Rama: Greece's Great Instinct Law of War After 80 Years

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has given an interview for Greek public channel this Wednesday ERT News, where it spoke of the War Law, the Beler case and the Greek minority in Albania.

He said 80 years have passed since World War II ended, and Greece still has the law of war in effect today.

Rama called it archaism, while saying Albania's government is interested in permanently removing this law from the common road.

As for the Beler case, the prime minister said he should be equal to the law as any citizen of the Republic of Albania and that there cannot be two justices.

Total interview:

Mr. Prime Minister, according to the Kathimerini newspaper, you were offered yourself to interview this newspaper, and this is immediately after posting your large account on Facebook, a few days after that informal dinner Prime Minister Mitsotakis called with Balkan leaders and your absence there. Now you're in, and thank you for this TV interview on the channel. ERT nea. Looks like you want to say something to the Greek media.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Of course, because when there is a misunderstanding, it is important to communicate and, of course, it is important that both bells be heard, not just one. That's why I contacted the Greek journalist myself after seeing what he wrote was just the echo of a bell and he gave me the opportunity to hear and the echo of another bell.

- It's been 80 years since the end of World War II and some of the friendship treaties have been signed, more precisely, between the two countries. Greek Minority in Albania seems to be treated with a skeptical eye from the Albanian political system. And it's 2023!

Prime Minister Edi Rama: In my opinion, this is completely inconsistent in the evidence field. It's been 80 years since World War II has ended, and today Greece has the law of war, which is a huge archasanism and which we're very interested in seeing it once and for all stray from our common way. While I believe so much in friendship, in strategic partnership and in the shared interest of our Albania and Greece to strengthen this friendship as much as I believe in the simple fact that the Greek minority in Albania is a treasure of our culture of coexistence and an irreplaceable bridge to feed and strengthen the friendship between the two peoples, between the two states, and certainly between the two governments, regardless of who rules in Tirana and regardless of who rules in Athens.

Let's get to your last interview at Kathimerini. You used some epithets, some severe characterizations, I would say to Mr. Beler, for whom you yourself said you regretted that you said, except there are many who say, was deliberately used for political gain and addressed these slightly extreme rhetoric to a member of the Greek minority.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: The Lord is a citizen of the Republic of Albania, which should be equal before the law as any citizen of the Republic of Albania, but also must respond to the law as any citizen of the Republic of Albania and cannot have two justices, one justice for Albanian citizens of Albanian nationality and another for Albanian citizens of Greek nationality. There is only one justice and if that justice is not perfect, it is not perfect for all.

Yeah, but there's a little bit left on this fact because you're being addressed and some other members of the Greek community in Albania using the expression “use the Greek flag as a credit card”. Wouldn't a minority be offended?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I have said that there are people who blow these winds and are eager to throw gasoline into this fire, using the Greek flag as a credit card without any discussion, but I also said that these are not the ones who use the Albanian flag as credit cards. But while, when it comes to Albanians. They cannot complain about being minors who are being violated and stripped of their property. These other people do this and to be honest I have to say they do it successfully, as long as they manage to manipulate official Athens and manage to make it available to their not as noble official Athens goals.

Speaking again about the Beler case. Since the first moment that was arrested, you and your government refer to the independence of the judiciary, and this is interpreted as a wish for the length of Mr. Beler's detention so that he will miss the date to swear, that is to lose and post. It seems that you are determined to have this thorn in bilateral relations, even this, and at the risk of losing Athens' support towards the European road.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: First, since the moment the SPAK, our special prosecutor for the fight against corruption and organised crime goes into a formal process, always me, my government, the party I lead, so Albania's parliamentary majority does the same, exactly the same thing, as we have done in this case. We refer only to sovereign justice to do justice and do not intervene in any form and through any way, whether publicly or publicly, in its work. Because this is a historic moment for Albania. And today this justice is not in its first act with the gentleman that official Athens is concerned about, but this is one of the links of the chain created of these acts of hitting the problems it deals with people very close to power.

Today my former deputy is on the run. There are 4 or 5 Socialist Party mayors who are in custody, awaiting a court hearing for the same reason: The will of this justice to strike without seeing what color it is, who it is close to, or who it is hurting from a political or financial point of view.

- Under these conditions, Mr. Beler will apparently lose, cannot swear and lose his oath date. In the Kathimerini interview, let's see that there may not be new elections in Himara, so how will it go? Will it be Goro again? It's a little confusing, Mr. Prime Minister. How will Himara be governed tomorrow? First of all, if I'm not mistaken and I don't think I'm wrong, Mr. Goro belongs to the same group, right?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yeah, well, that's one more reason to pick up the shoulders because Mr. Goro, who has represented as mayor, the party that I lead, as well as two other mayors, who are in charge today and today enjoy the right to exercise office as representative of the Greek minority; one with the support of the SP, though not the SP's, the other of The SP, they show there is a clash between Albanians and Greeks. There's a perfectly reasonable, perfectly normal living life here. How many thousands of property titles have given minority families for houses built without permission, as have many other Albanian families, or property titles for cult objects. Today churches in the minority have property titles because from the time of communism until this government took office, they lived naked from this title of ownership.

Threats for further obstruction of Albania's full integration and its full membership in the EU, while the government has no legal opportunity to enter this process, to give permission to go ahead and swear in the office with swimmers as they say, is in complete contradictions, whether with Albania's sovereign right to exercise and implement its European legislation on the perimeter of the Republic of Albania, even with European co-existence being democratic countries, which belong to the same family and where one cannot make one country show how concrete it should work in a case of one or another's law.

While as I have said, we are studying the case, since when the 90-day term is completed, normally according to the law, the government must dismiss the elected chairman who has not submitted to take the oath and must appoint a caretaker until new elections. But this is a very specific case, and for this reason I have asked the legal department here in the prime minister to give the opinion of what we should do and will again implement what is right. I would be relieved if we could let the trial end and at the end of the process know from justice, not from Greece whether this man is guilty or is innocent.

And yet, the last question is that you know TV time is limited, yet Athens thinks that solving this issue is coming from Tirana, from your office, the ball is coming up. You've said you want a dialogue with Mr. Mitsotakis. What exactly would you say?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, I don't need any middlemen to have communication with Kyriaco because he's a friend and I appreciate him as a personally admirable man and as a modern leader and I don't have what message you deliver through the media because there's no need. We communicate and don't need middlemen, and much less media channels to tell each other what we think.

But one thing I mean at the end. Greece or Athens thinks the ball is in this office on this issue, implying that if the ball does not go in the direction Athens wants it, Athens will retaliate with Albania, hindering the EU membership process, this is non-European and this is very ancient to me. In Greece I see, our partner not only in the Balkans, but also our partner in the EU. So I very much hope that the establishment of Prime Minister Mitsotakis's bust in Dervican, what I have promised then, and I am not going to withdraw from that promise because there is a misunderstanding today, to be another reason to understand each other well, that in Tirana, in this office, Greece has a friend, a true friend, a sincere friend. I am the prime minister of Albania, I am not the prime minister of Greece, and I serve Albania's interests and I am at the head of a historic battle for justice in Albania to do equal justice for all.

-Very short; Will all this development have an impact on determining the maritime border at The Hague between the two states?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: We have very important strategic interests and strategic interests fully match the necessity of a friendly relationship and a strategic partnership with Greece. So for all problems, from the maritime border, to the removal of the war law from Greece, I continue to remain very committed, and also for friendship with the prime minister of Greece, I continue to be faithful and fully engaged. /A2 CNN/