Former Head of Italian Anti Mafia, stopped in Corfu
"Quotidiano di Puglia"
http://www.quotidianodipuglia.it/articolo.php?id=214899&sez=LECCE
LECCE - Overwhelmed by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August. "Dull, outrageous and provocative. I'm really disappointed. I love Greece, I come here for 40 years, but what has happened to me has really shaken, though in the end I received an apology. " In Italy is 21.30, in Greece the time zone is 60 minutes past when Senator Alberto Maritati answers the phone.The day was, he says, an exhausting mixture of misunderstandings on the edge of the water border and international intrigue. Among inadvertent overruns, courtesy flags hoisted and do not like, stamps on identification documents, and even the shadow - turned out to be grossly untrue - illegal immigration. A nightmare. All this is topped by the relationship, historically vitriolic, between Greece and Albania. To unravel the suddenly annodatasi inextricably, it took the intercession of the Italian Embassy. "Yet, we decided just to take a Sunday drive," gnash their teeth over the phone Maritati.Senator Pd is at home in the land of Greece. The family has a house on the island of Erikoussa, a slice of paradise that floats about ten miles north-west of Corfu and 14 from the Albanian coast. There Maritati also hosted, it seems in recent days, Massimo D'Alema. And from there yesterday, the party of the senator decided to sail for a sortie on the high seas: Eleven people around aboard a boat of 12 meters flying the Italian flag. "With us there were also a family of Albanian parents and two children, who lives in Erikoussa regularly for 20 years, and two other Albanian women: one with Italian citizenship and the other graduate student at the University of Salento." The route described by the boat is on the road which leads to Saranda and Porto Palermo, Albania, neighbor across the strip of coast of Corfu. "That's where the waters of the border - says Maritati - are just a mile in some places even less."Easy trespass. In fact, "Inadvertently we ended up in Albanian waters." And at that point has run a scout approached the land of the Eagle-faced: "A police officer asked us why we had not raised the Albanian flag." Wants to practice, but does not require, that is exposed - in addition to the flag "mother" - the vessilo courtesy of the country in whose waters you surf. "We apologize, but we were asked to show our papers. They were all in order, of course. They gave us a flag and have stamped. But from that moment we started our misfortune. " With the Albanian flag courtesy in sight, the boat reverses course and heads towards Erikoussa. But once in Greek waters, take a new control. This time by the Hellenic Coast Guard: "They asked us why we had the Albanian flag, we responded that we are an Italian boat, they replied that there is greek territory."The atmosphere is already vibrating, and falls entirely: "We have asked for the documents, and from that moment on they started to treat us badly telling us that we should follow in Corfu. One of them also simulated the gesture of arrest. It was almost like they were dealing with an enemy country. " The suspect is essentially one: illegal immigration. Not really caresses, given the recent crackdown by the Greek legislation and the maze of visa and clearances required. Maybe some short tones and bureaucratic misunderstanding there was, maybe not, but it was too late to clarify quietly.
Once in Corfu, Maritati there is, is furious and sets in motion the diplomatic machinery: operates the local Italian consul, it mobilizes the ambassador ("Thank the efficiency of the Italian civil servants'), the case falls. But the bitter taste remains: "I do not understand a lot of dullness and this state of emergency by the Greeks against the Albanians. In 40 years I have never seen such a thing. And we were also forced to return from Corfu on our island in the dark, among many risks. " Odyssey. It could have been much worse, after all. It could sprout from nothing intrigue
No comments:
Post a Comment