Former Greek MP: Edi Rama studied at Harvard with a Greek scholarship thanks to me

2026-01-25 22:30:57Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Former Greek MP: Edi Rama studied at Harvard with a Greek scholarship thanks to
Edi Rama

Former MP Niki Tzavella has claimed that Prime Minister Edi Rama received a scholarship from a Greek foundation to study at Harvard.

Greek media writes that according to the former MP, the Albanian prime minister studied at Harvard University with a scholarship from a Greek foundation, where Tzavella herself was vice president.

Niki Tzavella, responsible for selecting Southeast European scholars at Harvard, revealed in a post on X that she was the one who selected the prime minister, then mayor of Tirana, to study on a scholarship from a Greek foundation.

However, her post was “corrected” by Petros Kokkalis, who wrote to her on X. “You don’t remember correctly, Edi Rama never applied for the Kokkalis Program. However, he honored us, like many leaders of Southeast Europe, with his participation as Mayor in the speeches we organized at Harvard.”

I will not contradict you, was Ms. Tzavella's response.

According to Tzavella, the main criterion for receiving this scholarship was to have a minority background. Greek media writes that the Albanian prime minister fulfilled the requirement, as his mother is Greek. 

“30 years ago he was not notorious. I chose him because of my very good knowledge of Albania, because of my previous work there. He was half a minority, he had the required qualifications (mayor, which other minority people did not have. It was mandatory that he be institutional) and of course he was capable. The other Albanian we studied with became Minister of Finance, I had baptized his child, he died young. It made no sense. After all, in Southeastern Europe at that time there were very few people who met the requirements for a Harvard education. You will be surprised to see which politicians in Southeastern Europe came from this Foundation. Maybe I have offered more to Albania. My BIGGEST mistake was that I chose him to study at Harvard, the first time, with a scholarship from the Hellenic Foundation. THAT is why he hates Greece. Because from a half-wild Mayor of Tirana, he studied at "America," she writes.

This post comes in the wake of Prime Minister Rama's attack on Greek-American journalist John Defterios during the Sustainable Development Summit in Abu Dhabi.


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