Rama theatrics with ethnic Greek properties
In what was seen purely as a public relations stunt, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama visited the ethnic Greek town of Himare on Friday to announce the restitution of some 400 titles to houses in the area to residents who have been suing the Albanian state for more than 30 years.
Rama’s visit had a reconciliatory character with the local community, which in the last year, due to the case of the imprisonment of the elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, has often found itself at loggerheads with the state apparatus. Besides, the Beleri case itself has been perceived not only on a narrowly Greek-Albanian level, but more broadly, as a fierce internal war over the “land plots” of Himare, which is in a privileged location on the so-called Albanian Riviera.
However, in his charm offensive on Friday, Rama failed to mention that the approximately 400 titles which he promised fell short by around 7,600, which are the number of requests submitted by locals to the courts in Vlore.
Four years since the over 8,000 appeals by Himare locals, even the titles delivered by Rama last Friday don’t concern land plots, but houses, for which there was never any doubt about ownership.
The ownership problem in Albania was created under communism, when private property was transferred to the state. In practice, 32 years after the fall of communism, property management is the root cause of the corruption linked to the emerging tourism market in Albania. A first step was taken In 1991, when parcels of land were distributed exclusively for agricultural use, with the rest of the land remaining state-owned. This entailed the purchase of land by would-be investors, initially declassifying it as arable land in order to then develop it for tourism.
