PRISTINA, Kosovo
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah Isler has praised ‘excellent’ relations with Kosovo on his visit to Kosovo's capital Pristina.
Minister Isler held a meeting with Kosovo's Parliament Speaker Jakup Krasniqi on Tuesday along with Turkish officials and Kosovar parliament members of Turkish origin.
Isler also visited the office of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency, or TIKA.
He arrived in Kosovo on Tuesday together with the agency's president, Serdar Cam, on the invitation of Kosovo's Minister of Public Administration Mahir Yagcilar.
Addressing the media in Pristina, Minister Isler praised Kosovo’s development towards building the country and gaining international recognition.
Isler said the Turkish development agency TIKA was not led by any imperialistic agenda, but by the goodwill of Turkey, which sought to give a hand to all people suffering difficult living conditions.
The minister added that TIKA paid special attention to the development projects in the Balkans, whose legacy from the period of the Ottoman Empire was very rich, but he stressed that agency's work in other fields was also significant.
"After the departure of the Ottoman Empire from here, many legacies of this period were destroyed. TIKA works on the restoration of what had remained here, aiming to leave it for future generations. TIKA is not exclusively devoted to this type of project - it also actively works in the field of agriculture, health, education and other areas," he said.
During the visit of the Turkish delegation to Kosovo, TIKA will be holding several ceremonies to mark the completion of some of the agency's projects.
Isler will also attend the Children’s Day ceremony in Kosovo on Wednesday.
TIKA was founded in 1992 and has 35 branches in the world.
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