Rama’s mysterious meetings with Turkish President Erdogan

18/07/2019 20:58

The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, announced today on Instagram that he had met with the Turkish President, Recep Taip Erdogan, at his Marmaris residence in Turkey. This is Rama’s first meeting with Erdogan for this year, but in 2018 they have met several times.

Right after coming to power, Rama’s government deepened the relations with Turkey and the friendship between Rama and Erdogan seemed to grow stronger.

In the recent years, the meetings of the Albanian Prime Minister with the Turkish President have moved from official to informal, which means that in most of these meetings it remains unknown what they have been discussing about.

An inquiry on the Prime Minister’s official website shows that Rama’s most recent formal visit to Turkey has been on June 29th, 2016. During this visit, Rama was received in the most important Turkish institutions, including the at Presidency, welcomed by Erdogan. He also held a joint press release with his counterpart, Binali Yıldırım.

From that date, both leaders have had many other meetings, but all of them have been unofficial and no details were published about the topics they may have discussed.

On March 22nd, 2018, an official dinner was announced at Tirana’s residency in Istanbul. The Albanian embassy to Ankara shortly stated that both leaders had been discussing about the Vlora Airport and Air Albania.

On July 9th of the same year, Rama traveled once again to Turkey, this to attend Erdogan’s ceremony for his oath as President. Once again, no official information has been disclosed about this meeting.

The same practice was followed even for today. Rama’s visit in Turkey was not official. It was not announced, and there are no details about what may have been discussed.

 

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