Himara: Another Balkan Story

AIM Tirana, October 23, 2000

Although the second round of local elections in Albania included almost 1.2 million voters, at almost 40 percent of polling stations all over the country all attention was focused on the small town of Himara in the south of Albania, where the opposing candidates were from the Socialist Party and the Party of Human Rights, which represents the interests of ethnic minorities in the country.

Himara brought to Albania the same thing that Kosovo brought to Yugoslavia a year ago: a wave of nationalism unseen during ten years of post-communist transition. And while the Kosovo crisis had been overcome thanks to human solidarity rather than nationalistic outbursts, the crisis in Himara brought something that could be considered the most daring manifestation of the Albanian nationalism.

The Socialist candidate won some 75 percent of votes in a campaign, which assumed harsh nationalistic tones and ended with an incident on the day of voting. Nine Greek opposition parliamentarians disembarked in Himara provoking a sharp reaction of the Albanian side. The Greek deputies stated that irregularities and tensions had influenced the voting results. The Albanian side interpreted the activity of Greek MPs as a violation of the sovereignty and electoral code of Albania which prohibits foreign interference in electoral campaigns. The press in Tirana also drew a bead on the activities of Greek diplomats in Himara, especially of the Greek Consuls in Gjirokaster and Tirana, which were accused of exerting pressure on voters.

The international observers of OHDIR pointed out that the elections in Himara were characterised with numerous irregularities, intimidation and stealing of votes in at least three voting stations. In their report, the international observers pointed out that there was a "Greek speaking community" in Himara - a term which the official Tirana doesn't approve of.

However, the fact that the report of the international observers made no mention of the activities of Greek MPs, caused dissatisfaction in the Albania's capital, but also serious divisions among representatives of international organisations. OSCE Ambassador to Tirana Ahrens and Ambassador of the Council of Europe Grunet, avoided informing the press about the report of international observers because they could not agree whether to mention the role of Greek parliamentarians in the voting in Himara or not.

Even two corresponding Helsinki Committees, the Greek and the Albanian one, had a controversy over this, accusing each other from nationalistic positions.

Be that as it may, this mostly affected the relations between Greece and Albania which became strained. The Greek Minister for European Affairs Papazoi announced that the Greek-Albanian relations could be disturbed because of election irregularities in the second round in Himara. On the other hand, the Greek Foreign Minister Papandreu stated before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Greek Parliament that "we shall send a clear message to Tirana that Albanian's road to Europe leads through Athens". One could not speak about the Balkans in more clear terms.

Although the Albanian Prime Minister said that "one pre-election race could not be turned into an ethnic war", it seems that that exactly happened. Various analysts in Tirana pointed to the fact that this was the first time that the problem of ethnic minorities assumed such a prominent, but also dangerous place in an electoral campaign in Albania.

With some 12 thousand inhabitants, Himara was always the Albanian most favoured tourist zone, but never a political battlefield, as it has become now. Historically speaking, Athens always had pretensions to Himara inhabitants which it considers "ethnic Greeks". This thesis always met with the opposition of the official Tirana which considers Himariots Albanians who speak Greek and Himara a bilingual zone.

During 10 years of transition, when Albania went from one crisis to another, Himara was gradually falling under the increasing Greek influence. Located opposite the Greek island Corfu, Himara and its surrounding villages soon established trade and communication links with the opposite coast, while on the other side, the destroyed infrastructure leading inland gradually separated it from the rest of Albania.

As one of the most renowned national political analysts wrote, Albania did not solve any of Himara's problems which are under its jurisdiction. There are no jobs there. All young people from that zone work in Greece and their children have very little connection with Albania. If you want to talk by phone, you have to use the Greek system of mobile telephone service since the Albanian system doesn't cover this part. In villages around Himara it is impossible to watch TV programme in the Albanian language, including the public TV, but all Greek programmes can be seen here, and you can frequently find Greek papers coming from the other side of the border, in local cafes. No ferry-boat or ship comes here from Duress, but every two days there is a large ferry from Corfu, which is this zone's closest link with the world. Currency in use there is lek, but shopkeepers are willing to give you change in drachmas.

For a long time now Athens has been preferentially treating Himara regarding visas and payment of special pensions to all those who declared themselves and Vorio-Epiriots. Tirana always suspiciously looked on this, but turned a blind eye and did not react.

However, ironically, the opposing candidates in the second electoral round came from two parties which are members of the Government coalition. Minister of Health in Meta's Cabinet comes from the Party of the Union for Human Rights. However, this alliance has been put aside and both parties attacked each other with the harshest words.

On the other hand, the opposition Democratic Party refused to recognise the election results in a large number of zones, inviting its followers in Himara to give their vote to the Socialist candidate (i.e. an Albanian). The previous Democratic president of the City Council took part in Prime Minister Meta's pre-election rally which is an unusual gesture bearing in mind the strained relations between the Government and the opposition in Albania.

As if by coincidence, a football match between Albania and Greece was organised at the same time in Tirana, which turned into a political event. Albania's victory gave wings to nationalistic outbursts while papers carried titles that were never seen before, such as: "Greece on its knees before Albania", "Greece broken", etc. Even at the stadium in Tirana the spectators shouted slogans against the Olympic weight-lifting champion, Piro Dhima, a Humariot who used to compete for Albania and is now a member of the Greek team, and who is claimed to have sponsored the transportation of Albanian emigrants for the second round voting. Some 700 emigrants from Himara were brought from Greece by special buses in order to vote in the second round.

After counting goals on Wednesday and votes on Sunday, it appeared that the Albanians were double winners, which is not true. Although it can be said that the football game was well played, the same cannot be said for the voting game which was degraded into a traditional Balkan duel.

AIM Tirana

Arjan LEKA