Northern Epirus

The secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Theocharis Lalakos, is expected to arrive in Albania on Wednesday, acting on the orders of Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, in order to meet with the new mayor of Himara, Dionysis-Fredi Beleri, and his aide Pantelis Kokavessis, who have both been jailed on remand in a Tirana prison, according to diplomatic sources.

Athens hosted an art exhibition a couple of months ago at its iconic Zappeion Hall venue where Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was able to express his creative side. Late last year, Kyriakos Mitsotakis paid an official visit to Himare, becoming the first Greek prime minister to visit one of the main ethnic Greek towns in Albania in 30 years.

Fred Beleri, the Greek minority candidate in the Himara region of southern Albania, has responded to news of his victory in the local elections held on Sunday. Despite his current detention by Albanian authorities on charges of vote-buying, Beleri expressed a commitment to equality and unity.

Fredi Beleri, the candidate representing the Greek minority, emerged victorious over his opponent Jorgo Goro, who had the backing of the Edi Rama government, in the race for the mayor of Himara in Albania's local elections.

The official results were announced Monday after an earlier interruption in the vote counting process.

The detention of a mayoral candidate belonging to the Greek minority in Albania has raised tensions between the two neighboring countries.

Greece's Foreign Ministry released a statement Saturday demanding the release of Dionysis-Fredi Beleri, a candidate for mayor of the Albanian city of Himare, which has a strong Greek minority presence.

A Greek expatriate mayoral candidate in the southern Albanian municipality of Himara, Fredi Beleri, was arrested at midnight on Thursday by the Albanian police outside his business premises on suspicion of paying people for their votes, causing strong condemnation from officials in Athens.

As MPs in Parliament overwhelmingly ratified a new law giving Greeks abroad the right to vote in national elections here back in December 2019, no one had imagined that the uptake would be as disheartening as it is today.

"My parents moved to Greece from a village in Northern Epirus (southern Albania) in the 1990s, with the dream of returning to their homeland and having fought to keep their Greek identity alive in Albania," says Anastasia Thano, who was born in Athens. "However, in 2009, just before the debt crisis broke out, they decided to emigrate again, hoping for a better future for their children.

Almost three years after Katsifas’ murder, the Albanian authorities are mocking his family & the Ethnic Greek Minority with an unsubstantiated conclusion

Work is continuing on a bypass road in the UNESCO-protected city of Gjirokastra in southern Albania despite a call in July from the UN body for its urgent suspension to assess the risk to the renowned "stone city".