President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited two important Balkan states, Albania and Serbia, on Oct. 10-11. This two-day tour garnered extensive media coverage in the region and in Türkiye.
Erdoğan and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama presided over the second High-Level Cooperation Council meeting. During the meeting, the two governments signed four cooperation agreements in higher education, agriculture, communication and public relations. As mentioned by Erdoğan, “The agreements confirm the two countries’ willingness to cooperate.”
Erdoğan has inaugurated the Namazgah Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Tirana and the largest mosque in the Balkans. The mosque was funded by Türkiye, namely by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation, and is considered a symbol of shared history and common culture.
The two leaders agreed on many political and security issues. Erdoğan agreed to provide military equipment and training to the Albanian army. A strategic move is the provision of a significant number of drones to Albania. The two leaders have also discussed and showed their determination in a joint struggle against terrorist organizations, especially the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). They signed a joint declaration to deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries. Lastly, they emphasized that they would continue to increase bilateral trade volume to $2 billion.
Erdoğan paid a similar visit to Serbia as well. In Belgrade, Erdoğan and Serbian Prime Minister Alexander Vucic led the fourth High-Level Cooperation Council meeting and attended the signing ceremony for 11 agreements in different sectors, including trade, defense and infrastructure. Erdoğan praised the Turkish investments in Serbia, especially in the construction sector, and set a new target for bilateral trade of $5 billion. The number of Serbian tourists visiting Türkiye increased to 400,000 in 2023. Serbia is also an emerging destination for Turkish tourists.
Erdoğan and Vucic discussed the importance of the Sandzak region and reiterated support for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Erdoğan has emphasized Ankara’s mediatory role in encouraging peace and stability both in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the two countries that have tense relations with Serbia.
Meaning of the visit
Albania and Serbia, which represent the two largest ethnic groups, are two critical countries in the Western Balkans. Both Albanians and Serbians live in different regional countries. Therefore, these two states have the potential to follow revisionist regional policies. While Albanians are the largest Muslim ethnic group in the Western Balkans, Serbians are the largest Orthodox Christian in the same region. While the Albanians are largely supported by the U.S. and some Western countries, Serbia is supported by the Russian Federation. Both global powers continue to penetrate the region through their respective proxies.
On the other hand, Türkiye, in principle, does not want the unilateral intervention of any global power in the region. Located in the middle of a region full of conflicts, Türkiye supports the regional status quo in the Balkans, which has enjoyed a cold peace for several decades. Anakra has followed a balanced, comprehensive and all-inclusive policy toward the region, aiming not to alienate any regional state. As part of its general foreign policy understanding, Türkiye wants the regional conflicts to be solved among the regional actors. Therefore, all sides of regional conflicts trust Ankara for its neutral positioning. The Turkish capital is determined to prevent further conflict and to work with regional leaders to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Balkans.
Türkiye continues underlining its historical, cultural and political ties with the Balkan states and nations. For this reason, Ankara does not welcome the rising influence of different Islamic perspectives represented by some Muslim countries. Instead, Türkiye prefers the protection of traditional Islamic institutions in the region, which are historically derived from the Ottoman institutions. The introduction of new Islamic understanding will create artificial non-state actors, which will turn into destabilizing actors for the regional governments. In addition, Türkiye is working to maintain a culture of peaceful coexistence in the region, where people from different cultures can live together.
All in all, regional countries are aware of Türkiye’s constructive role in the region. Therefore, all regional countries have been trying to improve their relations with Ankara. The more they trust Türkiye, the bigger constructive role the country will play in the region.
