Albania lobbies for Kosovo recognition

Source: Tanjug

KIEV, BELGRADE -- Albanian parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli invited on Saturday in Kiev Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) members to recognize Kosovo.

The action prompted the Serbian parliamentary delegation to lodge a firm protest.

Taking over the chairmanship at the BSEC General Assembly, the Albanian representative said Albania would continue to support Kosovo's independence, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

Head of Serbia's delegation to the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly Aleksandar Vlahović told Tanjug that Serbian representatives had reacted immediately, pointing out that only three out of the 12 BSEC member countries had recognized Kosovo's independence and that a majority of UN member countries also did not recognize it.

Vlahović called Topalli's invitation undiplomatic, saying it was completely unexpected because the protocol only called for a formal handover of the organization's chairmanship.

“The Serbian delegation's protest received support from other delegations,” Vlahović stressed.

The Albanian parliament speaker’s move came only one day after Albanian President Bamir Topi called on South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) member countries to recognize Kosovo's independence at a summit in Sveti Stefan.

Pressure from countries lobbying for Kosovo's independence was also evident during the recent meeting of the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of World Cultural Heritage in Paris, when, according to Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, a true diplomatic war was fought between countries which unsuccessfully tried to get Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo re-designated as Albanian and a Serbia-led group which opposed this.

NATO targets, to build bases in Himara Region

Ionian coast of Dhrales, Gjipe, Porto Palermo Jala asked to freeze all the investments

Ionian coast, that the Mafia has been targeting and dirty laundering money, for the massive construction, for a period of time will be supervised by specialists of the Military Alliance of NATO. Some resources reserved from Tirana, confirm the fact that naval units of NATO Alliance, will open up along the Ionian coast of Himara Region, for training center for fast military intervention and for this fact, beaches of Dhralea, Gjipea, Yala and Porto Palermo, will be the inviolable by the state and administrative authorities.

The news has spread throughout the region Himara and many residents have welcomed this decision, the fact that their properties, have been the target of the Albanian Mafia, Russian and Italian.

According to sources, the Albanian government, was also booked with this decision, as many investors networks connected to senior politicians, are willing to invest in properties, which belong to legitimate owners of Himara.

Sixth Fleet of the United States, has taken control of part of the Karaburun Peninsula, to train Marines, while the coastal of Himara, the Marine exercises will be added to camping facilities.

Two weeks ago, the Bay of Vlora, the joint naval forces of NATO, held military exercises.

Kosovo FM: Partition would "Open Gates of Hell"

Kosovo's Foreign Minister has warned that partition along ethnic lines could unleash a new wave of violence across the Balkans.

Novinite (Sofia News Agency)

Enver Hoxhaj fears that, if enacted, proposals recently put forward by Belgrade officials to redraw Kosovo borders would have a domino effect across the regions.

Hoxhaj, who met with his Bulgarian counterpart Nikolay Mladenov this week, made the comments in an inteview with for Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency), published on Friday.

The warning came following Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic's suggestion last month that Kosovo should be split up between the government in Pristina and Belgrade along ethnic lines, with the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo going to Serbia.

Kosovo's top diplomat, who was appointed in charge of the young country's Foreign Ministry in February 2011, stressed that one of the main reasons for the start of the technical dialogue between the Belgrade and Pristina, which was initiated based on a UN resolution from September 2010, is "to have normal relations between Kosovo and Serbia, to put the past behind, and to start building trust".

He said the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue is focused very much on issues such as freedom of movement of people, freedom of trade, issues of telecommunication and energy, and other issues linked with the past.

"We think that Serbia should start coming to terms with an independent Kosovo, and I think it is the job of the politicians in Serbia to start modernising its economy, society, and politics, and to start overcoming the agenda of conflict. The sooner this happens, the better, it will be for the benefit of the people living in Serbia," Hoxhaj told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

He stated that "the Kosovo Serb minority has been integrated in the best way", largely thanks to the implementation of the plan of special UN envoy Marti Ahtisaari that Kosovo Foreign Minister described as "an international settlement for the Kosovo status in the best way possible".

Hoxhaj stressed that Kosovo has become the seventh independent state on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, saying that "Kosovo is actually the last chapter in the disintegration of Yugoslavia", after Montenegro received independence in 2006, and Kosovo in 2008.

"The issue of borders, states, and territories in the region is actually a closed chapter. We would never accept ideas of ethnic and territorial partitions because these ideas would create instability, they would produce violence, and the whole region would simply go back as it was 20 years ago.

"We are not at all in favour of creating monoethnic states in the region but we should have heterogeneous states and societies. In that sense, no one is supporting the idea of the partition," Hoxhaj declared.

He added that the majority of Kosovo Serbs actually live not in the northern part of Kosovo but across the country, and alleged that they are "very well integrated" by taking part in the political life, in the central government, and local authorities.

Hoxhaj further snubbed the prospects of the creation of a "Greater Albania", an idea that a recent poll found is favoured by the majority of the ethnic Albanians in Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

"I think there are always different ethnic minority groups living across Europe, and I think it is a really anti-European vision to promote the concept of monoethnic or ethnic states.

"I think this was something which 20 years ago created an environment of hatred and started ethnic conflicts, prepared the spirit of the ethnic wars, and I think the idea of creating new ethnic states in the Balkans is very dangerous," Kosovo's Foreign Minister said, emphasizing that the Kosovo state is organised around the principle of citizenship not around ethnicity.

"Whatever the government might think and propose in Belgrade about partition, we are saying no to that because these are very bad solutions, and they will actually open the gates of hell.

"Today, Kosovo's independence is a fact in the region, and I don't think that we would accept or recommend ideas that are actually coming from the time of Milosevic. For us, the ideas of exchanging territories and population belong to the past, and this is a closed issue," Hoxhaj concluded.

CIA Report: Military coup possible in Greece

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

BERLIN – Daily News with wires

The newspaper said the CIA report talks of a possible military coup if the situation becomes more serious and uncontrolled. Hürriyet photo

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned in a report that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation could escalate and even lead to a military coup, according to a report by Germany’s popular daily Bild.

According to he CIA report, ongoing street protests in crisis-hit Greece could turn into escalated violence and a rebellion and the Greek government could lose control, said Bild. The newspaper said the CIA report talks of a possible military coup if the situation becomes more serious and uncontrolled.

Greece is under immense pressure owing to public debt that has swollen to 340 billion euros. The EU, IMF and European Central Bank are pressing Greece to step up a privatization program and get all political parties to approve more austerity and reform measures that have sparked violent protests, but emergency talks called by the president on Friday failed to make any headway, AFP reported.

Opposition parties have mostly refused to support the government in its quest to cut spending by trimming an overblown civil service and the sweeping privatization drive announced this week has attracted even stronger protests.

Meanwhile, the Dutch finance minister said his country, Germany, Finland and other EU members won't give Greece any more bailout money, if the debt-laden country fails to adopt further austerity measures.

Jan Kees de Jager said Saturday that "it's vital that Greece will live up fully" to conditions set by the International Monetary Fund if it's to receive the next batch of a 110 billion euros ($155 billion) bailout loan deal it agreed to last year, the Associated Press reported.

Last year, as the financial crisis battered Greece, Bild went as far as to highlight a suggestion by a conservative politician that Athens sell off some of its many islands to help pay off its debts.

A bailout for Greece was put in place a year ago by the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, involving loans of 110 billion euros ($157 billion) over three years.

But there are now grave doubts whether Athens can meet its repayments and talk of a second bailout, or even a drastic debt restructuring, is rife.

New York Times: Albanian Riviera, a Frugal Paradise

“A Frugal Paradise, the Albanian Riviera”, this is the title of an interesting article published on the prestigious “New York Times” for the Albanian Riviera while the holiday season is starting.

“Monastiri?” I said in a hapless attempt at an Albanian accent in what I later discovered was a largely Greek-speaking region.

The material was written by Seth Kugel, who has personally visited the beautiful shores of our country, from Vlora to Saranda, an area known as the Albanian riviera.

First he talks about Ilias village where was faced with a stunning view. Across the street, the reporter looks the idyllic beach as he calls it, a small pebbly beach and somewhere he has heard of the "Monastery", as if seeking a building where monks or nuns stand.

But in fact he finds a gorgeous beach on the Ionian coast, in the deep-blue sea. Close to the beach, follows the article, there are seen many bunkers, placed there by the former dictator Enver Hoxha.

"No man is seen standing on this beach. Everything is mine"-writes the author referring to the environment. It is the Gjipesa Bay, a gorgeous bay, and as emerges from the water, the reporter sees two austrian tourists located near a cliff area while laughing.

---

If you want to read the original article, go to this link: "On the Albanian Riviera, a Frugal Paradise"

Greek parliament adopts austerity plan

Source: BBC, Tanjug

ATHENS -- The Greek parliament has adopted drastic austerity measures, which was a eurozone countries’ condition to help Greece which is facing bankruptcy.

Police clash with protesters in Athens (Tanjug)

155 MPs voted in favor of the proposal of Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government, 138 were against while two abstained from voting.

Protesters attacked the Finance Ministry headquarters in Athens during the parliamentary voting. Around 30 people smashed windows on the ministry headquarters at downtown Syntagma Square with bars and sticks.

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters who withdrew to surrounding streets.

Three demonstrators were injured in the latest incident.

According to news agencies, majority of MPs voted in favor of the implementation of the austerity plan aimed at saving EUR 28.4bn by 2015 and getting a new tranche of the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out package.

Ruling PASOK MP Alexandros Athanasiadis voted in favor of the austerity plan even though he had said earlier that he would vote against it.

For the past two hours police have been using tear gas against the protesters who have been throwing stones at them.

Greek MPs will tomorrow vote on the law on the implementation of the planned fiscal program.

46 persons were injured in yesterday’s clashes between police and protesters.

The general strike started at midnight on Tuesday and it has completely paralyzed the country since the majority of public services are on strike.

The new austerity plan will reduce social spending and increase the country’s unemployment rate.

According to AFP, there will be new power blackouts because unions are trying to block one of the most sensitive parts of Papandreou’s austerity plan which refers to distribution of shares in the country’s power company.

Flights will once again be grounded from 08:00 until noon and from 18:00 until 22:00. Banks are closed, hospitals are taking emergency cases only and journalists have also joined the strike. Tourists are stuck in long lines at one of the busiest border crossings in Greece – Evzoni border crossing with Macedonia.

The first day of mass protest was marked by clashes between the protesters and police that lasted ten hours. 46 people were injured, 37 police officers and nine protesters. At least 14 persons were arrested.

EU leaders: There is no 'Plan B' for Greece

BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA) -- The only way to avoid an immediate default is for Greece's Parliament to approve a revised economic programme, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said here on Tuesday.

In a written statement issued in Brussels, the Commissioner stressed that:

“This week Greece faces a critical juncture. Both the future of the country and financial stability in Europe are at stake. I fully respect the prerogatives and the sovereignty of the Greek Parliament in the ongoing debate. And I trust that the Greek political leaders are fully aware of the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to avoid default.

"The only way to avoid immediate default is for Parliament to endorse the revised economic programme. The programme includes both the medium-term fiscal strategy and the privatisation programme. They must be approved if the next tranche of financial assistance is to be released. (ANA-MPA)

"To those who speculate about other options, let me say this clearly: there is no Plan B to avoid default.

On their part, European Council President Herman van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also appealed to Greece's political leadership, MPs in particular, to vote for the medium-term fiscal strategy in Parliament.

Both underlined that "there is no other way" and that those, who misleadingly maintain that there is, should assume their responsibility for likely "grave consequences". (ANA-MPA)

Speaking before the European Parliament here, they stated that in case of a negative vote, the consequences will be heavy not only on the Greek and the European economy but on the global economy as well.

Barroso underlined that the Greek economy should regain its lost credibility, adding that the lack of it is apparent considering the mass transfers of Greek capital to banks abroad. He said that the process is painful, adding that there is no magic solution and pointed out that there is no other way than the materialization of the programme agreed between Greece, the EU and the IMF.

He stressed that for years, Greece had lived beyond its means and that today the EU is willing to help it correct the imbalances provided that Greece wants to be helped. He expressed the wish that the Greek MPs, whose opinion he will respect, will opt for the one and only correct path there is.

European Council President van Rompuy praised the Greek government's determination to implement the necessary measures despite the social tension, adding that he is fully aware of how difficult a task this can be from the time he served as the finance minister of Belgium. (ANA-MPA)

Israel Dismisses Talk of Recognizing Kosovo

Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman declared on Tuesday in Tirana that Israel will not recognize Kosovo’s independence until all EU states have done so.

Gjergj Erebara

Tirana

Avigdor Lieberman | Photo by Saema/Flickr

“We will recognize it only after Spain, Greece and Cyprus,” Lieberman said in the course of a two-day visit in Tirana, lobbing against a possible vote by Albania in favour of Palestinian statehood at the UN in September.

Lieberman is the first Israeli foreign minister to visit Albania in 17 years, and his visit is part of a diplomatic push by Israel, which is trying to get as many countries as it can to publicly oppose the Palestinian move.

Since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, the United States and 22 of the 27 EU member countries have recognised the former Serbian province. But Serbia, supported by Russia, has firmly rejected the move and some powerful countries, including China, have also not recognised it.

Five EU member states, Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece and Romania, are all firmly opposed to recognition, either out of sympathy with Serbia or because they have secessionist problems of their own.

Kosovo needs a two-thirds majority of the United Nation’s 192 member states in the General Assembly and approval from the Security Council to take its seat in the UN.

Albania maintains that Kosovo’s case is sui generis. It has not yet made it clear how it will vote at the forthcoming vote at the UN on Palestine.

Greek strike closes border crossing with Macedonia

Source: B92

SKOPJE -- A general strike called in Greece has resulted in the closing of the Gevgelija border for crossing with Macedonia for 48 hours, said reports.

Scenes from Athens (file)

Some flights from the main airport in Athens have also been canceled.

Greek unions have called the strike in a bid to prevent the country's parliament from adopting a package allowing for more austerity measures to be implemented.

Reports from Athens on Tuesday said that a protest that coincided with start of the strike turned violent, as police used tear gas against demonstrators.

But travelers from Serbia, mostly tourists, are concerned that they will not be able to reach their vacation destinations in Greece.

Our reporter in southern Macedonia said earlier today that there were traffic jams at Gevgelija, but that vehicles were being redirected to two other crossings.

The Interior Ministry in Skopje announced that buses and trucks will not be allowed through in the next two days, while passenger vehicles will be able to cross the border periodically.

For this reason, drivers were urged to travel to Greece via Bulgaria.

Although Greek customs workers announced a total blockade, the crossings of Dorjan and Medzetlija were still open this morning, said the Macedonian ministry.

Those headed to Greece from Serbia may wish consider alternative routes via Sofia and Blagoevgrad.

All Greece-bound flights scheduled for this morning from Belgrade went ahead as planned.

North of Kosovo "in the hands" of Belgrade

Institutions in Pristina, have failed to integrate the northern part of the country′s institutional life. Status-quo beyond the Ibar river still continues, while Belgrade through parallel structures continues to keep control of that part of the territory.

Government of Kosovo, has already failed on an ongoing basis to establish law and order in the three municipalities with a Serb majority, reported Zeri

Opposition political forces and analysts blame the Government of Kosovo for the situation in northern Kosovo, saying that the lack of political will has affected this region.

Basha Declared Winner of Contested Tirana Poll

NEWS27 JUN 2011 / 08:10

Albania’s Central Electoral Commission has for the second time in as many months declared the ruling party candidate the winner of the hotly contested race for the Tirana mayoralty.

Besar Likmeta Tirana

With four votes in favour and two against, the commission declared Lulzim Basha the winner of the May 8 race for the capital’s mayoralty with a 93 vote advantage out of a quarter-million.
“I want to thank all the citizens who made their voices heard and waited patiently for the process to end,” the former interior minister said after the result was announced.
“The electoral process soon will end and the work to govern the city will begin,” Basha added.
The Tirana poll was considered the key battleground of the May 8 local elections, pitting Basha against the opposition leader and incumbent Tirana mayor, Edi Rama.
Despite Basha’s impatience to start work as the city’s next mayor, the Socialists are again contesting the commission’s ruling and on Sunday they warned that they will ask the Electoral College to annul the poll.
“The Socialist Party and the united opposition believe that the victory for the May 8 poll goes to Edi Rama,” Socialist MP Blendi Klosi said.
“Convinced that [Prime Minister] Sali Berisha and [commision head Arben] Ristani ruined this poll in order to hide their loss in Tirana and across the country, we will seek the invalidation of this electoral massacre,” Klosi added.
Within five days, the Socialists are expected to lodge a compliant with the Electoral College, a specialized court for election disputes.
The new complaint before the court would be the fourth after the election commission on May 23 initially declared Basha the winner, following a controversial recount of stray ballots.
The recount gave Basha a lead of 81 votes out of a quarter-million over Rama, who had a razor-thin margin of ten ballots in the unofficial preliminary results, before the stray ballots were added.
The dispute over the stray ballots occurred because some voters who had multiple ballots to put into designated boxes failed to do so correctly, partly because the ballot boxes were not clearly distinguished by colour.
On June 13 the Electoral College ruling annulled the election commission’s May 23 decision, which declared Basha the winner in Tirana. At the same time, it rejected the opposition challenge against the miscast ballots, which were deemed as valid.
Following the ruling, the court ordered a re-evaluation of contested ballots in 368 ballot boxes, whose results were added to the final tally, giving Basha a lead of 93 votes.
Earlier the Electoral College had rejected two other Socialist complaints about the procedure used by the election commission to include the miscast ballots in the final tally.
However the Socialists have contested the latest recount as well, pointing to problems in several ballots boxes, where security codes were different from those registered by counting centers or where paper ballots were found outside the various envelopes inside the ballot box.
The May 8 local elections were considered as key for the country’s EU future, following a two-year political crisis which has stopped the reform process dead in its tracks.
However, after a peaceful and quiet election day, the row over the miscast ballots has heightened the political climate once again, adding to Brussels’ doubts over the country’s EU future.
This article was made possible through the support of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Source: Balkaninsight

Some Albanians consider changing nationality for profit

27/06/2011

Basic economics is spurring at least a couple thousand people to go Greek.

By Linda Karadaku for Southeast European Times in Tirana -- 27/06/11

Protesters hold a banner reading "Nationality can not be sold". [Enid Mero]

Greece may be drowning in debt and awash in protests stemming from unpopular austerity measures, but that has not deterred thousands of Albanians from trying to claim Greek heritage and formally change their nationality.

The impetus is the promise of benefits afforded those next door. Albanian daily Shekulli has reported that these include a pension of 400 euros per month.

"It is shameful that Albanian citizens are not proud of their nationality and because of financial motives ask to change their nationality. It is unacceptable to have this process finalised because of political-financial bargaining," High Council of Justice Vice-Chairman Kreshnik Spahiu said.

"I know a lot of cases of people who got Greek documents to benefit and these are more the kind of people who have found other ways to take the documents and not by following the roots of their predecessors," Greek Albanian Adela Jani, 28, told SETimes.

Jani is head of Enterprise Systems & Business Intelligence Section, in the Albanian Mobile Communications. Born of a Greek mother and an Albanian father, she has papers from Greece -- permanent permission to stay, live and work in the country -- but did not change her Albanian nationality to Greek. Neither did her father.

They are not alone. A movement is under way led by a group calling itself the Red and Black Alliance that is staunchly opposed to changing nationality.

It has also spearheaded a petition drive aimed at eliminating questions about ethnicity and religion from the national census, which will be conducted in October.

The Red and Black Alliance is conducting a petition drive aimed at thwarting nationality changes. [Albert Myftaraj]

The group says it collected 20,000 signatures from around the country, which it delivered to parliament on Wednesday (June 22nd). The petition seeks a referendum about holding a census containing such questions.

The courts are getting involved as well. In Korca, a handful of people are being prosecuted for allegedly changing their nationality from Albanian to Greek and then presenting the papers to the Greek consulate in order to be granted the status of "homogenous".

Spahiu was among the first -- back in February -- to sound the alarm about changes of nationality, saying such a phenomenon should be prevented.

Spahiu points out that most requests come from Albanians in Korca, Gjirokastra and Permet. He said these potentially significant changes of nationality violate the constitution and he blames a misinterpretation of a law passed in 2002, considered lenient in terms of changing nationality.

Weeks ago, he said there were 192 such cases in Korca, 1,600 in Gjirokastra and 469 in Permet. Spahiu vowed that every one of them would be reviewed during the next meeting of the High Council of Justice and pointed out that such changes in nationality could artificially inflate the size of minority communities ahead of the census.

It was the Greek consul in Korca, Theodhoro Ikonomus, who triggered a wave of controversy in February when he called on all people to declare their ethnicity.

"Yes, Greeks exist in Korca. Yes, Vlachs are Greeks. Greeks, don't be afraid of the census, proclaim your real origin," Ikonomus urged in speech later aired by Albanian media.

"If in doubt," he urged them "Go and check the names and the language on the graves of your predecessors."

The Vlachs priest in Korca immediately rejected the statement as irresponsible.

"The consul asked me to declare myself a Greek Vlach to give me visas. I felt persecuted. I told him I am an Albanian Vlach and he refused me visas," Father Dhimiter Veriga told Albanian TV News 24.

The Macedonian minority also reacted. Vasil Sterjovski, chairman of the Macedonian Association, dismissed the comment as "unacceptable and damaging for the communities living in Albania. We consider this an intervention in the internal issues of Albania," Sterjovski told local media.

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Korca, in southern Albania, has been at the centre of the storm. [Larry Luxner]

The Albanian Foreign Ministry summoned Greek Ambassador to Albania Nicolas Pazios, seeking clarification of Kamarinos's remark. "The Foreign Ministry made its position on these statements clear, calling them unacceptable. Such statements do not reflect the content of the Albanian-Greek relations and affect the spirit of friendship between the two countries," the ministry said in a press release afterwards.

"I don't want misunderstandings and I will be very clear on the position of Greece on this issue. I can tell you that we consider the ethnic Greek minority in Albania as a bridge of co-operation and friendship between the two countries and the two people," Gregory Delavekouras, spokesperson of the Greek Foreign Ministry told reporters in Athens.

He urged Tirana to fulfill its obligations towards minorities as a precondition of European integration. "This includes respect and protection of their rights all over the territory of Albania, not limiting it only in the minority areas," Delavekouras said.

Albanian veteran politician Sabri Godo told Albanian daily Telegraf that nationality can not be changed and "we have to protect that idea." "Those who have projected it will better understand that most citizens do not like that. And a law which most of the citizens do not like, should be changed as the citizens can not be changed," Godo said.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

Athens: Jill Biden arrives for Special Olympics

(ANA-MPA) -- The wife of US Vice-President Joe Biden, Jill, arrived in Greece on Friday at the head of a US presidential delegation to the 2011 Special Olympics Games, which will commence in Athens on Saturday.

Hours before attending the "Flame of Hope" lighting ceremony at the downtown Athens stadium that hosted the first Olympic Games in 1896, Biden boarded the USS Ramage, a destroyer anchored off the Faliro marina in southern coastal Athens.

"I am looking forward to watching the Games and cheering the athletes," Biden told the assembled crew of the guided missile destroyer.

She was accompanied by visiting US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

On his part, Mabus, a former Mississippi governor, praised the 279 officers and sailors of the US warship for their role in anti-ballistic missile defence operations in the eastern Mediterranean.

Approximately 7,000 athletes from more than 170 countries around the world, along with their families and thousands of coaches, volunteers and spectators, are expected to attend the Special Olympics Games, the biggest sporting event hosted in the east Mediterranean country since the Athens 2004 Summer Games.