TIRANA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Deputy Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Ervin Demo resigned from his position on Friday after allegations published on the local media where he was accused of plagiarism.
The resignation was announced by Demo himself through a post on Facebook.
"Today I have resigned as Deputy Minister and I remain committed to the pursuit of our joint effort as citizens and activists of the Socialist Party," wrote Demo.
While stressing that he was targeted by muddy politics, Demo said that "Any argument on my part against the accuses on my position today would be prejudicial to myself and would leave room for misinterpretations if I were to remain in my position."
Demo explained that the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth is preparing for the beginning of the "Verification of Legality Criteria" for all titles and ranks awarded in the past 10 years.
"I would never want to be in the position of the deputy minister myself to be the reason for prejudicing this so important element of our radical reform," Demo said in his statement.
The resignation comes after the denunciation made days ago by the Albanian scholar Taulant Muka who published two plagiarisms of the deputy minister.
"It's a duplicate piece of material from a foreign text. Apart from plagiarism, there are other problems, it's not like a scientific article," said Muka.
