation of Greeks, and the ongoing interventions for the free use of the Greek language.

-Nationalism which disputes the native land of the Greek minority and the borders with Greece.

According to the new version of the government funded Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary, which was released recently by the Academy of Sciences in Tirana, Greek cities in Greece are considered Albanian national territories such as Ioannina, Igoumenitsa, Arta and Preveza…

In addition the Greeks are considered as “settlers” in the region since the years of the Turkish occupation, and according to the encyclopedic dictionary they were there to work in the estates of the Farms landlords.

Also in response to the nonexistent problem of the Chams, the descendants of the occupation forces collaborators in Greece, organizations that are often supported by the State, proceed to nationalistic movements.

Already in the Albanian Parliament Chams nationalists, represented by two MPs and an equal number of nationalist parties, organize nationalistic events.

The propaganda is gaining ground in a society which traditionally is possessed by prejudices and stereotypes against the Greeks.

Honorable Mr. President

For all the above we urge the European Union to take measures so that Albania meets its obligations as a candidate state.
We also recommend the EU to put pressure on Albania to fulfill the following obligations:

-The placement of public signs in Greek. This is an obligation of Albania under the Agreement - Framework for minorities which it has signed. The placement of signs will be a formal message to all visitors in Albania, that in the area live people who belong to the Greek National Minority.

-The elimination of minority regions since the Albanian practice of arbitrary distinction between "qualified minority areas" and other purely Greek, such as the Himara, the Koritsa and Premeti, is an issue that refers to divisions of the Hoxha era.

-The introduction of the Greek language in public administration: The Albanian government when addressed to the Greek national minority should use documents written in the Greek language. No administrative or judicial act related to residents will be carried out unless it is written in Greek.

-The creation of a Security Agency of the Ethnic Greek Minority: Due to the increased number of incidents of violent life of the Greek minority we request the creation of a Minority Protection Office.

-The right to education in mother tongue at all levels and degrees of education, where members of the ethnic Greek minority are a majority or a significant proportion of the population, the proper use of learning the mother tongue, the right of preservation of cultural heritage, property restitution, free exercise of religion, freedom of establishment and participation in any political formation, the right to guarantee the participation of Greeks at all levels and sectors of power and the determination of national identity by the free declaration of each citizen, at the time of each census.

Honorable Mr. President

We believe that the integration of Albania into the European Union will be the best solution for the Greek minority in respect to its rights. Because if the European practice, principles and mentality will prevail, then the members of the Greek ethnic minority would be guaranteed the implementation and respect of their rights and would feel equal members of this society. At the same time though, we express its reservations about the real intentions of the Albanian authorities in this direction. We believe that the Albanian authorities create conditions for continuing the same policy towards the Greek minority, demographic and nationalistic, despite the fact that its rights (general and specific context) are guaranteed by international agreements which were ratified by Albania (UN, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, European Union)

Finally, the path of Albania towards the European Union passes through the respect of human, political, cultural, religious, property and educational rights of Greeks in Albania. For any additional information or clarification we remain at your disposal and we hope the integration of Albania to the European Union will provide a start for a better life for the Greek minority and the disappearance of the nationalistic movements in the region.

Respectfully yours,

Spokesman
Press Office

Michael Servos dodonaios@aol.com