Achileas Syrmos: Former Albanian PM Berisha: “Turkey behind the cancellation of the Greece-Albania agreement”

Following the announcement of Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the extension of Greek territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles in the Ionian, the well-known Albanian journalist Blendi Fevziu dedicated his widely viewed TV show of September 10, 2020 to the summary of the official and unofficial reactions in Albania to these announcements. The journalist used the headline “Is there an agreement on the sea between Albania and Greece?”. There were two interesting points during the show.

Initially, during a live connection, Prime Minister Eddy Rama, who, with his well-known snobbish playful style, more or less argued that the show made no sense because there was absolutely no agreement with Greece and that it was not an immediate priority of his government to resolving the issue of the sea.

At this point he traded barbs with the well-known Albanian diplomat Agim Nesho who accused him that the foreign policy pursued by the Albanian government during his tenure is completely unbridled and his attitude provocatively hypocritical: Although he seems to be promoting the idea of European integration, in essence, he has unconditionally put the country at the forefront of Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism.

Rama replied that the confidence shown in him by Erdogant was a personal honor for him to and that he considered it the highest achievement of his government that he managed to turn his country into a strategic ally of Turkey. He also stressed that the previous Karamanlis-Berisha agreement was a betrayal of his country and was rightly annulled by the Albanian Constitutional Court.

In the second part of the show, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha intervened and defended the 2009 agreement. Then, in an unprecedented move, the respected journalist formally and directly addressed the following question to Berisha: “Do you believe that Turkey influenced the annulment decision?” of the Constitutional Court of our country?” The former Albanian Prime Minister’s response was equally disarming: “Absolutely. There is no doubt. One hundred percent”.