Cham issue

The indigenous Ethnic Greek minority of Albania is experiencing a “velvet” ethnic cleansing while Europe is preparing to accept Albania in the EU!

Albania's Cham community, expelled from Greece after World War Two, asked Greece on Saturday to apologise for what they called a genocide against them and permit them to return to the area in northern Greece from which they were removed.

Albania's Cham community, expelled from Greece after World War Two, asked Greece on Saturday to apologise for what they called a genocide against them and permit them to return to the area in northern Greece from which they were removed.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said that the issue of Cham rights remains one of the thorniest problems in talks between Athens and Tirana.

Speaking on Albanian TV, Rama dismissed recent remarks by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias according to which Greek and Albanian officials are not discussing the Cham issue.

The Party for Justice, Integration and Unity, PDIU, which lobbies for the rights of the Cham community in Albania, is fighting a battle with the Central Electoral Commission over its chairman's right to sit in parliament.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has again returned to the vexed issue of the exiled Cham community in a Greek TV interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Rama said it was a perfect Balkanic paradox that Albania and Greece remained "de jure" in a state of war despite signing a treaty of friendship in 1987.

Albanian Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta told Kathimerini in an interview that "there is nothing the two countries can't discuss" and called for a comprehensive solution to bilateral differences, including the Cham issue, which Greece doesn't recognize.

The Greek Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday to deny that it is involved in any discussion with Albania regarding the claims of the Cham community to property in Greece.

Brussels sought to downplay comments by European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, who lumped the claims by the Cham community in Albania along with other disputes in the negotiations between Tirana and Athens, saying the matter was "blown out of proportion."

Greece's Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn of siding with Albania over the issue of the exiled Cham community, after Hahn mentioned the issue as a live one between the two countries.