Albania–Greece relations

One of the issues often raised by Albania, both at the bilateral and international levels, is the so-called “Cham issue.”

On the issue of Albania, Mitsotakis stated that Greece is "the guardian of Albania's European trajectory," adding that issues regarding the Greek national minority are not bilateral matters but are directly linked to Albania's accession to the EU.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is planning to hold a rally for Albanian immigrants living in Greece on November 3 at the Porto Palace Hotel in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.

Since midday last Monday, Greek-Albanian politician Fredi Beleri has been free to carry out his duties as a representative of Greece in the European Parliament. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, for his part, may believe that he "ended" Beleri politically.

Monday's decision by an Albanian court to grant the release of the ethnic Greek elected mayor of Himare and MEP for New Democracy Fredi Beleri after 16 months of detention essentially ended his personal adventure but does not lead to an automatic improvement in Greek-Albanian relations, which have been seriously damaged by the affair.

Professor Ioannis Armakolas, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the South-East Europe Program at ELIAMEP, joins Thanos Davelis to look into the progress that has been made in Greek-Albanian relations - with a focus on the people to people ties - amid lingering challenges facing the two countries.

Greece's Foreign Ministry condemned Albania's decision to declare invalid the mandate of ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri as mayor of the the southern Albanian region of Himare, calling it a "pre-ordained outcome" fraught with legal issues. 

An Albanian prison cell wouldn't rank high among choice spots to run a successful campaign for election to the European Parliament.

The Ethnic Greek Minority in Albania celebrates as the elected mayor of Himara came in 3rd place on the New Democracy party ballot