Photo: Dimitrios Koutoulas with the Greek FM, Dimitrios Avramopoulos in New York
PANEPIROTIC FEDERATION OF AMERICA, CONDEMS ALBANIAN EXPANSIONIST GOALS VOICED
PANEPIROTIC FEDERATION OF AMERICA, CONDEMS ALBANIAN EXPANSIONIST GOALS VOICED BY SALI BERISHA
The
Penepirotic Federation of USA, strongly condemns the recent expansionist goals
expressed by Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, which reveal for all
the world to see the deeply held ambition of Albanian leaders to usurp
territory of their neighbors and create the “greater Albania” Berisha
described. “If these irredentist views are not roundly condemned by the
United States and the European Union, sooner or later Albanian
nationalists like Berisha will try to pursue their expansionist
ambitions and ignite renewed violence and instability in the Balkans,”
warned the president of the Federation, Dimitrios Koutoulas.
Support
from the West that allowed Albanian nationalists to seize the Serbian
territory of Kossovo and create a second Albanian state in the Balkans
has fueled Albanian dreams to spread west and south into FYROM and
Greece and forge the greater Albania they yearn for, Mr. Koutoulas said.
He
noted that Albania did not exist as a nation until 1913 when it was
patched together by the Great Powers with territory from other nations
including the region of Northern Epiros, which has had a Greek identity
and population since ancient times. “If anyone has legitimate
territorial claims in the Balkans, it is Albania’s neighbors, not
Albania,” Mr. Koutoulas said.
He expressed the fear that the revived
nationalism reflected in Berisha’s statement will lead to renewed
hostility and abuse of ethnic Greeks in the country and noted that it
was Berisha as president who launched a pogrom against the country’s
Greek minority in the 1990s. “The Panepirotic Federation alerted the
world then to Berisha’s effort at ethnic cleansing and forced him to end
it,” he said. “And we will remain alert to any renewed effort to
persecute ethnic Greeks in Albania.” He called on the Greece to be
vigilant against the new aggressive policies of Albania, and he urged
the American and European governments to take immediate steps to
restrain Berisha from taking any action to fulfill his fevered dreams.
http://www.hellenicnews.com/index.php/omogenia-a-national-issues/item/390-panepirotic-federation-condems-albanian-expansionist-goals-voiced
http://www.hellenicnews.com/index.php/omogenia-a-national-issues/item/390-panepirotic-federation-condems-albanian-expansionist-goals-voiced
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