“Wikileaks”, Athen’s threats

The news comes from a US diplomatic report, published by Wikileaks.

The “Shqip” newspaper publishes that the cable also tells that Albanian negotiators in the dialogues for maritime borders with Greece were completely aware of the problems, but they had no chances to oppose or negotiate, since Athens was using the ratification of the Stabilization and Associaation Agreement as a gun pointed on the Albanian delegation’s head.

The cable of October 2008, classified as confidential, is titled “Greece pressuring Albania on border, cemetery issues”.

The first part of the cable refers to the information supplied by Ledia Hysi, an official of legal matters and agreements in the Foreign Ministry.

“During one of the recent negotiating sessions in Tirana, the Greek official heading the delegation gave his Albanian counterpart an ultimatum.  The Greek Government would be willing to compromise on the maritime border near Corfu (reportedly due to existing American military interests to build a U.S. military installation in Jale, Southern Albania).  However, the Greek official warned the Albanian delegation to comply with their other requests and to keep “distant powers,” namely the U.S, out of the negotiations. An identical phrase was also used in a meeting in Tirana by the Greek Ambassador during a meeting with Foreign Minister Basha”, says the cable.

But in the wake of Greek success in blocking Macedonia’s NATO aspirations, the Albanians aren’t convinced either that the Greeks are merely bluffing. Greece left the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement for the last moment, only after all other EU countries had ratified it. They got their agreement as they had demanded, but this agreement did not enter in act, because some Albanian media and a military figure denounced it and made the Constitutional Court to reject it.

Border Manipulation

“According to Ledi Hysi, director of the Legal and Agreement Matters in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Albanian and Greek governments have negotiated for several months for changing their maritime borders. The talks had many problems, due to what Hysi described as “double standards” used by Greece, which aimed to use different methods for different parts of the coastline, while Albania uses only one standard and methodology assigned by existing international convents.

In other words, the Albanians accuse the Greeks of using different methods in their own interest, for getting the best parts of the border”, the cable says.

Top Channel