Athens threatens Albania’s EU path again over elections arrest

A new diplomatic row erupted between Greece and Albania amid Albanian local elections leading to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis threatening to disrupt Albania’s EU accession process.

Albanians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in 61 municipalities for mayors and local councillors. But in the municipality of Himare in the south of the country and home to a Greek minority community, trouble started on Friday.

Fredi Beleri, a Greek expatriate running for mayor under the banner of a Greek minority party aligned with an opposition coalition, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of vote buying. The police said he was to be charged with active corruption in elections, something Beleri denies.

In an interview with Greek media, Mitsotakis said on Sunday that the behaviour of the Albanian authorities was at the expense of EU unity and said that if it continues, it will not only impact bilateral relations but Albania’s EU aspirations.

“I will not accept such behaviour at the expense of the Greeks. It is unacceptable and unimaginable what happened to Fredi Beleri,” he said.

The Greek premier added, “Albania should know very well that if such a policy continues, it will affect our bilateral relations and its path towards the EU. I will not accept such attitudes at the expense of the Greek minority…He added that it will have significant effects on Greek-Albanian relations and its path to the EU, which we declared that we would support,” he added.

On the day of arrest, Mitsotakis said he had complained to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen which he said were based on “non-existent charges”.

Rama responded to the outrage with a tweet that the case is a “test for justice”.

“The detention of the opposition candidate for Himara F. Beleri by order of the prosecution constitutes a great test for justice on the eve of the elections, which means that a violation of the law on his part must be proven and his detention legally motivated,” Rama wrote.

The Greek ambassador to Albania, Konstantina Kamitsi and the Greek Minister of Civil Protection Takis Theodorikakos also raised the issue with authorities in Tirana.

Beleri’s lawyer, Edmond Dema said there is no evidence against his client.

“Fredi Beleri maintains his position and said he did not touch any money with his hand, did not give any money, did not receive any money.”

Vote buying remains a significant problem in Albanian elections with claims that all sides engage in some level of buying, and pressuring of voters. Arrests before and after elections are commonplace and hundreds of observers were on the ground throughout Sunday to keep an eye on proceedings.

In the 2021 general elections, an attempt to intervene in vote buying by a citizen resulted in a shootout and murder.

In terms of the Greek community in Albania, some 0.9% of the population identify as ethnic Greek although this is controversial in some political circles. While several communities in the south of the country speak Greek and some roadsigns appear in the Greek language, Albanian nationalists say they simply identify as Greek to get Greek (and de facto EU) passports and money from Athens, something the local communities vehemently deny.

A census, albeit delayed, is scheduled for autumn 2023.

The incident comes just months after Mitsotakis cancelled a trip to Himare the day before the EU-Western Balkan summit in Tirana after Rama told EURACTIV in an interview that Greece cheated on its EU accession process.

The comments soon went viral across Greece, and the Albanian prime minister addressed the issue during a bilateral meeting at the EU-Western Balkan Summit in Tirana.

“I’m sorry for something I heard, that I said some strange things about Greece, about how it achieved some things – we’ll go back to the time of Troy perhaps – but it’s not something that concerns the present, and it didn’t in any way concern today’s Greece.”

It also takes place in the context of a protracted disagreement on maritime borders that is set to be decided by an international tribunal.

In an interview with EURACTIV in December 2022, Berisha – considered closer to Athens – revealed that Ankara, a long-time foe of Athens, made a “really strong intervention” to block a maritime border agreement between Albania and Greece in 2009.

Greece has also threatened to withdraw support for Albania’s EU membership over the issue of Chameria.

Chams, inhabitants of Chameria, which Greece refers to as Epirus, were forcibly removed by Greece between 1913 and up until 27 June 1944. Albania reports that up to 30,000 Cham Albanians were forcibly removed from Greece, hundreds were massacred, and around 2400 died due to lack of food and other hardships on their way to Albania. The 27 June is declared the day of genocide against Cham Albanians by Greece.

In May 2022, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias suggested that Albania pursuing the Cham issue could result in problems with its EU accession hopes.

“Greece is ready to discuss only issues that it considers to exist…there is no such issue. Any attempt to create and discuss non-existent issues” could raise issues related to accession, he said

Despite media reports to the contrary, Beleri remains in police custody at the time of publication.

(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)