Official Tirana and Athens have found themselves at odds this week after 35-year-old Konstantinos Katsifas was shot dead during a crossfire with officers of the Renea Special Force in Gjirokastra’s Bularat village.
The Greek foreign ministry announced it had been made aware of the Greek citizen’s death and that it is following the case’s developments alongside Albanian authorities.
“Our condolences for the death of the Greek minority member, the loss of a person’s life is unacceptable under any circumstances. We express our regret for the Greek citizen’s death,” the foreign ministry’s announcement read.
In response to the Greek reaction, the Albanian ministry of foreign affairs expressed disappointment Greek officials did not condemn the armed attack against Albanian police forces, but rather spoke of “unacceptable loss of lives.”
Further on, the Albanian ministry’s announcement called for maturity in handling this clear and unprecedented case without giving it diplomatic or political connotations.
“We ensure our neighbors that Albania is a safe and secure county for all its citizens, including without any distinctions those under Greek citizenship,” the Albanian ministry’s announcement said.
Further on, the ministry’s announcement said it had clarified all the details of the event that led to Katsifas’ death and that this was an incident isolated from the activities taking place on Sunday in the area and a case of flagrant extremist aggression against State Police.
Police forces were in Bularat on Sunday in context of the celebrations taking place to honor the Greek soldiers who died during the Greek-Italian war and were shot upon by heavily-armed Katsifas at around 10 am, before chasing after him and asking him to hand himself in, without success.
The country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama also reacted to the news through his official twitter.
“Dear neighbors! Instead of calling unacceptable the life loss of a crazy man who shot with military bullets on our police, which was only doing its job, join us in thanking God no innocent lives were taken today by the extremist madness,” Rama wrote on Sunday evening.
Local media has reported Katsifas, who belonged to the Greek minority and mainly lived in Athens, was shot during a crossfire a few hours after first aiming at the RENEA police forces. According to official police sources, RENEA operatives called on Katsifas to drop his gun and surrender without success, as he continued to shoot and gravely risk the policemen’s lives.
An investigative unit immediately arrived at the crime scene to inquire on the incident, which is officially reported to have happened during the national Greek holiday celebrations in Bularat.
Additional sources have reported Katsifas, who had arrived in Bularat only a week before the attack, had shown signs of extreme and dangerous behavior in his Facebook page.
Greek media, on the other hand, reported Katsifas opened fired against the police as officers were taking down a Greek flag he had raised at a cemetery for Greek soldiers who had died in battle.
Meanwhile, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Albanian Embassy in the northern Athens suburb of Filothei on Sunday evening to protest the killing, organized via social media by Greek-Albanian groups and the far-right Greek Golden Dawn party.
