Report: Dozens of Greek Minority members arrested at Himara in Albania

According to epiruspost.gr, during the last few hours the tension in the Albanian city of Himara rises dangerously as dozens of the members of the indigenous Greek minority of the area have been brought to the police station. It all began last Friday, when the Himara City Council would ratify in a meeting the government’s decision to “rebuild” the area, an plans that is equivalent to the confiscation of the property belonging to the minority and the demolition buildings.

Approximately two hundred members of the Greek minority of Himara tried to take part in the meeting, which was advertised as open to all. At the initiative of the mayor, police intervened and prevented their entry. The meeting was canceled and the Albanian police took over the action.

During the last 48 hours there have been dozens of arrests and as the minority sources emphasize, they are meant to bend the morale of the people.

The reaction of both “Omonia”, the Greek Minority’s organization, and the “Party of the Human Rights Union” (KEAΔ) was instant.

The Party of the Human Rights Association underlines that the purpose of supposedly urban planning interventions is the de-Hellenization of the region in the form of a “velvet ethnic cleansing” and calls on the state to stop the extortion of society and the terror of the police.

“Under such threats the City Council will obviously meet again to pass the above orders. But its decisions have been canceled in advance by the reactions of the population of Himara.

Obviously, the phenomena of abolishing any form of democracy will have the well-known end of every dictatorship. From this point of view, the example of the citizens of Himars will sooner or later be followed by the society of the whole country.

Let us not miss the fact that minority groups are the primary targets and most vulnerable ones to all forms of undemocratic rule. The bells in Himara sound loud!”, the announcement ended.

“Omonoia” denounced the Himara municipal authority and calls for the end of terrorism and the uprooting of the indigenous inhabitants.

Himara has not been recognized as a Greek minority region, as this was the policy of the Hoxha communist regime that has been faithfully followed by all the governments of Albania after 1990. But today, there resides probably the most populous and liveliest part of the Greek minority of Northen Epirus, the Greek name for southern Albania.