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AT ITS 35TH BIENNIAL CONVENTION
June 16, 2007 Worcester, MA
Whereas Albanian governments have made some efforts in recent years to improve conditions
for the ethnic Greek minority,
Whereas the improvements are not extensive enough to provide the minority basic human
rights they are entitled to under bilateral and international agreements,
Whereas Albania has not met the requirement of the European Union to take an accurate
measure of minorities in the country and tries to eliminate all ethnic identification from
official documents,
Whereas ethnic Greeks continue to be blocked from positions of authority in the police,
the judiciary, the armed force and public administration so that they feel powerless and
are forced to seek refuge in Greece and abroad,
Whereas Albania has tried to disenfranchise ethnic Greeks and to undermine their cohesiveness
through punitive redistricting of voting districts and administrative regions,
Whereas Albania authorities allow false claims and fraudulent documents to be used to take
property from ethnic Greeks which their families owned for generations,
Whereas the Albanian government does not apportion a fair amount of development funds
donated by foreign governments, including the United States and Greece, to be used for
public projects in areas where ethnic Greeks live,
The members of the Panepirotic Federation of America, meeting at their 35th biennial
national convention in Worcester, Massachusetts from June 13 to 16, 2007, the 65th
anniversary of the founding of their association, adopt the following resolutions:
- We call on the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and
all international organizations to demand that Albania fulfill all its international
obligations to ethnic Greeks in Northern Epiros and throughout Albania.
- We call on European representatives negotiating with Albania to forge a framework
for its eventual integration in Europe to freeze negotiations until the Albanian
government fulfills the EU’S demand to take accurate measure of minorities in
the country.
- We call on the Albanian government to enhance its full acceptance in the
community of responsible nations by restoring its full Greek Minority all educational,
religious, political, linguistic and cultural rights due them under bilateral and international
agreements signed by its representatives since the country was created in 1913
including the right to declare their ethnic and religious affiliation in a census monitored
by international observers.
- We call on the Albanian government to finally honor the 1935 advisory opinion of
the International Court of Justice to allow ethnic Greeks to educate their children in
their mother tongue whenever they live.
- We call on the Greek government to raise a strong voice in international organizations
for the rights of ethnic Greeks in Albania and to do everything in its power to help
Greeks from Northern Epiros working in Greece to return to their homes by providing
economic assistance that will allow them to earn their livelihood in their native region
and maintain its identity.
- We call on the Greek Parliament to adopt a resolution that it will not approve Albania’s
membership in the European Union unless it first grants all rights to the ethnic Greek
Minority in the country starting with an accurate measure of its members.
- We call on the United States to do everything in its power to end the occupation of
Northern Cyprus by Turkish troops; to press the Turkish government to end harassment
of the Patriarchate, re-open the School of Halki, and acknowledge the Pontian and
Armenian genocide and to press FYROM to stop expropriating the name Macedonia,
which has been identified with Greece throughout its history.
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