“The Greek government should not hamper, but support the European Candidate status and Albania’s accession to the EU”.

This is the appeal that the Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences makes through an open letter to the Greek Prime Minister, Andonis Samaras, as an answer for what had been sent a few days ago by the 23 former Greek Ambassadors.

Former Greek diplomats, part of the group “Diplomatic Cycle”, wrote on their letter that “Albania is a country created by the Great Powers in 1913, and that so far has not shown a friendly position to Athens, and even becoming problematic for Greece since its creation”.

The Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, composed of former Albanian ambassador s and elite diplomats, who have served in important international organizations, consider this letter denigrating and reject the claims and the language used in there, and also the old way of thinking, for the sake of the good relations between the two people and governments.

In this letter they talk about the most important crossroad of the Balkan countries. “In these first years of these century we must come together a write the chapter that will close a long and bloody history in Balkan, so that we can start an era that our lands have never seen before”, the letter says.

For the Albanian former ambassadors and diplomats, the best hope for this is to stop the claims for Albanians and other regional territories, what they still call Northern Epirus.

“The final solution of some of the most difficult problems in Balkan is related to the cancelling of the state of war between Greece and Albania; the official recognition of Albania’s state borders, as defined by the Conference of London in 1913; the recognition of property rights of the Cham population, which the former Greek ambassadors in an ugly way consider a Muslim population that should have been sent to Turkey; recognizing Kosovo’s independence; resolving the disagreements regarding the official name of the Republic of Macedonia”, the letter underlines.

The Albanian former ambassadors and diplomats say that it is difficult to think that Athens, whch will take the EU presidency in January 2014, could create serious problems for Albania’s EU candidate status, or that they might make this process more difficult.

“Rather than listening to the nationalistic rhetoric or the political demagogy of a group of retired diplomats, we are expecting Athens to support Albania’s EU integration without reserves, because this is the only reasonable option for Albania and Greece”, the letter continues.

The letter ends with the trust that the historic burden of the past is not heavier than the hopes for the future, and that before our people now stand an excellent future that should not be compromised. TCH