Karatzaferis`s accuse addressed to George Papandreou

During the parliamentary session on January 23, the President of LAOS Party George Karatzaferis, accused the leader of PASOK Georges Papandreou as responsible of blocking the Northern Epirus issue.

"As also listened to Mr. Papandreou mentioned, and actually moved, because the makes rare occasions, the grandfather of the George Papandreou. You know, I greatly appreciate the history and work of George Papandreou. It should not think George Papandreou today. To appreciate him for his work of this I believe the name. Rigth we want long way to appreciate for his work. But there is a difference. I know the grandfather George Papandreou agree at least 90-95%. I am not sure that the PASOK today agrees. First, the first had some specific positions with partners Left. I do not know whether to apply today you. Second was for specific positions Northern Epirus you do not have never" Karatzaferis said.

PASOK and ND where tow politic parties group that voted the SAA agreement with Albania.

Albania to allow headscarf ID photos

Authorities in Albania have decided to allow Muslim women to wear headscarves while being photographed for ID cards. Albania began issuing new identity cards this month, but Muslim community leaders to complained that the government's passport agency was not allowing headscarf photos.

Interior Ministry spokesman Fatmir Konja said Friday that such photos will be accepted as long at the headscarves do not obscure a person's facial features. Albania is mostly Muslim with large Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic minorities. Practicing religion was banned until Communism fell in 1990.

Albania has begun issuing new IDs and biometric passports and hopes to adopt international standards for identity documents.

THINKING DEFENSE, THINKING SECURITY

By Special Correspondent
Copyright: http://www.rieas.gr/

In times of dire economic straits, thinking and talking defense and security is an unpopular subject given the economic outlays and the implied sense of risk involved. Greece is in such straits and voters are in foul mood. Hit by the world economic slump, and paying the price of years of mismanagement and corruption, Greece is on the receiving end of a huge double whammy: the cash box is empty, save the last usurious-interest foreign loan, and prospects of a genuine rebound, in the middle of an unprecedented global crunch, are extremely slim.

Nevertheless, Greece needs to, and must, think defense and security urgently. Here’s why.
On the outside:

Turkey grows more menacing by the day. Turkish warplanes fly as if Aegean skies are theirs to enjoy and keep. Turkish sea-air exercises bracket Greek islands, large and small, and simulate various pre-invasion tactics. Turkish warships make “honest” navigation “mistakes” and appear near the shores of Athens --unmolested. Turkish ground forces along the eastern frontier remain at battle strength.

The rest of the Balkans is in slow boil. Kosovar Albanians, emboldened by Kosovo’s “independence” by Caesarian section courtesy of the US, haven’t given up the dream of a “greater Albania.” FYR Macedonia, for all of Skopje’s macho-man antics in connection to the lingering name dispute with Athens, has little to celebrate over its “multicultural” synthesis comprising a strong Albanian minority permanently unhappy with the posture of the Slav majority. A splendid, little war is not entirely impossible right at Greece’s northern doorstep as it nearly happened in 2001, when irregular “Macedonian” Albanians nearly tore the Slav-dominated Skopje government to pieces.

more see: http://rieas.gr/images/RIEASEDIT.pdf

Albania’s New Identity Documents to Ease EU Visa Regime

21 January 2009 | The Albanian government has started issuing new and improved identity cards and passports, seen as a key requirement for the liberalization of the visa regime with the EU and the implementation of European election standards.

The new biometric passports, which will cost 60 euro each, were hailed by Prime Minister Sali Berisha as “first-class documents” that would enable Albanians to “travel more freely abroad,” the Southeast European Times reported recently.

Issuing reliable, high-security personal identification documents and stepping up of the fight against organized crime are the two main conditions Albania has to fulfill before the EU could ease its visa requirements for the country’s citizens, as BalkanTravellers.com reported last October. see more..http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/984

The resignation of Vice/Chairman of UHRP Thomas Mitsos going to establish a new party

Following the elections in 28 June, Mr Mitsos proposed change of statutes UHRP and converted into the National Ethnic Party that is only the Greek National minority. Mr Mitsos aims at a party acting in Gjirokaster, Saranda, Delvina and Himara and the creation of an Annex resident in Greece where are more 70% of northern epiriotean.

The imediate was responded the secretary general of the UHRP Leonard Solis, who urged to M. Mitsou to establish his own small party. Mr. Solis sais that; ''throughout the KEAD is panalbanian party and the conversion of the party in the Greek national minority is a wrong idea against the albanian costotution. We are here to solve the problems and not to create artificial tension ...''

The Greek minority in Albania and its rights: Theory and practice

by Fanis Malkidis*

On 15 January ratified by the Parliament (with the votes of party New Democracy and PASOK), the Stabilization and Association Agreement Albania-EU. The issue of integration of Albania in the EU, which is directly linked to the respect and the existence of the Greek minority in Albania, which for years despite contrary comments prosecuted, launched in 2003.

The meeting of the Ministerial Troika of the EU in Albania (Tirana, 13.1.2003), confirmed the EU commitment to the European perspective of Albania calling on both to take the responsibility to fulfill all the conditions of conditionality of the Stabilization and Association Process, which includes the full respect and protection of the rights of the Greek national minority. This confirmed the «Agenda for the Western Balkans: moving towards European Integration» which was adopted during the EU Summit in Thessaloniki (19-20.6.2003).

In June 2006, Albania, with the consent of Greece had signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU agreement which includes issues of minorities, the elimination of discrimination against them. To join an EU candidate country must meet all the requirements set, namely Albania minority state with serious problems obliged to adapt its legislation and administrative or other practices of the acquis communautaire, ensuring the identity of these groups. ¨ We believe that this has not happened so far. Since 2003 the EU has urged Albania to take responsibility to fulfill all terms of the agreement between conditionality which include full respect and protection of the rights of the ethnic Greek minority, stressing that progress in the negotiations and the approach of Albania the EU will depend solely on its ability to meet its commitments.

Greece was brought to the Agreement between Albania and the EU parliament for ratification. There, from government side stated that the agreement marks the start of the accession process in Albania, thus the neighboring country is committed to radical cuts in the economy, justice, law and human rights. It also reported that «as a Greek state, standing next to minority practice, the concern is ongoing. Distributed free text books for the Greek language. The property, firmly and consistently highlight the minority side and we are in direct contact with representatives of the minority to a fair resolution of cases involving their properties ».

On the side of PASOK, by the rapporteur said that «the agreement with the Albanian put over their heads a council that will monitor the protection of minorities, we deny it;». The fact is that despite the theoretical approaches and the occasional free content, substance and effect positions in Greece and Albania, protection and enforcement of the Greek minority in Albania does not exist. The minority continues to be prosecuted, while on the other hand is quite a lot from the Albanian side, even with non-akompso and diplomatic way, the issue of Tsamis and Albanian immigrants in Greece. Major problems such as education of members of the Greek minority, religious freedom, return to the beneficiaries of private, community and church property, the non-implementation by the Albanian side of the commitments on human and minority rights, terrorism, and still worse .

In the nationalist climate in Albania is developing a series of actions by the Albanian government turned against the Greek minority to definitive removal of the Greek population. Today, apart from theory, the main objective should be the respect and full enjoyment of rights of the Greek minority. If this happens, we can proceed further cooperation and bilateral relations, otherwise should the policy of Greece towards Albania to be reviewed and epanacharachthei, with the interests of the Greek minority and not others.

*: http://www.malkidis.info/en/

Posters call for dismissal of ethnic Greek mayor in southern Albania

Posters calling for dismissal of ethnic Greek Vasil Bollano, mayor of the southern town of Himara, appeared in Tepeleni town. The posters urged residents to oppose Bollano's attempts to "detach" the Himara region from Albania.

Bollano has urged Greece not to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and Albania unless Tirana grants full property rights to the ethnic Greek minority living in the Himara region. Many Albanians perceive it as a first step towards seeking autonomy for the region.

The Tribunal of Tepelena is going to denied tow Albanian boys as organisators of illegitimate national meeting in Tepelena last month against the president of Omonia Bollano and Prefect of Gjirokaster Ksera.

Getting Chummy Over Chameria (Northern Epirus - Southern Albania)

by Dean Kalimniou
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
January 16, 2009

"It does not seem to be a good year for Greece. Greece seems to be losing ground on the Macedonian issue, it seems to have lost any sort of edge it ever may have had over Turkey and sits idly by as the Ecumenical Patriarchate is threatened by the Grey Wolves, with the tacit approval of the powers that be. Now Albania is repeating its irredentist claims and insulting the highest officer of Greece".

When the Greek Consul-General was asked why he has never deigned to respond to the invitation of the Panepirotic Federation of Australia's invitation to him to attend the annual doxology celebrating the liberation of Ioannina and the declaration of the autonomy of Northern Epirus in 1914, he smugly retorted: "Well, what do you want me to do? Invade Albania and kill all the Albanians so that you can all go and live there?" On another occasioned, he warned darkly: "Stop referring to Northern Epirus and then we will talk."Indeed, right up until the end of the Cold War.

Greeks who dared to voice concern over human rights abuses against Greeks in Albania were generally referred to as hyper-nationalistic, ultra-right wing radicals by certain sections of the Greek community and the press. Even after the fall of Communism, when it was apparent to all that the 'paradise' that Hoxha's Stalinist regime was supposed to be, was nothing more than hell on earth, those persons who had built their reputation and pride upon the maintenance of their particular ideology, found it hard to sympathise with the hapless Northern Epirots who have been persecuted for well on a hundred years now.

In scenes reminiscent of 1923, when Asia Minor refugees fled genocide to re-settle in Greece and were called Turks, the Northern Epirots who fled poverty and persecution to settled in Greece after 1992, were called Albanians and treated as objects of derision. Further, despite the fact that the various Epirot organizations that exist throughout the world have consistently striven to showcase human rights abuses in Albania, their task is Herculean. For they do not have to convince world opinion alone.

Firstly, they have to convince a doubting or contemptuous Greek world that is totally ignorant of what lies beyond its front fence and which, in its smug bourgeois comfort, still persists in labeling people who are only interested in the human rights of the Greek minority in Albania as fascists, that a sizeable minority just to the north of them is being harried out of its ancestral home and that further, its persecutors are making demands on Greek territory.

more see analyse: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/88045

EX FM THEODOROS PANGALOS ON THE CENTER OF THE GREEK NATIONALISTS STORM

According to weekly newspaper "Elefteros Kosmos" Pangalos during the debate in occasion to be voted the agreement of SAA with Albania by the Greek parliament, other all sad that: "Northern Epiriotes, those that do not stay in this country (Greece), are not considered part of the Greek nation. Others who live here, must be respect according to Greek constitution and laws".

The declarate has inspired the Greek nationalist organisation, which urge the former FM of Greece Theodoros Pangalos to ask for pardon for Norther Epirus people that have suffered systematically by the Albanian state.

Similar accuses addressed to Pangalos are made by the president of LAOS Party Georges Karatzaferis and other member of the Greek parliament during the seance debate.

see more: http://elkosmos.gr/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1861&Itemid=1

Macedonia Protests Over Greek Minister Comments

Skopje has officially protested at the European Commission in Brussels over comments by the Greek Culture Minister that Macedonia will soon dissolve and be carved up between a 'Greater Albania' and a 'Greater Bulgaria'.

Macedonia’s mission in Brussels condemned the statements by Antonis Samaras as “counterproductive” for bilateral relations, and expressed concern that no one in Athens had denounced them yet, local A1 TV said.

Skopje and Athens have been locked in a dispute over Macedonia’s name for 18 years. In April last year Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO invitation arguing that use of the name implies territorial claims over its own northern province that is also called Macedonia.

more see: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/15990/

Albania Club Med construction starts after protest

By Benet Koleka
TIRANA (Reuters) - Construction work has begun on Albania's first Club Med seaside resort village, but only after police cleared away a roadblock set up by protesting villagers and made several arrests, officials said on Thursday.

Four years after the government gave the go-ahead, television pictures showed building equipment and heavy machines digging near the beach on the bay of Kakome, facing Greece's holiday island of Corfu.

Angry villagers say the developers have not obtained the correct building permit and the authorities had no right to let work begin before the appeals court has ruled on who owns the land -- the government or 129 local families.
more see: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE50E68U20090115

THE PROTEST OF NORTHERN EPIROTEAN ASSOCIATIONS IN GREECE AT FRONT OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT

more see video: http://www.zougla.gr/news.php?id=20011

Greece ratifies the SAA between Albania and EU

Albanian Foreign Ministry,

Press Release

The Greek Parliament considered and voted the law passed by the Greek government for the Agreement of the Stabilization and Association between the European Communities and member states, on one side, and the Republic of Albania, on the other side. The ratification of this agreement is a real testimony of the fully support of Greece, as a neighboring country, as well as that of the other friendly community countries give to the reforms undertaken at home, as a strong encouragement for their deepening in the future.

We express our belief that the spirit of cooperation, in framework of the common European family, will contribute to the further intensification of the Albanian- Greek relations, towards the strengthening of the friendship between our two peoples, to the benefit of peace, security and prosperity in the region.

With the ratification of the SAA by the Helen state, conclude all the procedures of ratification by the member countries, by paving the way now to entering into force of the SAA. Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes this opportunity to express its gratitude to all the member countries for the ratification of SAA and expresses its belief that these countries will provide their support to the sooner integration of Albania into European family.

GREEK PARLIAMENT RATIFED THE AGREEMENT FOR STABILISATION ASSOCIATION PROCESS OF ALBANIA TO EU

Photo: Protesters out of the Greek parliament

Under strong debate, mostly by the LAOS Party, the Greek parliament, approved the EU-Albania Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA).

Meanwhile, out of the Greek Parliament, the Northern Epirotean Associations in Greece, where protesting for the violation of the human rights in Albania by the government.

Greece was the last country that had not ratified the SAA with Albania by 26 states of EU.

Albania to hold parliamentary elections June 28

Albanian President Bamir Topi announced Wednesday that the country would hold parliamentary elections in late June. The elections will be held on June 28.

The Albanian parliament has 140 seats and a four-year term. The last parliamentary elections held in July 2005 were marred by irregularities and violence.

Former president Sali Berisha's Democratic Party won the majority in the elections but had to form a coalition government with other parties.

Greece:Dangerous lack of security

Kathimerini

Greece is in great need of a professional and well-organized police force that will dismantle the new terrorist groups, that will free Athens from the fear of anti-establishment youths and which will effectively tackle the new and extremely dangerous forms of crime.

Public safety has become a top priority for this country. The kidnapping of Greek shipping magnate Pericles Panagopoulos at gunpoint in an Athens suburb yesterday morning underscores the alarming lack of security. After all, the incident is only the latest in a long series of deeply disconcerting events.

Most certainly, the state has an obligation to protect its citizens against these three threats.
But there is no doubt that the state must also take great care to enforce the law without violating individual rights and freedoms.

The police must avoid going to extremes. In addition, critics must stop their groundless charges of a “police state.” This country is mature enough to have a strong democracy and at the same time a strong state.

Media Watchdogs Pan Albania Government

Reporters Without Borders has criticized Albania's government over allegations that is trying to close down a Tirana daily newspaper because of its critical coverage of corruption and scandals.

The daily Tema newspaper has focused on investigative reporting, many of its stories attacking officials for alleged graft and corruption. Last Friday, police evicted it from its offices in a government building, despite a court order blocking the eviction.

more see: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/15956/

TOP SECRET

THE AGREEMENT VENIZELOS- HRUSHOV FOR NORTHERN EPIRUS AUTONOMY IN JUNE 1960

TIME AGO, DURING AN INTERVIEW FOR THE ALBANIAN PRESS, THE LAST REGIME PRESIDENT RAMIZ ALIA, DECLARED ABOUT A SECRET PLAIN OF HRUSHOV, AGAINST THE NATIONAL INTEREST OF ALBANIA, TO GIVE AUTONOMY OF NORTHERN EPIRUS THE GREEKS OF ALBANIA.

http://www.proboli.tk/

NGO, ACCUSES ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT FOR GENOCIDE

The Berisha Plan to Seize Greek Minority Properties,
Ethnic Cleansing under the Cover of Development,
and Albania’s European Course.

Albania’s Berisha Government appears to be demonstrating in word and deed that it is not ready to join the European Union family of nations as it violates not only foundational property and minority rights, but also basic legal principles.

Early Friday morning 9 January, about 200 riot units of the Albanian police raided Kakomaia (Alb. Kakome, in the province of Cheimarra [Alb. Himare] on the Ionian Sea) with a view to assisting Riviera Sh.P.K., a private company, forcibly to seize the land properties claimed by local residents, who happen to be ethnic Greeks.

The land in question totals about 70 hectares, the ownership titles of which belonged for centuries and until 1945 to residents of the nearby village of Nivitsa, and were expropriated by the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha. After the collapse of the Hoxha regime in 1990 the successor Albanian government did not return the land to its rightful owners, as it did in most other parts of the country.

more see: http://www.himaraunion.com/

Albania Issues New IDs, Biometric Passports

UK passport in the burgundy EU colourAlbanians rushed to apply for new identity cards and biometric passports, a key requirement for future visa-free travel to the EU.

The new documents are seen as crucial to avert election fraud in the upcoming parliamentary election in June. They have also been one of the conditions of the European Union before it will include Albanian in its 'White Schengen List' that allows visa-free travel to and within the bloc.

“Albanian citizens are getting now first-class documents, allowing them to travel more freely abroad,” Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Monday, when officially oping the application process.