The new Kosovo flags “made in Turkey”
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Neither the freezing cold nor the sporadic snowfall kept Kosovo Albanians off the streets. To the contrary thousands of them have been taking to the streets since Friday in anticipation of the declaration of independence expected late yesterday afternoon.
PRIZREN - With the exception of the flag hanging from the Sinan Pasha Mosque, an impressive legacy of Ottoman times, the small number of Turkish flags hardly visible among the others is especially striking in a city home to 10,000 Kosovar Turks.
Turkish flags were hung in Prizren only Saturday afternoon after a warning from the celebration committee of the municipality, whose deputy mayor is from the Turkish community, the Turkish Daily News learned.
This is all the more striking since Turkey's support for Kosovo's independence has been unequivocal. The new flag of Kosovo was made in Turkey, and brought to Kosovo yesterday by Turkish Airlines, learned the TDN.
Turkey contributed to the KFOR since its inception. In fact, the Turkish unit based in Prizren assumed command of the KFOR in the south since May. The presence of Turkish troops has given a sense of security to Kosovar Turks. But they will leave one day.
The Turkish community seems to enjoy relatively good relations with the Albanians. But it was not always the case especially in the recent past. Nowadays their first and foremost plight is to have Turkish accepted as the official language. They want back the rights they enjoyed under the 1974 constitution that recognizes Turkish as one of the three official languages in Kosovo.