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A week ago, the Albanian government sent a protest note to Athens, urging Greece to change the scheduled exploration of hydrocarbon deposits in the Ionian Sea, reports the Greek daily Kathimerini.

Tirana’s argument was that the activity violated the Albanian territorial waters. In addition, Albania asked Greece to send the maps that mark the land border between the two countries in Epirus.

The Greek diplomats and lawyers define this act as an attempt to challenge the border. From a political point of view, it is described as a high-risk action for Albania and the bilateral relations.

According to Kathimerini, the same sources express astonishment at the fact that the Greek government is following with embarrassment both the rising tension in Greek-Albanian relations and the destabilizing tendencies in the Western Balkans that are gaining power. Their assessment is that all these actions are part of the overall strategy of the Albanian political system that aims to give an impetus to the idea of ​​creating a "Greater Albania".
 
According to the maps presented in 2011 by Greek Minister of Energy at the time Yiannis Maniatis, the exploration of hydrocarbon deposits will take place in a large territory north of the city of Ioannina. There were no responses to this at that time.
 
The dominant feeling however is that Turkey lies behind the actions of Tirana. According to the article in Kathimerini, the new detail that raises doubts about Ankara’s activity to create a front against Greece is the meeting of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the representatives of the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU) in Tirana. It is a nationalist political organization and its purpose is to express the interests of "ethnic Albanians" and especially to achieve the return to Greece of the Cham Albanians from the area of ​​Epirus, who were displaced in the period 1944-1945. The Greek diplomatic sources state before Kathimerini that the specific meeting can be explained as nothing else but an attempt to stoke this issue.

In view of the current conditions, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias is hesitant to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of the South-Eastern European Cooperation Process (SEECP) member states, which will take place in Tirana on 22 May. The Greek diplomatic sources indicate that the likely absence of Greece from the meeting will provide an incentive for Albania to continue to provoke without receiving a response, thus further isolating Athens. However, some sources indicate that Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be in Tirana on 26 May to participate in the summit of the organization.

The events have triggered a reaction from the opposition. In a letter to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Defence and Foreign Affairs, New Democracy MPs call for a meeting, demanding to discuss issues such as the election of a new president in the northern part of Cyprus, the crisis in Macedonia, Albania’s requiring of Athens to change the plan for exploratory drilling in the Ionian Sea and the course of the talks between Greece and Turkey on the measures to build trust between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. According to the MPs, the presence of Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias at the meeting is indispensable.