The frequent meetings of the Greek and Albanian foreign Ministers might
have been fruitful, with Greece admiting for the first time that Greece
may offer a concrete solution.
“Greece believes that after the declaration of the Council of Ministers in 1987, we are no longer at war. The agreement of 1996 is also true. The integration of Albania in NATO and the EU -perspective also makes us partners. If the other party has still doubts that we are in a state of war, then it will be part of the discussions and we will find a solution. As for the Cham case, we know that there is a Cham population living in Albania and we hope they will benefit from integration. There are also some Chams who have become Muslim and who in fact are Greek citizens”, Kotzias said.
For the first time, the Greek Foreign Minister also spoke about the Cham case and for finding a solution, as part of the EU progress.
Athens also admitted for the first time that the association with the Nazi was made by a small part of the Cham community.
“It is known that we have a huge group of Chams who are Albanians and who live in Albania. I hope that this group will have benefits from the EU integration of Albania. There are some old Christian Chams turned Muslims in 1911, who today are Greek citizens. There are Chams who cooperated with the German invaders, and who established the inspection commissions that took away the wealth of the rest of the population that remained in the areas of Epirus, who were sentenced by the Greek Courts based on the Greek and International laws”, Kotzias declared.
For this small category of collaborators with the Nazi, according to Kotzia, the favor was done right after the war.
“Different from other people who would respond in Europe, they left the country and were not executed”, Kotzias said.
According to him, Athens cannot equalize them to their relatives who now live in Albania.
“I think that we should be careful when addressing to these members of the Cham population, because they don’t represent the Albanian citizens and certainly not Albania. I say this because they try to equalize a group of Albanians who have always lived in Albania, and never in Greece, with all Albanians”, the Greek Foreign Minister added.
So, the Cham problem remains. The difference is that now it is also existent for the Greek side, but based on their view of the situation.
“From this point of view, we have no problem with how the neighboring country sees it. We have different approaches and all recognized by historic point of views”, Kotzias concluded.
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