Albania

In the mountainous region of Martanesh, north-east of the Albanian capital Tirana, dozens of abandoned Communist-era bunkers are being used by shepherds as summer huts for their sheep.

Shepherds who come from the Tirana and Elbasan areas have built sheepfolds around the bunkers to ensure a safe haven for their flocks, enabling them to graze in Martanesh's lush pastures.

Festim Lato, residing in Afferden, a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland, has his own private army. Various Dutch authorities were aware of this, but did not intervene, the Dutch Telegraaf reports based on sources and its own research.
Lato was the self-proclaimed President of Chameria, an unrecognized republic on the border of Albania and Greece.

A religious ceremony was held Thursday to bury the remains of another 85 Greek soldiers that died in the 1940-41 Greco-Italian War at the military cemetery of Kleisoura, in a valley where the armies of the two countries clashed near the Albanian border.

Greece will not block the European Union membership ambitions of North Macedonia and Albania but it should be expected to demand certain concessions in return, analysts say.
The Commission has recommended opening accession negotiations with both states. It remains to be seen whether the Council will follow up on the recommendation in October.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Archbishop of Albania Anastasios at Maximos Mansion on Thursday.
Anastasios congratulated the conservative leader on becoming prime minister and requested the government's help in tackling the challenges facing the Balkan country's Orthodox Church.

Albania media microphones. Photo: BIRN

The number of visitors coming into Greece by road is slipping this year after coming to 8.8 million in 2018. These visitors accounted for 29 percent of the total of 30.3 million (without cruise passengers) who visited the country last year, according to a new study by the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE) on the prospects of tourism by road this year.

Albania is in the grips of a deep constitutional and institutional crisis driven by a deliberate plot to hijack the state in the service of vested interests, the country's president, Ilir Meta, tells Kathimerini in an interview.

Protests have been organised in recent days by activists in Tirana, Belgrade and Podgorica against the damage done to the environment by the building of hydro-power plants.

They were staged under the umbrella name Action Weeks for Balkan Rivers, a joint project by various environmental NGOs, with the slogan "Our rivers - no damage!"

Starting from this Saturday until July 16, protests against the damage done to the environment by hydro-power plants will be staged in several Balkan capitals, under the umbrella name Action Weeks for Balkan Rivers, a joint action of several environmental non-government organisations.