Background Relations between Albania and Turks date from the arrival of the Ottomans in the region in the 15th century.
Many Albanians during the Ottoman period converted to the official religion
Islam and contributed massively through administrative, political and military positions to the
Ottoman Empire and culturally to the wider
Muslim world. Albania was also culturally influenced by Ottoman Empire and Islamic World, and to a lesser extent other Ottoman territories during the period, and much of this influence remains visible today in some culinary traditions, Islamic architecture of mosques, some elements in the old cities of Gjirokastër, Berat, Shkodër, Prizren and other forms of cultural expression. Towards the end of the Ottoman era in the 19th century, relations between the Albanian territories and the Ottoman centre rapidly deteriorated due to a number of factors, such as the swelling of
Albanian nationalism, perceived betrayal by the Ottomans in defending Albanian-inhabited lands from encroachment, the weakening of the empire causing increased stridency among Christian populations, Ottoman actions against Muslim Albanian nobles, and the refusal to allow the opening of Albanian-language education. Although many Albanians backed the
Young Turk reformer movement, they revolted against the new Young Turk government when it tried to impose centralization and a
Turkish identity upon Albania, with the
last of these revolts in 1912 ultimately leading to the independence of Albania and the
First Balkan War. The Albanian diaspora in Turkey was formed during the Ottoman era and early years of the Turkish republic through migration for economic reasons and later sociopolitical circumstances of discrimination and violence experienced by Albanians in Balkan countries during the
Eastern crisis,
Balkan Wars,
World Wars One and
Two and
communism. Turkey has an estimated 1.3 to 5 or 6 million citizens of full or partial Albanian descent, and some still feel a connection to Albania. During the
First World War contacts between Albania and the Ottoman Empire were limited. In 1921, the Ottoman Empire officially recognised the Republic of Albania, while the
Turkish National Movement under
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, fighting for a Turkish republic, cultivated contacts with Albanian representatives through former Ottoman Albanian officials for establishing future bilateral relations. During the 1920s Albania adopted an approach to strengthen, develop and further interstate relations with neighboring states and other international powers such as Turkey to attain support for maintaining Albanian independence and its territorial integrity. For Albania, dealings with Ankara concerned safeguarding the interests of the large Albanian population in Turkey, who were experiencing economic and political problems. The aftermath of war, the
Lausanne Treaty and tenuous international recognition by international powers motivated Turkey to pursue bilateral relations with Albania and other countries, to secure support for the new status quo. The Albanian government maintained a consulate in Istanbul. The Citizenship Agreement (1923) contained provisions for safeguarding property and citizenship rights of Turkish citizens in Albania and of Albanian nationals in Turkey, while due to the Lausanne Treaty Ankara did not uphold those protocols in relation to Christian Albanians. Albania tried and failed to convince Ankara to omit Orthodox Albanians who were regarded as
Greeks from the population exchange with Greece, and to safeguard their property and assets in Turkey. Turkey claimed that conventions in the Lausanne treaty defined automatically all Orthodox people as Greeks and could not be undone for individual groups or cases. A Muslim Albanian minority resided in
Chameria, north-western Greece and Tirana was concerned about their forced removal during the population exchange as some had arrived in Turkey and were living in difficult economic circumstances. Granted that right for Albanians from
Chameria, the arrangement also covered Albanians arriving in Turkey from Yugoslavia to migrate to Albania. From 1925 onward Yugoslavia sought an agreement with Turkey to allow for the migration of Muslims while Albania was concerned that it entailed the removal of Albanians from the Balkans to be resettled in depopulated parts of Turkey. With large numbers of Albanian refugees present in Turkey by the mid 1920s an understanding had arisen with Albania to cooperate and stem Albanian migration from Yugoslavia which decreased substantially during the remainder of the 1920s. Between 1925 and 1928 Turkey and Albania agreed to and signed a Trade Agreement, Extradition Treaty and Consular Convention. Other issues involved failed attempts by Albania to attain Ottoman cadastre records from Turkey to update property information and Turkish failure to get Albania to take on part of its share of Ottoman financial debt. In 1925 a Turkish consulate was opened in
Vlorë, southern Albania and in 1926 a Turkish embassy was opened in Tirana, Albania and an Albanian ambassador was sent to Ankara. The new regime was recognised by most countries while Turkey's republican leader
Atatürk refused recognition due to hard won
Turkish republicanism and condemned the Albanian move on grounds that it violated republican principles and went against the interests of the Albanian people. A crisis in bilateral relations between Tirana and Ankara occurred with most diplomatic staff recalled from Albanian consulates in Turkey and the Turkish embassy in Albania. Italy, friendly with Zog and increasingly influential in Albanian affairs under fascist leader
Benito Mussolini along with Albania pressured Turkey to recognise the new monarchist regime. Attempted overtures by Albania were made to restore interstate relations with Turkey at various regional and other gatherings involving exchanges of letters and pleasantries invoking friendship and common interests of both countries by high ranking diplomatic staff. After previous agreements entered into were reinstated and others ratified by parliaments of both countries during 1933, state relations had been restored and conducted at an ambassadorial level. In 1936, a sister of Ahmet Zog married a son of former Ottoman Sultan
Abdul Hamid II and bilateral relations once again went into crisis after Turkey expressed its displeasure at the event by recalling its ambassador and Albania closed its embassy in Ankara claiming budgetary issues. With the Italian and later German occupation of Albania during the
Second World War, the Turkish embassy remained closed while the consulate in Vlorë remained open until 1944 when
Enver Hoxha, the Albanian communist leader (1944–1985) closed it down. Due to the
Albanian-Soviet split Turkish intelligence took interest in Albanian affairs in 1961 expressing support for Albanian territorial integrity and Turkey lobbied some of its Western allies, in particular the US to do the same. The Albanian communist government distanced its dealings with Ankara as it was distrustful of NATO member and Western allied Turkey due to concerns that it might overthrow the regime or undermine it by spreading Western economic and cultural influences in Albania. Albania's position of isolation within Europe and Balkans during the Cold War alongside territorial issues with Greece motivated it to cast a negative UN vote on the
Cyprus question regarding the island's future geopolitical status in the hope of being recognised by Turkey. Albania felt threatened by its larger neighbours Yugoslavia and Greece and looked to Ankara for support with Hoxha himself preferring Turkey over Greece. In the field of economics Albanian-Turkish relations developed during the 1970s in addition to bilateral talks on the establishment of air traffic services between both nations. These and other agreements on bilateral cooperation and exchange were signed into by Albania and Turkey that earned disapproval from Greece.
Military cooperation and geopolitical issues (1990s) in the
Bay of Vlorë in Albania rebuilt by Turkey The collapse of communism in Albania led to a deepening of interstate relations and cooperation with Turkey in economic, political and especially military fields. The Europeans and Americans encouraged closer Turkish relations with Albania as Turkey's presence in the region during the period was considered an element for stability. Turkey in the 1990s supported Albania's membership to join the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Overall bilateral relations during the 1990s between Albania and Turkey continued to be good. Turkey considers its friendship with Albania as important due to the context of state relations with Greece and through policy have exploited difficulties arising in Albanian-Greek relations. Having a powerful ally in Turkey has suited Albania at times regarding difficult interstate relations with Greece. The military alliance during the 1990s between Turkey and Albania was also aimed against Serbia in case a war over Kosovo had a wider regional spread. Greece has expressed concerns regarding Turkish relations with Albania and interpreted them as an anti-Greek measure to isolate Greece within the wider context of Albania being a potential outlet for expanding Muslim influence and Turkey allying with Muslim populations in the Balkans. Turkey on the other hand claimed Greece increased tensions within the region and conveyed concerns relating to Albanian and Greek polemics with Ankara expressing a partial bias on Albania's side angering the Greeks. Some conservative Serbs expressed concerns over Albanian-Turkish relations while some Greeks feared that Turkey was attempting to revive the Ottoman era. Turkey viewed the government (1997–1998) of
Fatos Nano as having a pro-Greek orientation and expressed some dissatisfaction though during that time still maintained close military relations with Albania in rebuilding its armed forces and a military base. The resumption of closer Albanian-Turkish relations ensured during the Kosovo crisis that made both countries act along the same policy lines toward
Slobodan Milošević and the issue of
Greater Serbia. Minor differences have arisen over the years in the Albanian-Turkish relationship. In 2012 the Albanian government planned to vote
no regarding UN recognition of Palestinian statehood and pressure from Turkey for Albania to vote
yes was applied with the end result being an Albanian abstention and Turkish dissatisfaction. The presence and influence of the Turkish Gülen movement in Albania has recently been a source of tension with the Turkish government headed by
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since it has blamed the movement for attempting to destabilize Turkey. The Turkish government classifies the movement as a terrorist organisation and called for the closure of Gülen schools, however the Albanian government to date has refused such requests stating it is an internal matter. Some tensions arose over some Gülen members who fled Turkey for Albania, as the Turkish government sought their return. Albania has faced pressure from the Turkish government to declare the Gülen organisation illegal and remove people associated with it from the country. State relations overall are friendly and close, due to the Albanian population of Turkey maintaining some links with Albanians of Albania and vice versa as Ankara maintains close socio-political, cultural, economic and military ties with Tirana. Turkey has been supportive of Albanian geopolitical interests within the Balkans. The Turkish state is seen as a traditional ally of the Albanians and the West and one of the main reasons for Albanian friendship with Turkey is due to its support for Kosovan independence. Turkey's foreign policy supports the market economy and democracy in Albania alongside prioritising state relations with Western European countries and the USA regarding Tirana while supporting pan-Balkan Albanian issues such as Albanian sociopolitical rights in Macedonia and Serbia. Turkey supported Albania's membership to become part of
NATO. Albania has come to depend heavily on Turkish assistance and a high amount of military security. Radar systems for the surveillance of Albanian airspace in addition to telecommunication equipment have been supplied by Turkey to Albania. Turkey has worked together with Albania in the NATO mission to Afghanistan. Turkey has continuously supported Albania from the 1990s on EU related matters as both countries view EU membership as an eventual final goal and common objective. The current
AKP Turkish political leadership has acknowledged that there are large numbers of people with Albanian origins within Turkey, more so than in Albania and neighbouring Kosovo combined and are aware of their influence and impact on domestic Turkish politics. Turkey's interstate relations with Albania are shaped mostly on considerations of common heritage and historical ties dating from the Ottoman period. Turkey considers a failure to support the security and stability of Albania as undermining its ability to be as influential in the region as it would prefer to be. Rama views Turkey as an important strategic partner. In Albania opposition has arisen from some commentators such as Piro Misha expressing opinions that closer state relations with Turkey is
neo-Ottomanism and a "danger" that makes non-Muslim communities in the country uncomfortable due to their negative historic experience of the Ottoman period. In debates over Albanian school textbooks where some historians have asked for offensive content regarding Turks to be removed, some Christian Albanian historians protested this, referring to negative experiences of the Ottoman period and argued that Turkey should apologise for the "invasion" of Albania and Islamisation of Albanians. Though many Albanians hold (nationalist) interpretations of history with a dichotomy of "bad" Ottomans versus "good" anti-Ottoman Albanian forces like
Skanderbeg, interstate relations of Albanians and Turkey are very good. Opposition to Turkey building mosques in Albania or exerting its political influence exists among part of the population. In a
Gallup poll conducted in 2010, Turkey is viewed as a friendly country with a positive image among a large majority (73 percent) of people in Albania.
2019 Albanian earthquake On 26 November 2019,
an earthquake struck the Durrës region of Albania. The day after the earthquake Turkey through its authority for
Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) sent one
Airbus Atlas airplane with 28 search and rescue personnel, three vehicles, dozens of hygiene kits and tents, and 500 blankets and 500 food packs containing flour, sugar, pasta, oil, rice, beans and other products to the victims of the earthquake. Turkey used local branches of its aid agency
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in Albania to coordinate distribution and deliver aid. On 3 December, tents were delivered by a Turkish airplane for villagers that preferred to remain near their animals and land during the winter. President Erdogan expressed his condolences, called for aid from other Muslim countries and stated he will lobby them to give assistance to Albania for future reconstruction. Prime minister Edi Rama expressed his gratitude for Turkish aid to earthquake victims. Erdogan, citing close Albanian-Turkish relations, committed Turkey to reconstructing 500 earthquake destroyed homes and other civic structures in
Laç, Albania. In Istanbul, Turkey held a donors conference (8 December) for Albania that was organised and attended by Erdogan and included Turkish businessmen, investors and Prime Minister Rama. Turkey has funded (€42 million) and constructed 522 apartments for 522 families in Laç, and two schools within the region. Albania also purchased an anti-drone system from Turkey. Other agreements signed related to the economy, education, tourism, health and military. Prior to the Albanian April election, in early 2021 Turkey built a modern regional hospital in
Fier costing €70 million and placed under the joint administration of both countries with a mixed Albanian and Turkish medical workforce. Albania in July 2021 agreed to purchase Turkey's
Bayraktar TB2 drones for €8.2 million with intended Albanian drone use for military and civilian matters. In mid January 2022, President Erdogan visited Albania and a series of agreements were signed for law enforcement, tourism, emergency management, media and culture. During the visit, Erdogan opened Tirana's old Ethem Bey Mosque, after a restoration by TIKA. In late December 2022, Albania purchased three Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, intended for police use and possible military deployment over future challenges concerning national security. == Cultural relations ==