On October 19, ADN published an article headlined “Republicans Overseas Warns Albania Chapter Against Using Organization for Personal Political Agenda.”

The Republicans Overseas statement quoted in the article is not related to activity in Albania. The statement was issued in connection with a separate matter involving the organization’s chapter in Greece, whose chair referred to the former U.S. Ambassador in Athens in coarse language. The Republicans Overseas Albania chapter is in good standing.

Republicans Overseas Albania supports the State Department’s position on envoys as expressed by Deputy Secretary Chris Landau. The record on the former U.S. envoy who visited the Bektashi State supporters in September is public. On October 15, Politico published “Nasty email fight between 2 top Trump appointees spills into the open,” by Daniel Lippman. It reported that the envoy had been blocked from visiting Albania. The Politico article also refers to emails in which the Deputy Secretary of State repeatedly told the envoy to confine his work to cultural diplomacy: “You have no authority to engage in ANY issues of foreign policy outside of cultural diplomacy.” On October 15, the envoy had been terminated by the White House.