President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay an official visit to Albania and the highlight of the agenda will be his address to the Albanian Parliament on Monday, January 17.
Erdogan will be welcomed by PM Edi Rama at the international airport of Rinas at 9 am.
The Turkish President and his accompanying delegation will then travel to Kurbin, northern Albania, to take a closer look at the fruits of Turkish state aid for reconstruction following the tragic November 26th earthquake.
Erdogan will inaugurate 524 residential apartments in Kurbin Municipality, which have already been completed and are ready to shelter local inhabitants
At 14:00, Erdogan will arrive in the Albanian capital to meet officially with Edi Rama at the Prime Minister’s Office. Two hours later, the Turkish President will visit the Et’hem Bey Mosque, which has been restored by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA). The restoration of this mosque, which is a cultural monument of the first category and which is part of the monuments that make up the historic center of Tirana, began in March 2018. This mosque belongs to the Ottoman period and is a symbol of the capital of Albania.
At 5 pm Erdogan will speak in the Albanian Parliament which will convene for its first session for 2022.
During his first two terms Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has built close ties with Erdoğan, establishing a
Albania and Turkey established the High Council for Strategic Cooperationin in January 2021.
The ties between the two countries have got stronger and according to Turkish parliamentary speaker Mustafa Sentop, Turkey has invested some $3.5 billion in Albania and more than 600 companies operate in thid Balkan country.
Rama has also aided Erdogan’s pursuit of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. /argumentum.al
