Greece’s foreign ministry on Monday sent a letter of complaint to the Albanian government over a provocative act that challenges Greek lands.
The reason for the foreign ministry was an irredentist act at the central square of Tirana, which was inaugurated during the pre-election period.
Specifically, Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj, who belongs to the Socialist Party of election winner and current Prime Minister Edi Rama, rebuilt a part of the capital’s main square to prepare it for a pre-election rally.
In the part of the square they placed a stone from every part of the Albanian lands, including the Greek town of Filiates naming it “a part of the enslaved Chameria.”
Albanian Chams believe that the particular land they call their own was forcibly taken from them by the Greeks of Epirus and deny them the rights of ethnic minorities. They also claim that Greece’s Thesprotia region is in fact Cham land and should be returned to Albania.
According to an earlier report in Epiruspost.gr, Deputy Mayor of Tirana Arbjan Mazniku said that the stone from Filiates is put in the square for symbolic reasons and that the square represents all Albanians.
“This is the square of all Albanians, wherever they are, and all Albanian groups are represented in this square. It is our square and we have judged that this is right. Of course there is a stone from Chameria, a stone from Filiates,” the deputy mayor said.
“We condemn the placement, in the renovated central square of Tirana, stones coming from various parts of the Balkans, including the Greek area of Filiates,” reads the Greek foreign ministry report.
The announcement says that the ministry has informed “friends, partners and international organizations” of the irredentist act, and does so after the election “respecting the electoral process in the neighboring country, and had not issued (earlier) any public announcements that could be misinterpreted and distorted as interference in the pre-election process.”
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