Greece on Tuesday criticized the presence of Albanian President Bajram Begaj at an event commemorating members of the Cham community who allegedly died when they were expelled from Greece’s western Epirus region between 1944 and 1945, calling it a gesture of irredentism.
Fredi Beleri, a member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority who was elected last month to the European Parliament, met in Strasbourg with the vice-president of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, shortly before he assumed his duties in the plenary session.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met on Monday with Fredi Beleri, the jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority who was elected last month to the European Parliament and is visiting Athens on his way to Strasbourg.
Fredi Beleri, the jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority who was elected last month to the European Parliament, has arrived in Athens after being granted a five-day leave from prison.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is scheduled to meet with Fredi Beleri, the jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority who was elected last month to the European Parliament, according to sources.
Fredi Beleri, a jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority elected last month to the European Parliament, left prison on Monday morning to attend the opening session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Albania’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld a verdict of the lower courts keeping Fredi Beleri, a former elected mayor from the country’s Greek minority, in prison after he was convicted of buying votes.
Fredi Beleri, a jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority elected last month to the European Parliament, has been granted leave by the Albanian authorities to attend the legislature to be sworn in.
Opposition protesters pelted Albania’s government building and a mayor’s office with petrol bombs late on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of corruption and demanding his resignation.
The Omonoia organization representing the ethnic Greek minority in southern Albania, and the parties of the Albanian opposition chose as their joint candidate in the repeat municipal elections of August 4 in Himare Petro Gjikuria, an ethinic Greek Albanian who lives and works in the United States.
Four Greek firefighting aircraft were deployed to Albania to help tackle a large forest fire in the southern part of the country through the European Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), which was activated at the request of Tirana.
Greece sent four firefighting aircraft to Albania on Tuesday and Wednesday to help combat a large forest fire in the south of the country.
Professor Ioannis Armakolas, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the South-East Europe Program at ELIAMEP, joins Thanos Davelis to look into the progress that has been made in Greek-Albanian relations – with a focus on the people to people ties – amid lingering challenges facing the two countries.
The decision of the Central Electoral Commission of Albania to remove Fredi Beleri from the office of mayor of Himare, to which he was elected but never sworn in, completes a 14-month cycle of irregularities by the government of Edi Rama aiming to discredit the jailed ethnic Greek, who is also an MEP representing Greece’s ruling New Democracy.
Greece’s Foreign Ministry condemned Albania’s decision to declare invalid the mandate of ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri as mayor of the the southern Albanian region of Himare, calling it a “pre-ordained outcome” fraught with legal issues.
Albania’s Central Electoral Commission revoked the mandate of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare, on Friday. Beleri appeared at the hearing accompanied by a heavy police presence.
