Skopje, 9 January 2023 (MIA) – The leaders of the political parties in the Albanian bloc will travel Tuesday to Tirana for a meeting after being invited by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Earlier on Monday, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said that the Tirana meeting “is a new year’s meeting aimed at exchanging opinions on current regional issues” urging people not to create a “conspiracy” regarding the meeting.

The parties Alternativa and the Alliance for Albanians confirmed to MIA that their leaders will attend the meeting in Tirana after receiving an invitation, falling short of revealing any details.

“We accepted the invitation and confirmed our attendance at the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Edi Rama,” the Alliance for Albanians told MIA.

Alternativa leader Afrim Gashi will attend the meeting, said the party when asked for a comment adding it is not know what will be discussed there.

After telling MIA that the party has accepted the invitation to attend the Rama-hosted meeting in the Albanian capital, Besa later said it will not send a representative. Besa MP Fadil Zendeli stated tomorrow’s meeting benefits DUI.

“The Movement Besa is not ready to sit on the same table with DUI. DUI at this moment needs this meeting in Tirana, we see no one else needing it. Whenever DUI deals with infighting, it starts seeking help from the region. We see no reason to help them now,” he said.

PM Rama convened DUI’s Ali Ahmeti, Alliance for Albanians former leader Ziadin Sela and Besa’s Bilal Kasami for a meeting in Tirana in December 2016, which resulted in a joint declaration of the Albanian political parties on maintaining the interests of Albanians. The document envisaged “full linguistic equality”, including the Albanian language status in the Constitution, equal regional development, international commissions set up to fully investigate “cases dictated by the court”, as well as “comprehensive debate on the state flag, anthem and coat of arms in a way that the state symbols will reflect the social multi-ethnicity and equality.”

The signatories of the declaration pledged to fulfill the commitments.

The parties that signed the joint declaration held their last meeting in July 2017. DUI leader Ali Ahmeti organized a follow-up meeting, but it was boycotted by the other party leaders due to his remarks that “he won’t sit down with scumbags.” Besa leader Bilal Kasam had another failed attempt to convene the Albanian party leaders in November 2022 to discuss changes to Amendment 5 in the Constitution, changing the term “language spoken by 20 percent of the citizens” into “Albanian language”.