TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Turkey’s president traveled Thursday to Albania’s capital to inaugurate a Turkish-funded mosque with 50-meter-high (160-foot-high) minarets as part of a trip to boost ties and discuss regional issues.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that his country would give an unspecified number of drones to boost military capabilities in Albania, whose population is slightly more than 50% Muslim.
The new Namazgah mosque in Tirana is one of the largest in the Balkans.
Erdogan met with Albanian President Bajram Begaj and later with Prime Minister Edi Rama, with whom he has close ties. Following a meeting of top officials from both countries, the two sides signed agreements to boost cooperation in agriculture and education.
Turkey is a strategic partner of Albania and one of its largest investors, contributing to infrastructure and other sectors. Erdogan said the two countries should aim to double their annual trade to 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).
At a briefing after the meetings, Rama said Turkey’s gift of military drones sends a “very clear message” that “Albania cannot be attacked.”
In comments touching on regional issues, Erdogan denounced Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza as a “genocide” and a “threat to the global order.” He said Israel must pressured into an urgently needed ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian aid.
Rama also pushed for a ceasefire, but took a different tone on the Palestinian group, saying that “Hamas and any other source of terror have no place in a peaceful future of two sovereign states, Israel and Palestine.”
Construction of the new mosque was started in 2015 with some 30 million euros ($34 million) from the state-run Turkish Muslim organization Diyanet.
The construction already had been completed for more than a year, but the inauguration was delayed because of Erdogan’s concerns that a group that Turkey calls the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO, would have influence over the mosque.
Under agreements reached with the local Albanian Muslim community, Turkey’s Diyanet organization will have representation on the mosque’s governing board.
Turkey says that FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated a failed coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded. Gulen has denied any involvement.
In addition to the four minarets, the Namazgah mosque has a central dome of 30 meters and the capacity to hold 8,000 people. It sits on a 10,000-square-meter parcel of land near Albania’s parliament, and the first floor includes a cultural center.
The site is near landmark Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals.
Sunni Muslims make up nearly 46% of Albania’s population, and Bektashi Muslims another 5%. Catholics are 8% and Orthodox Christians 7%, according to a 2023 census. The various religious groups live together peacefully without tensions.
___
Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
