Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

June 29, 2009

Kosova: New Highway Link With Albania

Below is an article published by Today’s Zaman:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended a ceremony in Albania on Thursday [25 June 2009] inaugurating a $1.4 billion highway link with neighboring Kosovo.

The Albanian government sees the 170-kilometer highway running through northern Albania's rugged mountains as an important commercial link not only to Kosovo, but to other Balkan nations and central Europe. A 61-kilometer stretch of the highway was built in a joint venture between Turkey's Enka and the San Francisco-based Bechtel International Inc.

“This is a corridor of friendship and peace,” Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said to the applause of supporters waving Albanian and European Union flags at Thursday's [25 June 2009] inauguration ceremony in Rreshen, 60 kilometers north of the capital, Tirana. “This corridor will serve not only Albanians, but also Macedonians, Serbs, Bosnians, Bulgarians and all the others.”

Erdoğan said the highway would “further [positively] impact on Kosovo's development” after it gained independence from Serbia last year [2008]. Erdoğan thanked Turkey's Enka for its part in building the road and said Turkey backed the development of Albania and Kosovo as free and democratic states. “I heartily believe this road will help strengthen Kosovo, which we have the honor to have beside us as an independent country,” Erdoğan said.

Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, had been expected to attend the ceremony but did not show up. Thaci's office in Pristina said the prime minister had a very busy agenda and that he had already left on a trip to the United States.

The highway will run from the port city of Durres, 35 kilometers west of Tirana, to the Morini border crossing with Kosovo.

Berisha and Erdoğan also discussed bilateral ties. “With my prominent friend Berisha, we believe that a safe port has been created in Albania, and I believe our entrepreneurs' investments in this safe port will bring interest to both Albania and Turkey,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency as he underlined that Turkish entrepreneurs have been particularly interested in the construction, banking, telecommunications, gasoline distribution, health, iron, steel and mining, and energy sectors.

“We have studied the issue of natural gas as well with my prominent friend [Berisha] and God willing, as a transit country, we will ensure that Albania gets natural gas,” Erdoğan said, without elaborating.