"A good part of our national awakening starts here", Kurti reveals the details of the meeting with President Erdogan in Istanbul

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, visited Turkey today where he was received by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In his speech at the joint press conference, Kurti said that "a good part of our national awakening" started there.

He stated that since the Prishtina poet of the 16th century, Mesilu, until Sami Frashëri and Hasan Prishtina, Istanbul has been the center of gravity of the Albanian people.

"It is a special pleasure that, at the invitation of President Erdogan, I am today in the historic city of Istanbul - the capital of two empires, a crossroads of civilizations and cultures, a meeting point of values. Since Mesihu i Prishtina, the Prishtina poet of the 16th century, and Sami Frashëri and Hasan Prishtina, Istanbul was also a gravitation of our people. For us Sami is among the fathers of our national renaissance, for the Turkish people he is considered one of the founders of modern intellectualism. Hasan Tahsini, the first Albanian rector of the University of Istanbul, where Hasan Prishtina was a student, is of the same lineage, whose name the University of Pristina bears today. A good part of our national awakening starts in Istanbul", said the Prime Minister.

He added that they talked with President Erdo?an about the friendly relations between Kosovo and Turkey and about the ways in which they can be deepened with the mutual will.

"We talked about new opportunities for economic and commercial cooperation, security and defense, for developments in the region and beyond. We are grateful for Turkey's role in NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999 to stop the genocide of the people of Kosovo, for its unsparing contribution to the building of institutions, the declaration and recognition of independence, and its full unsparing support in the politics of external. I thanked President Erdogan for his support for membership in NATO and the Council of Europe", stated Kurti.