The president of Turkey’s national assembly, Mustafa Sentop, begins an official visit to Albania this week at the head of a large Turkish delegation, with meetings planned with the country’s leadership.
The visit by Turkey’s top lawmaker, nevertheless, is rife with religious overtones and overt symbolism, as the delegation will travel to the northern Albanian city of Shkoder to participate in Friday prayers at the city’s biggest mosque and also visit a madrassa, an Islamic religious school funded by the Turkish state, where views against other religions, or even Muslim denominations, are often promoted.
Still in Albania, but on a more optimistic note, the country’s education minister, Evis Kushi, last week awarded the EU Commission’s European School eTwinning distinction to the Pnoi Agapis school of Tirana.
The school, founded in 2008, is operated by the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, with a twin goal of offering top notch education and instilling Christian values. Its high school opened in 2017, with the inauguration conducted by the Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude Anastasios.
