Why have relations between Greece and Albania deteriorated?

Altin Meshini is a successful organic cheese producer in Permet in southern Albania. His dairy shop is a real tourist attraction: Housed in a large bunker built by Mussolini's fascist Italy in 1939, it was used by Italian soldiers during the Greco-Italian War of 1940–41 to shell the trenches of the Greek Army.

At the time, Albania was occupied by Italy. After the Greek Army pushed the Italians back into Albania, bloody battles raged around Permet.

According to the Greek Embassy in Tirana, about 8,000 Greek soldiers fell in Albania during the Greco-Italian War, of which 1,300 are buried in cemeteries in Albania.

For Altin Meshini, passing down wartime memories is an important step towards understanding the preciousness of life and peace. "Look at my dairy," he said to DW, "it was built to take life in an absurd war; I use it to nourish life in peacetime."

The past looms large

Unfortunately, the past keeps coming back to haunt contemporary Greek-Albanian relations.

A number of issues that are currently souring bilateral relations between the two countries have their roots in the past, including a disagreement on the delimitation of maritime zones, Greece's Law of War with Albania, and the property rights of the Greek minority in Albania.

Greece and Albania technically still at war

Greece passed the Law of War with Albania in October 1940 after Mussolini's Italy attacked the country from occupied Albania.

Although Albania and Greece signed the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, Good Neighborliness and Security in 1996, the two NATO allies are, technically, still in a state of war.

According to a representative of the Greek Foreign Ministry, the Greek government agreed in 1987 to rescind the law. However, the Greek parliament has yet to ratify that decision.

The law has long been a source of tension between the two countries. Albania attaches great importance to its abolition because it feels it could open the door to claims by members of the Albanian Cham minority for reparations or the return of confiscated property. The Chams are an Albanian minority that used to live in what is now the Greek region of Epirus. During World War II, Greece expelled most Chams, accusing them of collaboration with the occupying forces.

Since the 1990s, Albania has been calling for reparations, and Chams in Albania have been pushing for a right of return. Greece rejects these claims and says that anyone with claims relating to property should take the matter to court. 

Local mayoral election causes international rift

Another bone of contention between the two countries is the case of Fredi Beleri, a 52-year-old member of Albania's Greek minority, who was elected mayor of the Albanian municipality of Himara on May 14.

Beleri has not yet been sworn in as mayor of Himara, which has a sizeable Greek community, because he was in pre-trial detention at the time of his election.

Beleri was arrested two days before the poll on charges of buying votes — charges he strenuously denies. All of his applications for release or to be allowed to take office have been turned down by the Albanian courts.

Himara's location on Albania's picturesque Ionian coast and its potential as a tourist location would appear to be relevant to the case.

"Many properties on the Ionian coast belong to ethnic Greeks, who live in the tourist villages of Himara," says Skerdian Dhuli, a lawyer in Himara. "However, for a number of reasons — above all corruption in the public institutions that deal with properties — local owners cannot invest in their properties."

Local property owners are losing out

The same is true of ethnic Albanian local property owners, who are not allowed to invest in the tourism sector on their own land either. Local property owners "have no access to the National Council of the Territory, which is run by Prime Minister Rama and has the legal authority to issue development permits for the Albanian coast, based on the Law on Strategic Investments," says Dhuli, who sees the law as a way "to rob and alienate the local owners' properties."

According to Dhuli, there is official data on about 4,000 "overlapping properties" in Himara. These "overlapping properties" are owned not only by the real owners, but also by people who have nothing to do with the properties, but are "strategic investors, determined by the government, who invest in the properties of the local, real owners in Himara," he told DW.

According to Dhuli, Fredi Beleri, who was the opposition candidate in Himara's mayoral election, had "promised to change this situation."

Greece threatens to block Albania's EU accession bid

Greece has reacted strongly to Beleri's arrest and imprisonment, accusing Albania of violating the rule of law and Greek minority rights. Athens claims his detention is politically motivated and has said it "expects Albania to take concrete and immediate measures to allow Mr. Beleri to take the mayoral oath and to respect his right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence."

In mid-November, Greece refused to back a letter asking the European Commission to open the first five chapters of negotiations for Albania's EU accession process. The letter was ultimately sent, but with Greek reservations.

Greece wields considerable power in this matter because EU member states must unanimously agree to the opening of accession negotiations with a country. A Greek veto would block Albania's path to EU accession.

Mutual distrust

According to journalist and writer Stavros Tzimas, mutual distrust plays a very large role in Greece-Albania relations: "Since the years of communist dictator [Enver] Hoxha, when the country was isolated, a feeling of being encircled by the enemy has prevailed in Albania. There is a lingering suspicion in political, historical and journalistic circles that Greece is out to mutilate Albania," he told DW.

"There is also suspicion on the Greek side — although Greek public opinion is not particularly concerned with what is happening in Albania," he says.

Large Albanian community in Greece

Tzimas stresses that on the issue of the Greek minority in Albania, mistakes were made on both sides — particularly 30 years ago in the direct aftermath of the Hoxha era when communism collapsed in eastern Europe.

The ensuing violence between the two communities and the fact that nationalists in Greece referred to part of southern Albania as "Northern Epirus" damaged relations in the long term. Because of this and crippling poverty in the country, many members of Albania's Greek minority left.

About 600,000 Albanians went to Greece. At least half of them stayed, working hard so their children could have better lives. These children are now an integral part of Greek society and its future. 

Back in the organic bunker dairy shop in Permet, Altin Meshini looks to the future: "Many Italians and Greeks come every year, attracted by the bunker's unusual history," he says. "When we talk about the past, we all agree we want to live in peace and have good neighborly relations. We want the past to remain in history and not to cloud our present and future."

Edited by: Astrid Benölken and Aingeal Flanagan

This article was amended on Dec. 6 to add more information about the reason for tension arising from the Law of War with Albania.