The Vetevendosje leader and prime minister designate, Albin Kurti, received a letter from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulating him on winning election.
Erdogan in his letter said that he welcomes the position of Kurti’s party who expressed readiness to reconsider the decision to open Kosovo’s embassy in Jerusalem.
Kosovo and Israel established this month diplomatic relations and Pristina pledged to open its embassy in Jerusalem. The move was condemned by Turkish President Erdogan. In his letter published Saturday by the Vetevendosje Erdogan told Kurti that it would be useful to avoid such a move.
“Furthermore, I am pleased to hear the position of your party if takes, that if takes the power it would reconsider engagement of Kosovo on opening of the Embassy in Jerusalem. I believe it would be useful to avoid such a move, which would cause serious harm to Kosovo,” Erdogan wrote in his letter.
Senior member of Vetevendosje, Glauk Konjufca, and former foreign minister of Kosovo, said that they would consider the decision if Kosovo will be conditioned by the European Union. Another senior member of this party, Haki Abazi, said the EU’s stance against opening the embassy in Jerusalem is of great importance for Kosovo adding that Kurti should sit with officials in Brussels and those of Israel to solve what he referred as “a knot.”
The European Union also voiced regret at Kosovo’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, made as part of a broader deal brokered by the previous US administration, saying it “diverges” the Kosovo from the EU position.
Erdogan’s letter was published the same day that Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to Kurti saying that he looks forward to hosting Kurti to Israel to inaugurate Kosovo’s Embassy in Israel. /GazetaExpress/