Kosovo plans to open first embassy in Ankara

The Kosovar president announced yesterday that Kosovo would open its first embassy in Ankara, in an apparent gesture acknowledging Turkey's swift recognition of his state in February.
Turkey was among the first countries to recognize the world's youngest state on the evening of Feb. 18, a little over 24 hours after Kosovo's Albanian leadership declared independence in a parliamentary session on Feb. 17.

Following a meeting with Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, President Fatmir Sejdiu told reporters yesterday that Kosovo had decided to upgrade diplomatic relations with Turkey to the ambassadorial level. Sejdiu instructed Foreign Ministry officials to take necessary steps toward opening an embassy in Ankara, officials said.

Kosovo has had a representative office in Istanbul since 1999. Earlier this week, the Turkish-Kosovar Economic Trade Chamber, comprising 11 Turkish business institutions and the Turkish Liaison Office, was opened in order to develop strong trade relations between Kosovo and Turkey, improve the Kosovar economy and encourage and support the growing economic investments and trade between the two countries.

"The next three years are very critical and important to the development of Kosovo, in the sense that the Kosovar-Turkish Trade Chamber can begin to implement its projects for the reconstruction of the economy for the benefit of Kosovo," Mustafa Sarnıç, the chief of Turkish Liaison Office in Kosovo, said at the time.

"Kosovo has Turkish companies that do business in Kosovo, so they have all come together to further the development of the economic relations between Kosovo and Turkey," Sarnıç said.

"Turkey will open its embassy in Kosovo and will eliminate the system of visa requirements for Kosovar citizens immediately after the Republic of Kosovo opens its embassy in Ankara," he added then.

With Ankara, Kosovo is now set to have 10 representation offices abroad, but ambassadors have not yet been appointed since initially these embassies and offices will be headed by chargés d'affaires.

Last month, Sejdiu signed a decree to open nine foreign embassies -- in Brussels, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Bern, Vienna, Rome and Tirana -- the capitals that have backed Kosovo's independence.

Meanwhile, angered by Ankara's swift recognition of Kosovo, Serbia is refusing to give the formal go-ahead to a new Turkish envoy appointed to Belgrade, a sign of a chill in the two countries' ties.

The Serbian government recalled its ambassador to Turkey following Turkey's recognition of Kosovo. Ambassador Ahmet Süha Umar, appointed the new Turkish envoy to Serbia, has been waiting for months for a meeting with President Boris Tadic. Ambassadors need to formally present their credentials to the president of the country they are appointed to as a diplomatic requirement before officially assuming office.