In Albania’s Himara, Property Rights More Important Than Greek Diplomatic Row
Source: Balkan Insight
Greece’s ruling New Democracy party even ran the incarcerated Beleri as a candidate in the recent European Parliament elections. He won and is now an MEP. Albania allowed him to leave jail to go to Strasbourg to take his oath of office.
The diplomatic dispute brought unprecedented media attention to Himara. However, after new elections were held on Sunday following the disqualification of Beleri from Albanian political competitions, the row with Athens was not the most important issue on local voters’ minds.
Some were still angry about what they saw as Beleri’s unjust treatment, however. “From the moment that Fredi Beleri, who was elected by the people, was kidnapped [arrested], we did not expect anything from the Albanian state or from the government,” Pano Dhimaleksi, a 64, a trader from Himara, told BIRN.
“Himara chose Fredi Beleri as mayor because we believed that he would be interested in [defending] our properties and our rights… he was fearless,” Dhimaleksi added.
Albania has a well-known problem with property registration and land rights. It has continued since the fall of communism, when Albanian citizens did not have the right to own land or private properties.
After 1991, legislation was brought in to address people’s right to own the land on which they lived and the houses in which they dwelled. But some laws, like the controversial so-called Law 7501, caused more problems than solutions.
“The biggest problem here is private property,” said Dhimaleksi.
He recalled that Albania’s centre-right Democratic Party, led by Sali Berisha, had brought in Law 7501 when it was in power. However, he added: “For me, all the Albanian politicians from 1991 until today are to blame. I do not divide left from right in Albania, they are the same.”
Another local in Himara, 50-year-old Kristo Karo, said he had also faced problems in getting his property registered in his name. He wanted the new mayor to address the issue as a priority.
“[I want] whatever problems we have with our land and houses resolved. I am 50 years old and am not registered at all here in Himara, neither is my 84-year-old father. That’s all I want, to register as a resident of Himara,” Karo told BIRN.
Politicians played the property rights card during the campaign, as they often do before elections in Albania.
In May, Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama visited Himara to support his Socialist ally Vangjel Tavo before the official campaign began.
Rama and Tavo gave out 437 property registration certificates to people who had inherited properties but did not have the legal documents to prove it.
“Many injustices have been committed with the [7501] law,” Rama said while distributing the certificates. “And whoever says that the properties of people from Himara were taken from their heirs and passed on to someone else, they are telling a big lie. This has never happened,” he insisted.
Tavo and Rama said that their objective was to give out 4,000 certificates by the end of the year.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
