Albania’s socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama seems to be inflaming official relations between Greece and his country, after posting a provocative tweet on his account regarding Greece’s demarche about the demolition of an Orthodox Church, and skirmishes between locals and Albanian authorities.

During an online communication with citizens and responding to a question on the whether the condemnation by the Greek Foreign Ministry of scuffles between Albanian police and the locals during the demolition Aghios Athanasios (St. Athanasius) cathedral, a Greek Orthodox Church in the coastal town of Himara — a predominantly ethnic Greek region on the southern Albanian coast — was an intervention in domestic Albanian affairs, Rama flatly replied: ‘They frequently did it in the past, they still do it, but more rarely.

Hundreds of ethnic Greeks in the small village of Drymmades, where the cathedral is located, gathered Tuesday to prevent the demolition crew from continuing to tear down the structure.

The Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church condemned the incidents in Drymmades, stressing that these actions of the Albanian state ‘violate the property and freedom of religious faith’, while it called on the faithful to retain their calm, but remain determined in defending the place of worship. The Albanian Orthodox Church, in a statement, said it would repair any damages caused to the building, as it legally belonged to it.