Albanian Premier Edi Rama thanked today his guest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the help after the 2019 earthquake and during the pandemic, calling him a great friend of Albania and his personally.

Speaking in Laç, where Erdogan and he inaugurated 522 apartments build from the Turkish government, Rama recalled his first ever meeting with the Turkish President.

“In my first meeting with the President – who at the time was Prime Minister of Turkey – I was shy, because I knew him from the television only and he did not look so smiling. When we met, I was not Prime Minister yet, and he told me: ‘Albania and Kosovo are in my heart. Albanians are in the hearts of the Turkish people. I wished you were my brother, but I will call you brother when you, as Prime Minister of your country, will have deserved the respect of your people’. I am very proud to call myself a friend of President Erdogan”, Rama said.

The Albanian Prime Minister also took a dig on those who criticize Erdogan and his friendship with him.

“President Erdogan says what he does and does what he says. And, believe me, it is not easy thing in today’s word and diplomacy to find people to which Yes means Yes and No means No”, Rama said. “When the work started here, there was an earthquake in Turkey. Everyone here was alarmed, thinking that he would forget us after the earthquake at home. I was convinced that would never happen. Not simply because had the possibilities to do both things, but even in the opposite case President Erdogan would not stop the job to fulfill the promise he made here. Because, I repeat, President Erdogan not only says, thinks, and believes, but he also makes reality what I mentioned above as one of the Prophet’s orders”.