Athens closes its borders with Albania • Divisions of the Greek army deployed along the Albanian borders • Greek warships at Albania’s maritime border • The violent expulsion of Albanian workers and refugees continues • Prime Minister Papandreu declares: “The future lies in the exercise of cooperation among the Balkan countries” Thessaloniki, September 9, 1994 • Former Prime Minister Micotaqis declares: “It is not possible for us always to be right” • Greece’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs declares: “Greece is heading toward isolation” Page 4 Albania in the South. And not only in the South PHOTO: A. Babani The national spirit grows together with the State’s vigilance The sacred land of Albania… of Albanian national territory and spirit. This year Albania, being occupied with… money and continuously, Albania: that in Europe it will never be able to go without consolidat… ’90, when Albania, with the fall of the communist dictatorship, was not prepared to hold… Albania in the South. And not only in the South. PHOTO: A. Babani

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Martino arrives in our country tomorrow for an official visit. During his visit to Tirana, Minister Martino will meet the highest state officials: President Berisha, Prime Minister Meksi, and his counterpart Sërre-qi. This visit, the first by an Italian official of the Berlusconi government, is expected to give a boost to Italian-Albanian relations. Italy has played a major, leading role in supporting Albania, and it is now expected that support will move beyond the level of emergency aid to economic assistance that will boost Albania’s development. Several cultural agreements and cooperation agreements between the statistical institutions of the two countries are expected to be signed. “Republika” correspondent

With Greece’s help, European funds for the Albanian press are being appropriated by “Zëri i Popullit” The “Inter-reg” program office in Corfu and its representative in Saranda must account for the flagrant violation of European Union rules concerning the aid provided… Saranda by the Corfu center’s branch of the “Inter-reg” program. Reliable sources close to this office report that at least twice in a row the Albanian socialists’ newspaper completed the aid forms-

“Greece will never accept the formation of a Europe with two speeds,” Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreu declared on Friday evening, opposing the proposal of the German Christian Democrats. No different reaction was expected from Greece, which recently received 7.2 billion dollars from the European Community, but one is obliged to take note when Greece says: “Never...”

“The Albanians are our enemies, and not just any Berisha,” writes the newspaper “Stohos” in its latest issues. No one can think, the newspaper goes on, that changing Berisha or Gligorov will change the face of Albania and Macedonia themselves toward Greece. “We are an army, we are a people,” writes the Greek newspaper “Stohos.”

Under this headline, the same newspaper “Stohos” published a map of the Balkans showing Albania and Macedonia divided into two parts by a straight line.” The line, which runs between the 41st and 42nd parallels, will constitute, “Stohos” writes, Greece’s future borders in regions that are now under Albanian control or form the state of the people of Skopje.” “This decision (the partition of Albania among some Greeks and Serbs) was made long ago, and this decision will bring peace to the Balkans.”

Military judges released Greek Colonel Toma Vrakas on conditional terms. On August 21, he violated Albanian airspace and dropped hostile leaflets against Tirana.

Venizelos (and his Greek political spokesmen) declared that “not a single Albanian foot will cross the Greek border. Not even a single car will cross,” they declared. Seriously. But a recent report says that G. Pashko crossed it—not in a truck, but in a car, a Volvo TR 1994 B—and broke through the Greek iron curtain. Sources cannot confirm whether Mr. Pashko is in Greece on vacation, as an invited politician, or on business. “REPUBLIKA” Correspondent

National spirit grows alongside the State’s vigilance The lands of Albania are sanctified by becoming Albanian! More nationalism must be invested, but also more money! In the South, one does not gain political capital; one secures the fact of being Albania If Albania did not fall apart in the disastrous years 1913–1914 and 1990–1991, it will not fall apart today! This conviction is now held by all Albanians. It is good to remind our neighbors, both northern and southern, if only as an obligation. Albania can no longer be broken up. These are the most difficult years for Albanian soil and national spirit. In these years, while Albania was busy destroying itself, it appeared to its neighbors to be easy prey, readily and silently breakable; in these years, Albanians, sometimes naively preoccupied with themselves and one another, almost forgot that, more than by its own people, Albania was coveted by its neighbors; in these years, while Albanians searched for the mote in each other’s eyes, they almost failed to notice the beam in the teeth of neighboring chauvinists. As in ’13–’14, so too in ’90–’91, Albanians almost forgot that democracy could never come without first and continually securing Albania; that they could never prosper in Europe without first consolidating and protecting themselves, first and foremost, as Albania. Our neighbors have always known these things, and unfortunately for us, knew them even before we did; they have always wanted an Albania that was as weak, as small, and as helpless as possible; they wanted it to remain unoccupied through disastrous years. Precisely in these years they have been revived; precisely in these years they have advanced even further toward Albanian borders and fragments of Albanian territory. That is what happened in the 1990s, unprepared to keep national vigilance sufficiently alive; when Albanian political forces did not know (or did not want) how to prevent pluralism from becoming a threat to nationalism. The old regime had severely exhausted nationalism and the national spirit with its false internationalism. Our neighbors knew these things well; they knew this climate well, in which the nettles of fading and disregard could easily be cultivated. FARUK MYRTAJ (continued on page 2) PHOTO: A. Babani

REPORTAGE On Thursday morning, Dropull awoke under the guns’ sights. Greek soldiers dressed in NATO uniforms appeared at the border with Albania, while the heavy weapons of the Greek army pointed their muzzles north. In the early hours of the morning, all you could see were despairing faces turning back from the locked Kakavija border crossing and cars carrying Albanian soldiers heading toward the border, to be closer to danger at any moment. In Grapsh, in Dropull—the village where, in 1978, Enver Hoxha launched the car of reconciliation with Greece after the final abandonment of China—the Albanian slogan “Let us always be vigilant” has still not been erased. The new slogans written in Greek are erased, being considered less privileged than the relics of communism. In the village café there is only an old man making Turkish coffee and several young hydrogeology workers drilling to find water for a Greek company, which is preparing to take the initiative from an Albanian investor from America to manage the underground water of Gliniës. The café’s old man is not concerned about the emphasis on business [?] against Greece, because, in the distinct Albanian of Dropull, he says: “You do politics; we do business.” Under this motto and its reversal, the entire political burden between the two countries in the southern Balkans seems to be becoming polarized. The “apostles” who disarm Albanians Political trade has better prospects than any other business in the South. In Sarandë, for example, they tell you that the director of the district Historical Museum, Apostol Pango, although of Albanian origin, from Zagoria, has “immersed himself” in Greek literature and published a series of important articles in the Greek press of Albania and Greece, generalizing all that had previously been written about the Hellenization, archaeology, and history of Albanian regions in southern Albania and northern Greece. He now also feels awkward because he is the author of a monograph on Hasan Tahsin, who is Cham, from Filat, since the Greeks, despite his great merits, refuse to acknowledge him as Greek because he served Turkey. Apostoli is still a museum director in Albania and has not needed to emigrate to Greece, as many intellectuals in the South often do, because the Albanian state salary is not enough to ensure their survival. Political trade is good business. Selling Albania “intellectually” here is an extremely comfortable business. The more palatable route is moderation. For example, pretending to be European; asking that, where Greek nationalism has deployed tanks, you, as a moderate Albanian, go with laurels; where Janullatos builds churches to baptize them with his own name, you must not mention that there are also Albanians who are not Orthodox, lest you risk fundamentalism; where Greek flags are raised, there must not also be Albanian flags, lest you risk becoming archaic. A church for martyrs rises in a town without a cemetery The “apostles of the life of modernization” were also appearing in Albanian state institutions. In Ksam[i]l, for example, the village head, although he was from the “UNI,” a very young, slender boy, graduated in 1990—[he] says that PSD deputy Gaqo Apostoli had also reprimanded him for putting the Albanian flag on the counter, because, as Gaqo had said, the camp had become like a military unit. The “moderation” of the social-democrat Apostoli, of Apostoli the museum director, and of the other apostles who are trying to leave the South disarmed in the face of Greek nationalist aggression, is rewarding for the logic of the Greek side. It is enough for them to place a person with an Albanian passport in the South. At the very least, it is enough not to appear armed in the face of Greek nationalism, in order to serve them. (continued on page 2)

Sarandë on aid provided to non-member countries. The newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” has won the “political tender” to qualify for the aid Greece distributes to the press from the general fund that the European Union has allocated to the Albanian press under the “Inter-reg” program. The aid, distributed through the Corfu center, was handed to the representative of the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” in Sarandë in succession the newspaper of the Albanian socialists filled out this office’s aid forms in the name of the Albanian press. After that, this office informed the central office in Thessaloniki and in Brussels that a sum of funds had been allocated as aid to the Albanian press. What draws attention is the fact that the Greeks’ unscrupulous theft coincides with their partial support exclusively for the Albanian socialists, which is an intolerable violation of the prac- (continued on page 4)

The madwoman N of Tirana was not seen on the capital’s streets on Friday or Saturday. Her regular visitors said they had seen her in Kavajë, trying to cross the border in a truck. “They wouldn’t let me,” the madwoman shouted. “The Greeks wouldn’t let me cross. Between me and deputy Pashko, they chose Pashko. We’ll put the date on the calendar for deputy, the madwoman said. I’ll become a deputy.” On Saturday afternoon she was seen arriving at Tirana station shouting: “I’m coming back from Malësia e Madhe. I was there with some intellectuals. I even set up the party in Malësia e Madhe. Now I have to do it in the other highlands. Highlanders are brave men, intellectuals who still sing with the çifteli.” In the evening the madwoman was seen distributing leaflets near the Bank of Tirana bearing the portrait of the Greek colonel who flew over southern Albania. The five Omonia members have sent a letter to prosecutor Luan Hajdaraga asking him to release them. Hajdaraga refuses, and the madwoman says, “I don’t like the chief prosecutor’s post; give it to someone else. I want a ministry today,” said Hajdaraga. Immediately, the madwoman said, four and a quarter party leaders want to become chairwoman in Nano’s place. Who will be first in Nano’s place? Lost chances, said the madwoman. I’m going to Paris. Why should only Dokle and Hajdaraga tour Europe on Nano’s per diems? That isn’t fair. Tomorrow I’ll show you the doctorates, the dissertation topics. For example, Papajorgji did not complete his doctorate with the putschist group in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Old and new doctorates, said the madwoman. Late Saturday night, chance passersby were astonished and did not understand why the madwoman, dressed in the uniform of the mayor, stopped in front of the kiosk vendors’ group near the pyramid and shouted: “You’re building your own house.” It was not clear whom she was threatening, she said. Perhaps also because the madwoman shouted: “Out of Albania! Out of the Ministry! Out of the Government!” In the evening the only colony in the controlled [?] barracks: “Malë,” said the madwoman, “who discovered the police in Tirana, Kokëzi for the ministers and ambassadors?!” the madwoman replied, shouting [?]. THE CHRONICLER

is heading toward isolation” Page 4