OPEN LETTER/ Come to the dialogue and listen to me speak, otherwise I will cut off your scholarships, you will rot in prison. Please!

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"Obey the law" Rama reacts with an open letter on the Beleri case

2023-08-15 10:26:22Politikë SHKRUAR NGA EDI RAMA
"Obey the law" Rama reacts with an open letter on the Beleri case
Edi Rama

By Edi Rama

Νόμῳ πείθου???????????????????Obey the law*

It has been several months since certain politicians and media in Greece have been asking Albania to release the elected mayor of Himara from prison. A few weeks ago, Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the European Commission and a good friend of Albania, published a letter addressed to Commissioner Oliver Varheley. In a diplomatically warning tone for hindering the progress of Albania's negotiations with the European Union, he asked his colleague to intervene with the Albanian authorities, because otherwise he, i.e. Mr. Schinas, sees "an immediate risk that this issue will negatively affect the relationship between progress of 2023 for Albania and its commitment to promoting the legal order".

In these terms and with the same conviction as in the aforementioned letter, also on "the connection of this issue with the general respect for fundamental rights or the pending issue of the properties of the Greek minority in the area of ​​the municipality in question, as well as with the accusations for violation of their borders by the state", as written in the letter of Mr. Schinas, a protest organized by Greek politicians took place in the center of Himara yesterday! 

(What is the truth, this conviction of the Greek friends is not based on even a single concrete fact, which could prove that in Albania there really is a specific problem of rights or property for the Greek minority, which differs from the overall inherited problem of Albania with the properties of all Albanian citizens, which we have treated and will continue to treat with respect, with patience and with the language of facts with official Athens). 

In my memory, there is no other case, when the elected officials of a democratic state organize a protest in another democratic state, against the authorities of this state. Not only that, but where they appear as protesters against the decisions of the respective courts of the state in which they are protesting, absolutizing the ethnic affiliation of the subject of the protest over any legal norm, legal standard and democratic logic. This is one of those typical situations, when the expression "I'm speechless!" it's the first thing that comes to mind and you'd like to stop there. But this is also one of those typical situations, when in the Balkans the expression "The quilt burns for a flea!" comes to life. that's why we must speak and do our best, so that this is never the case.

"Free Beler and point!"

But who and how can today release from prison an Albanian citizen of Greek nationality, who, as a candidate for mayor, is accused by the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime, of having committed the crime of buying votes - for which the Code Albania's criminal law is clear and drastic - while according to the unchanged decision in the three stages of the trial, he cannot be detained until the end of the judicial process against him?!

Does the Greek nationality give the Albanian citizen accused by SPAK and kept in custody by the country's courts, a different status from 48 other Albanian citizens with Albanian nationality, including some mayors of my party, who today are detained under the charges of the same body, with identical decisions of the same courts?!

I have not hidden my very positive opinion, nor my very friendly feelings for Prime Minister Mitsotakis. I have seen in him from the beginning a modern European leader and I have continuously found an admirable man. I do not intend to hide my opinion and feelings even today, when my esteemed colleague and dear friend Kyriakos will have to read my well-formed and well-informed opinion, which does not coincide anywhere with the opinion of friends protesters.

For me, this politicization of an issue of Albanian justice, to the point that a protest is organized here in Albania by elected authorities in Greece, including the mayors of the two largest cities of Greece, could go to the script of a sarcastic film about interstate relations in a Balkan worthy of its old stereotype of clashes "who am I and who are you!", but not the democratic reality of the European neighborhood, between a EU member state and a country currently negotiating EU membership.

I do not intend to hide in these ranks even the satisfaction for the extraordinary progress that together with the Greek Prime Minister we have made in recent years, to merge with a European spirit the Balkans that were created over the years in the Albanian-Greek relations, looking each other in the eye and addressing old stalemates with an open mind and good will.

But I have no way to hide the great regret, in the face of the surreal appearance of the intervention of the Greek side in a matter of Albanian justice, to the point that the statements from Athens and the dissensions of our Greek friends in Brussels, to present this matter of already treated by justice for the accusation of electoral crime, as a matter of the rights of the Greek minority, escalate with a protest of this nature, unprecedented in the history of Europe - at least to my knowledge!

I am not only very sorry, but also seriously concerned. Because this step, taken like an elephant's foot in a glass shop, can bring about the regressive consequence of rekindling the flag of nationalism, and of the mutual negative feelings that that flag gives rise to in misinformed layers and certain groups of extremists, who look forward to them. these cases I have a can of gasoline in my hand, which I do not even doubt for a second that not only I and the Albanian government, but also the prime minister and the Greek government do not want it at all.

Wherever I turn to put myself "in the other's shoes", I cannot find a path that leads me to the path of justifying this approach to a question of justice, and I cannot understand how this problem can be solved. "strange" of our neighbors and friends, except by letting justice do its work undisturbed!

Therefore, I don't know what else I can say, because the Constitution of the Republic of Albania; the clear separation of powers, which thanks to the Reform in Justice (GREECE LIKE THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS SUPPORTED THE REFORM WITHOUT ANY RESERVATIONS) and the iron will of our ruling majority to implement it, without ever doing political comments on the decisions of the courts, is giving a missing dimension in the history of its state, democratic Albania on the way to the United European Family; the very non-negotiable standard of the European Union, to never interfere in the affairs of the judiciary for any political reason; as well as my vision and will to never compromise external strategic relations, with the swelling of episodic events like this,

But to the Greek friends who came to Himare in the middle of the holidays and gave their unique show to tourists from all over Europe, who this year have landed more than ever on the Albanian coast, I say that they are always welcome in Albania.

They love you even to protest!

Because today's Albania is a European country, tolerant of every contemporary protester, but also historically hospitable to every foreigner, regardless of color, language or religion, and many moments in our history testify to this, when Albanians became the guardian angels of foreigners struggling for survival, from Jews during the Second World War to Afghans today - including Greeks stricken by extreme poverty in the north of their country during the bloody civil war, who knocked exhaustedly on family doors Albanian in the southeast of our country.

Not only that, today's Albania is a European country with a new exemplary legislation for all minorities, where the Greek minority enjoys the same freedom and rights as the Albanian community, where our citizens of Greek nationality choose and are elected freely, as happened also in this year's municipal elections in Dropull and Finiq, after an electoral campaign with messages given in Albanian and Greek (even by me myself, who unfortunately do not speak the wonderful Greek language); where the Greek flag flew freely amidst traditional Dropullite songs and dances and the Greek minority candidates took the mandates to continue governing their communities undisturbed; where during the period of my government, houses built without permission in the years of transition were massively legalized for Greek families,

To the Greek media that deal with the issue that caused these lines, I say that they are welcome to listen to the other bell if they want, when they want, in Tirana or even in Himara if they want, where we always welcome them with pleasure our truths! Because Albania today has a government that says what it does and does what it says, as for everything else, including for the rights and properties of the members of the Greek minority. Which, never, in any case, have not been treated by today's Albanian authorities differently from those of all Albanians.

The issue of property titles in Albania has been an evil disease created by communism and aggravated to the point of agony by the democratic transition, during which the properties became for years the object of a disgusting irresponsibility of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. That's why we have paid special attention to property rights and the decades-delayed process of dealing with properties in certain areas, from the fields of the Great Highlands and the chestnut mountains in Tropoja, down to the pastures and olive groves of the shores of Jonit, has been set in motion with a high sense of responsibility on the part of our government, and the concrete results of an ongoing, not at all easy, job are indisputable.

While I say to the Greek people, come to Albania and you will feel at home, because after a tragic isolation that separated us forever for half a century and after a dramatic transition with serious problems and great troubles, Albania is becoming every year and more a good place to work, invest, play music or theater, exhibit your admirable art and culture or even to rest, on the seas or in our magical mountains. And also because Albanians and Greeks have been two friendly peoples since time immemorial, that geography has made them all and history has united them for common affairs and problems, much more than politicians have divided them for their lust for power and for their nationalist differences along the winding road of history,

While today has brought us closer together forever, either thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Albanians who came out of the communist poverty bunker, who came to you in the difficult 90s and have now become part of your life in Greece, or thanks to our willingness to always have the door open for you. Because you are our brothers and sisters, with whom the future unites us inextricably, as two European peoples who differ by language, but who love us not, we are as it is said in that famous Italian film by Giuseppe Tornatore, "mia fatsa, mia razza".

*A saying attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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