[ Libra NëLinjë ]
By Isuf B. Bajrami
EU leaders, as followers of the Enlightenment for universal human rights, should advise Greece well on the priorities it should give to the institutionalization and consolidation of democratic processes and attitudes, so that a stabilized political framework can eliminate crises.
The EU should clearly articulate how long a legal structure and a government that respects human rights will work in this country, towards the goals of democracy. Seen from this point of view, the EU’s unconditional tolerance of this member country leads nowhere.
The politics of human rights, which is gaining global scope, must rely on a strong rational conviction, if they want democracy to survive in Greece as well.
In Greece, nationality and citizenship are assessed on the basis of religious affiliation and not on the main characteristics of nationality, such as language and culture.
Even today, Greece does not recognize minorities in its territory and absurdly and continuously ignores the legitimate rights of the indigenous Cham population. Over 300 thousand Orthodox Chams live in the region of Thesprotia, they speak Albanian in their homes and maintain their Albanian identity, but no one recognizes them as an ethnic group, they enjoy no protection, no status, no school in the Albanian language.
The Cham issue has been known since the treaties of 1913, but the Greeks, with genocide and ethnic cleansing, expelled the Cham, thus remembering that they finally closed the problem with the Albanians.
Mr. Rama, You show denial for a part of your citizens of Cham origin, not giving them the minimum respect as independent persons to enjoy their rights and assets, which would be a condition of citizenship in a society with a minimum of dignity.
The Chams who live in Albania are Greek citizens, as this is how they appear in the civil status registers in Thesproti (Chameri). The decree on the removal of citizenship by the Albanian Government in 1953 is in flagrant contradiction with international law and is considered an unprecedented action.
The denial and continuous treatment, in the same line as the Greek governments, the undemocratic treatment of the legitimate demands of this population is not only a bad policy, but also shows a fundamental lack of respect for European institutions and international institutions of law.
Greece should implement the EU standards on the Cham issue and on other minority issues and refer its laws in accordance with these standards.
Chams are civilized and communicative citizens who value self-expression, forming opinions and life plans through rational dialogue.
The Chams demand that in the system of the order of freedom, the Chams also gain the status of fundamental rights, that is, they are granted a protection, as provided for in the most popular international conventions, which Greece has signed with servility.
To violate the natural rights of a person or an entire population, as in the case of the Cham, means to degrade that person and that group in a cruel way.
Even today, Greece is continuing the vicious discriminatory logic, as long as it does not accept under any circumstances to negotiate on the Cham problem, nervously declaring that this problem does not exist! The Greek government has a (monstrous) moral loyalty to the not-so-glorious past of violence and ethnic cleansing, while it boasts in the public squares of the capital with monuments to criminals like Napoleon Zervas.
Every ethnic or regional group has the right to preserve not only its cultural heritage, historical identity and racial pride, but also the right to own its inherited properties. He must even own the right and the obligation to generate income and material goods for himself from these properties.
The Cham population, returning to its territories, aims within a political ethnicity not only for the right to own property, but also to decide on everything related to its identity (education, art, cult of the past) always remaining loyal to their autochthonous Motherland.
The region of Chameria, quite fertile and prosperous, has been put in a state of “incubation” for several years by the Greek misgovernance, remaining almost undeveloped, depending on the policies followed, which translate into state contempt and undervaluation of the territory, even though it is a real paradise not only for tourism, but also for economics. They will only bring benefits in favor of the common good.
The Chams demand and are convinced that with grace or against, but always in a democratic way, they will return to their autochthonous lands very soon, since the Greek state will never be justified in acting contrary to the rights of the Chams.
Place of Leka, 17.11.2025
