The Greek-Albanian Dispute in the 1990s

Abstract

The long-running Greek-Albanian dispute could not show any signs of improvement with the demise of the communist regime in Albania. It took some time. In 1995 a period of rapproachment began; reaching its peak in 1996. As far as the year 1997 was concerned, it symbolizes the beginning of a new period for Albania as well as a historical turning point for the Greek-Albanian relations. Clearly, the most significant point of friction between Greece and Albania is the minority issue. In this respect, Greek-Albanian dispute has some similarities with other minority questions in the region. There are other points of dispute partly related to the minority problem, questions such as what happens to the Albanian minority and the illegal Albanian workers in Greece. Throughout this masters thesis, it has been firstly tried to put forth the reasons for the dispute, the relations among these reasons in the framework of the above remarks. In the second phase, the bilateral relations in the 1990s has been evaluated in the light of the information given in the previous chapters.