On 27 May 2018, Festim Lato, the president of the Democratic Foundation of Chameria, organised an international conference in Tirana, Albania. This conference brought together a dozen experts from various fields to discuss the past, present and future of Chameria.
At the main conference hall in the Tirana International Hotel, several hundreds of participants listened to the insights of the speakers and engaged in discussions on how to best move forward in the struggle to get greater recognition for Chameria. Speakers included Mr. Ali Aliu, Professor Elena Kocaqi, Chamerian Football Association President Mr. Arben Arkaxhiu, Mr. Jeroen Zandberg and others.
The title and topic of the conference was: ‘Past, present and future of Chameria’. The various speakers each provided an aspect of the long and grand Chamerian history, which has produced great achievements, but also saw much suffering and injustice.
Several speakers at the international conference highlighted the activities that are currently being done by Cham activists in Albania and abroad. Especially the activities of Festim Lato, the president of the Democratic Foundation of Chameria, received a positive response from the audience.
The event provided a great opportunity to inform the Cham community of all the political advocacy work that President Festim Lato has done in the past years and the great leap forward that has been achieved in the past six months.
President Festim Lato was able to meet and inform the political leaders of all the major European political parties in the European Parliament and get support from several high-ranking parliamentarians. The president is also in contact with the offices of the relevant European Commissioners about the discrimination of the Cham. Furthermore, the petition that is currently being signed by many thousands of Cham will be presented to the leaders in Europe, which will be another step towards the recognition of the suffering of the Cham and a solution to the continuing injustice.
At the same time that the conference was held, a large demonstration of Cham supporters walked through the streets of Tirana in order to protest the inaction of the international community and to let everyone in Tirana and elsewhere know that the case of Chameria is alive and that it needs to be resolved in order to get true justice and reconciliation in the Balkan.
