Nano Meets Kostunica in Athens

AIM Tirana, February 1, 2001

The news published on front pages of the two biggest dailies in Tirana that the President of the Socialist Party of Albania, former prime minister Nano and Yugoslav President Kostunica met on January 16 in Athens caused numerous reactions in the Albanian capital. What was the purpose of this practically clandestine meeting? Why is Nano becoming a protagonist of another meeting with Serbian leaders like in 1997 when he met with Milosevic on the island of Crete in Greece? What was the topic of the talks?

These were the questions that were immediately raised in Tirana, and the secrecy was intensified by the fact that this bombastic piece of news was carried only by the correspondent of German Radio Deutche Welle from Athens. The questions and the doubts, however, lasted only for a few hours. At noon on January 27, at a press conference, the spokesman of former prime minister Nano denied that there had been a meeting. Rejecting “speculations of the press”, the spokesman declared that the President of the Socialist Party had not been in Athens, but in Ankara for official talks.

Two days had gone by and when it seemed that this event was about to be forgotten, another surprise came that deserved to be the topic of a few comic shows on TV in Tirana. In one of them, shots of the Socialists' leader were repeated several times in which at the same place, in the same tone and with the same solemnity he denied what he had declared just a day before. This time, according to the spokesman, Nano and Kostunica had met in the afternoon on January 16, the meeting lasted 35 minutes and it took place in a luxurious hotel downtown Athens.

Instead to pacify them, making the meeting public enraged almost unanimously all political factors in Tirana. President of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Affairs, Sabri Godo, who is a representative of a small opposition party and who has always called for cautiousness in normalisation of relations between Tirana and Belgrade, was among the first to condemn this act.

The opposition Democratic Party also declared itself against the secrecy of the meeting and its location. Leader of the opposition Berisha declared that he had no prejudice about a dialogue with Kostunica, but that he was against the secrecy with which the meeting of Nano and Kostunica had been organised.

Criticism addressed to Nano arrived also from the opposed faction of his own party. Servet Pellumbi, former vice-president of the Socialists estimated this meeting as another mistake of Nano and stressed that he had not represented the Socialist Party there, but only his own self.

The whole press in Tirana and Pristina unanimously joined them in criticism. “Both meetings – the one of Nano with Kostunica in Athens, and the one with Milosevic in Crete were organised and took place under supervision of Greek politics which is known for its inclination and sentiment towards Serbia”, oppositionist Rilindja demokratike commented.

“Unprecedented lack of publicity and yet another Nano's case of irresponsibility”, underlined the biggest daily in Tirana, Shekulli. On the other hand, the respected (authoritative newspaper in Pristina Koha ditore, in its editorial titled “Why this secret meeting in Athens”, highly critically pointed out: “Having met with Kostunica, Nano has underestimated legal institutions of his country. He acted like a man with the flaw of the omnipotent and once more left Kosovo the taste of the notorious meeting in Crete”.

These sharp reactions to the meeting of Nano with Kostunica on January 16 are not caused so much by the fact that the head of Albanian majority party has met the head of a state which was just a short time ago considered to be the enemy of Tirana. Nowadays all those who are significant in politics in Albania have confirmed the stand that they are in favour of normalisation of relations with Yugoslavia.

Indeed the debate is not centred on what was the topic of the talks in Grand Bretagne Hotel in Athens, but on the way the meeting had been organised, and especially on its unnecessary secrecy. Now it is clear that the first attempt of an Albanian politician to meet Kostunica (if the courtesy handshake in Skopje between Meidani and Kostunica is disregarded) was planned to be kept secret.

Perhaps there had been a previous pact between the two parties, Nano on the one and Kostunica on the other hand, to have confidential talks. Nano might have asked for that, because, as a weekly in Tirana wrote: “He has become the greatest and the only loser in this story”.

But, Nano is pretending exactly the opposite. In an interview given after the meeting, he confirmed that he was not at all disturbed by the accusations of folklore patriots.

“I belong to the race of voted-in politicians who know how to assume responsibility in decisive moments”, he said. And according to Nano, the time when he met Kostunica was such a moment. Albania and Yugoslavia were in the process of establishing diplomatic relations. “We ought to do everything possible in order to make them more than just a formal act”, said Nano.

Several hours after Nano had met Kostunica, information was published on re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Tirana and Belgrade.

AIM Tirana

Andi BUSHATI