Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, pledged his full support to the ethnic Greek minority in Albania during a historic visit to the southern Albanian town of Himara on Thursday.
Mitsotakis is the first sitting Greek Prime Minister to visit Himara.
Addressing a crowd on the waterfront in the town, Mitsotakis said they had “in my person a firm supporter in your just demands” and stressed that “the ethnic Greek minority in Albania… is a bridge of friendship between Greece and Albania.”
The Greek Prime Minister also offered his country’s full support to Albania’s further integration efforts with the European Union.
“I am and will remain a supporter of Albania’s European path and Albania’s obligation is to fully respect your own rights in the issue of self-determination, in the issue of language and in the issue of your property rights,” Mitsotakis said.
After meeting with the local Greek minority community at Himara on the Albanian Riviera, Mitsotakis was to travel to another southern commune, Livadhja, before ending his one-day trip in Dervican, where most of the Greek minority is located.
The Prime Minister is being accompanied on his visit by Olympic gold medallist Pyrros Dimas, who is a native of Himara.
Source: Ekathimerini.
