Turkish Chief of the General Staff, Gen. İlker Başbuğ visits Albania

Turkish Army under NATO commander takes the Space Air control of Albania

During his first etape in the region, the high Turkish Army represent met with PM Sali Berisha and the Albanian president Bamir Topi.

According to Albanian press the Albanian government decided to cooperate with Turkish Air Forces as member of NATO alliance to contribute for the control of Space Air of albanian territory.

After the cooperation for the reconstruction of the Naval Base of Orikum in Vlora Gulf since 1998, Turkish Army has taken another strategic point of Albanian air forces in Kutsovo, Berati Prefecture.

Yesterday, General Staff, Gen. İlker Başbuğ travelled to Saranda Town in Southern of Albania (Northern Epirus) a front of Corfu island.

Sources from the press, Turkish Army is very interested for Porto Palermo Gulf (Himara Region) to help Reconstruction of an Establishment Albanian Naval Base.

US Urges Calm After Albania Politician Murder

Tirana, 19 June 2009

US ambassador John L WithersThe US Embassy in Tirana has urged Albanian politicians to maintain a "peaceful environment" in the run-up to elections after a local party boss was killed by an explosive device placed in his car.

“We urge the Government of Albania and all political actors to work together to maintain a peaceful environment where all Albanians who wish to do so can vote with a calm and peaceful mind on June 28,” said the embassy in a statement.“We once again express our hope and expectation that the upcoming elections are in full accordance with international standards.”

Aleksander Keka, the local head of the Christian Democratic Party in the Malsia e Madhe region in Northern Albania, was found dead early on Thursday after his car exploded and went off-road close to the city of Shkodra. The 38-year-old was found a few metres from his burning car on the highway linking the town of Koplik with Shkodra. Police are still investigating the cause of the explosion.

The death comes just days ahead of the June 28 parliamentary elections, which are seen as key for Albania’s EU accession hopes. With Albania newly promoted to NATO membership and EU candidate status, the ballot is seen as a crucial test of the country's democratic credentials.EU officials in Brussels and Tirana have said the poll will be considered a litmus test for the EU aspirations of the Albanian government.

The election campaign has already been marred by murder after a supporter of the opposition party killed a 25-year-old activist from the ruling Democratic Party in the village of Qerret, close to the town of Durres.On May 4, opposition deputy Fatmir Xhindi was gunned down outside his home in the town of Roskovec in Southern Albania. Xhindi’s murder remains a mystery to this day. No suspects have been identified.

Explosion kills politician in Albania

By LLAZAR SEMINI
TIRANA, Albania (AP)

An explosive device killed a conservative politician as he drove through northern Albania on Thursday, 10 days ahead of the country's parliamentary election, police said. The leader of the victim's political party called it a terrorist attack, but police suggested organized crime groups may have been responsible. Albanian electoral campaigns often are tense and marred by violence and irregularities.

Last week, a man was fatally shot following an argument over a campaign poster, and in May an opposition lawmaker was killed. Police said Aleksander Keka, a 34-year-old regional leader of Albania's opposition Christian Democratic Party, died in the explosion while driving near Shkodra, a city 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Tirana, the capital.

Police said an explosive device was used, but did not say whether it was hidden in the car or on the road the vehicle was traveling. Police said Keka was alone in the car, not with a passenger who was injured, as authorities had reported earlier. Christian Democratic Party leader Nard Ndoka called Keka's death an act of terrorism and said he had been waiting to meet the regional leader in Shkodra when the explosion occurred.

"It was a clear political attack, a terrorist act," Ndoka said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He said he believed the bomb had been detonated by remote control, based on accounts given by local residents near the scene of the blast. The Christian Democrats were until recently part of the governing coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

A delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will be monitoring the June 28 election, during which the conservative Berisha will face a challenge from Edi Rama, the Socialist leader and the mayor of Tirana. Keka was not a candidate in the parliamentary election. Police alleged in a statement that Keka had ties with organized crime groups who may have been responsible for the explosion that killed him, but Ndoka angrily rejected that possibility."That is a dirty slander. ... Clearly, this act was politically inspired," he said.

Club Med quits Albania resort, cites land problems

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA, June 16 (Reuters) - France's Club Mediterranee has quit a project to operate a holiday resort on Albania's Ionian coast after a prolonged dispute over the ownership of the site, a letter by Club Med revealed on Tuesday.

The five-year old controversy over who owned the horseshoe shaped bay facing Greece's holiday island of Corfu illustrates the confusion over title to property in post-communist Albania, a tangled problem deterring investment.

The European Union, which expects Albania to break with its history with free and fair elections on June 28, has also urged it to solve the problem of disputed titles to attract foreign investors and meet the criteria for membership.

'There's no project for a Club Med in Albania,' Florence Le Gall, Club Mediterranee's director of regional development, wrote to villagers claiming ownership of the land at Kakome, near Sarande in southern Albania.

Chrystel Baude, a Club Med spokeswoman, confirmed the authenticity of Le Gall's letter.

more see: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/06/16/afx6547978.html

Turkish PM to inaugurate Albania-Kosovo highway

Great pressing against Greek interests, in Albania:In North Turkey, while in south Italy

Turkish PM Erdogan will inaugurate a highway which is constructed by a Turkish-American consortium and will connect Albania to Kosovo. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will inaugurate a highway which is constructed by a Turkish-American consortium and will connect Albania to Kosovo, Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency said.


Completion of a tunnel under a 60 km (37 miles) stretch of road linking the Albanian coastal resort of Durres to the border with Kosovo will slash hours off travelling time for Kosovan holidaymakers heading for the sea. Erdogan will join Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha to inaugurate the highway on June 25.

The 61-kilometer highway is constructed by a consortium of U.S. company Bechtel and Turkish construction firm Enka. It will lower the 6-hour travel time to 2 hours from Albanian city of Drac to Kosovo's border gate Morina. Albania began considering building the road when the United Nations and NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999 after ousting the Serb forces of late war crimes suspct Slobodan Milosevic, but it was Berisha who pushed the project forward.


When the 160 km road is finally completed next year at a total cost of 1.1 billion euros ($1.557 bln) the trip of around six hours to Kosovo's border from the Albanian capital of Tirana will take just two hours. In the past, Kosovars have had to face a gruelling eight-hour trip, often via Macedonia, to reach Albania's beaches.

Anyway something is happened when in North of Albania the Turkish investments based on the Albanian nationalism investment such is The Highway Durres Pristine, and in South in Vlora Gulf, the massive Italian investments such is "Petrolifgera" suported directly by the PM Berlusconi, tells the new geopolitical developments in Albanian territory.