It looks like Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha is suffering from nationalistic fever and his condition is only straining relations with Greece. On Tuesday Berisha announced that he will be granting Albanian citizenship to all Albanians living in the Balkan region. The news might sound harmless enough, but it was not received well in Athens, since the press immediately said that this is just a first step in materializing Tirana's idea of a "Greater Albania". What has led most analysts to this conclusion? Well.. Berisha had commented on the idea of Albania on all Albanian lands - from Preveza to Presevo, from Skopje to Podgorica during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Albania's independence, on November 28 and Tuesday's statements can therefore be translated the same way.
Berisha himself hastened to say that the law might be "misunderstood" (by all concerned) but asked for the understanding from his country's neighbors and the international community. "We are a nation that only wants peace and stability" he added. He further described the law as a "platform of national union" and claimed that Albania was a victim throughout history, and the neighboring states rushed to occupy regions. (???) "Nobody can deny that the Albanians suffered the greatest injustices of the era and (our people) were divided from five countries. Those who had established their nations before us, fell (pray) on our nation with sinister designs" said Berisha.
(Editor - I don't know if it's just us... But he just said that we are occupying parts of his country and we did this with sinister designs!!!)
The only conclusion from Berisha's statements is that Albania is fixated on a change in Balkan borders. Let us not forget that last week Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos cancelled a trip to Tirana because of similar statements.
A couple of days after this diplomatic mess, Albania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Edmond Panariti said that his Greek counterpart's decision to cancel the trip was naive and illogical and noted that Albania has no territorial claims on Greece. In an interview with ABC News, Panariti appealed to his Greek counterpart not to fall prey to nationalist rhetoric.
Answering his statements, the spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs Grigoris Delavekouras said that indeed Panariti's statements are correct. "Territorial claims against Greece from Albania are outside logic and naive. The Albanian Foreign Minister is making recommendations to his Prime Minister, who instead listened to nationalistic sirens, and spoke of Albanian territories from Preveza to Presevo, even though he later refuted (the statements)" Delavekuras added.
But if the statements were so innocent, and all this is just another ploy from nationalistic news services in Greece, then why did it also anger the US State Department? So much so that on Tuesday the US sent a warning to the Albanian government, noting that it will not accept talk of a "changing of the borders in the Balkans".
The US representative to the State Department, said that any change of borders in the Balkans would be counterproductive and destabilizing. "The U.S. does not support the idea of changing the borders in the Balkans, while any attempt to achieve this will be unproductive and lead to destabilization, said the U.S. Department of State responding to the statements of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha about the Albania on all Albanian lands."
References:
- http://kohashqip.net/panariti-avramopulos-me-qendrime-naive-jologjike/
- http://www.defencenet.gr/defence/item/%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%BF%CF%8D-%CE%B7-%C2%
- http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n293757
- http://union-bulletin.com/news/2012/dec/01/albanian-independence-celebrated/
- http://www.tvkosmos.gr/details.aspx?id=895163#.UL5bnazMi7k