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The unusual meeting at the Prime Minister's Office did not seem like a protocol visit. Behind the cold diplomatic language are hidden signals of a Rama-Erdoğan relationship that seems the coldest since 2009...
The meeting the day before between the Turkish ambassador, Ceyhun Erciyes, and Edi Rama was a somewhat unusual one.
When an ambassador meets with the prime minister of the country where he is accredited, it is usually not simply a protocol procedure or the delivery of a diplomatic note.
According to diplomatic practice, ambassadors communicate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary General, or the minister himself.
While the meeting with the head of government always has political weight, because it means conveying a direct message from the leaders of the state that the ambassador represents.
The official statements published after the meeting, both by the Albanian government and the Turkish embassy, were written in an extremely cautious and bureaucratic language.
Therefore, messages should be sought between the lines rather than in their text.
According to diplomatic sources, the meeting was requested by Edi Rama himself.
His goal was to convey, through the ambassador, a direct message to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
This fact itself shows that relations between the two leaders are at their lowest point in the entire period of their cooperation.
In previous years, phone calls between them were frequent.
Rama regularly visited the presidential residence at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, often informally, and on some occasions accompanied by his wife Linda and son Zaho.
There were long conversations, jokes, and a relationship that both publicly displayed as a personal friendship.
Today that period seems very far away.
Not only have contacts ceased, but in some cases there has been no shortage of strong statements from the Turkish President himself.
The most famous was the one where he called Edi Rama "katil dost" — "friend of the murderer," referring to his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Beyond this clash, political relations between Ankara and Tirana have entered a new phase.
And circles close to Turkey have been openly involved in opposing Edi Rama.
However, according to sources, tension has also emerged on the eve of the NATO Summit taking place in Ankara.
It is said that the Turkish side had initially sent an invitation to President Bajram Begaj.
But the Albanian Presidency has responded that at international summits Albania is represented by the Prime Minister, except in special cases.
This has led to several days of bureaucratic communications between the two parties.
According to sources, there was even a phone call between Edi Rama and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, where the Albanian side opposed any attempt by Ankara to dictate who will represent Albania at the NATO summit.
After this phone call, the issue was resolved and the Turkish ambassador went to the Prime Minister to formalize the official communication.
At this meeting, according to the same sources, Edi Rama requested that Turkey close the Iranian office operating near its embassy in Tirana.
This structure was created after the severance of diplomatic relations between Albania and Iran, as a result of Ankara's mediation to avoid further escalation of the crisis.
Iran has justified its presence with the need to monitor the activity of Iranian mujahideen located in Albania.
In practice, according to critics, precisely after the creation of this structure, propaganda and digital activity with anti-Israeli content has significantly increased in the Albanian space.
It is not yet known how Ankara will respond to this request.
But the fact remains that Edi Rama himself was the one who accepted the creation of this formula several years ago.
And this is a card that Turkey can easily remember.
If you read the Turkish ambassador's statement carefully, you will find some interesting signals.
It says:
“During the meeting, the excellent level of bilateral relations and the progress of cooperation in various fields were appreciated. The parties reaffirmed the will to further deepen relations, especially in the economic field. Ambassador Erciyes also expressed his satisfaction with the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Rama to Ankara on the occasion of the NATO Summit.”
In so few lines, a clear message is read.
The hope for deepening relations has shifted almost entirely to economic cooperation.
While the strategic partnership, the security partnership and the political closeness that characterized the Rama-Erdoğan relationship for many years, seems to now belong to the past./ Pamphlet
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