A contract was signed today on the purchase of the fleet of armed Bayraktar unmanned aircraft (UAV) as part of the Strategic Partnership with the Republic of Türkiye in the framework of the efforts to further modernize Albania’s Armed Forces as a NATO member.

Equipping armed forces with unmanned aircraft capacities is one of the projects as part of the army modernization drive. Acquiring such a system is of a particular importance to the national and NATO security, also to the country’s efforts to meet the obligations under the National Security and Military Strategy, as well as the NATO Capabilities.

The Turkish Bayraktar has emerged as one of the most well-known drones in the world, equipped with the highest state-of-the-art technology to deliver on military, police and civil missions, and they will be armed and ready for combat, will help authorities in a number of areas, including monitoring the country’s territory, the fight against illicit cannabis cultivation, territorial protection and collection of geospatial data.

The deal on the purchase of the armed Bayraktar unmanned aircraft was signed during a ceremony at the Halls Map at the Prime Minister’s office. Prime Minister Edi Rama, Defence Minister Niko Peleshi, and the CEO of the Turkish defence company Baykar, Lütfü Haluk Bayraktar, as well as other invited guests attended the ceremony.

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Dear friends from Türkiye!

I would like to commence my speech by saying that I have happened to be a wedding witness only once during my whole life. And coincidentally the wedding I happened to witness the wedding of the Bayraktar drone inventor, namely the brother of the CEO Haluk Bayraktar who has joined us today.

I believe that as a wedding witness, at least, I haven’t brought bad luck. Instead, it is most likely that I have brought good luck, but the then “groom” is definitely bringing some luck to our country’s army and I am very happy about that today. However, I will start off right from where I should begin by thanking first President Erdogan, who has been essential to this process because we all know when it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles, Bayraktar or the drones as they are known now, it’s not just a matter of having the money to pay for them, it’s also about being able to get through the queue because the queue is too long and on the other hand it’s the fact of being on the right side.

We are very proud that, together with Türkiye and President Erdogan, we are on the right side, aligned in the largest military alliance, that of NATO’s Euro-Atlantic community, and aligned in a very strategic partnership between us and the Republic of Türkiye.

This is a very good day for our cooperation, the armed forces and the defence ministries of the two countries.

This is a relationship that is increasingly becoming better, it is a natural relationship that has been built over the years. Today it is at its best, yet we want to further improve it.

I am therefore confident that under this agreement we are not only bringing to Albania the highest technology in this field, but we are also introducing new knowledge. This agreement is intended not only to buy the drones, but also to build a bridge between our armed forces and the Bayrak company, which will deal with training of human resources. We are talking about more than 30 people who will be selected very carefully with the help of the Bayrak company. They will be prepared to take over the operation of the control center, which will be a high-tech NATO facility at the Kuçova air base that we are constructing and it is again represented by the Turkish troops that have been deployed and providing their contribution for several years now.

We will later start work with the drones, because as Mr Bayraktar rightly noted this isn’t about wartime only.

We will sign a full-package deal. The initial three drones will be armed one and ready for  combat and for use in any possible case that I hope will never be the case. So I hope that our national security is never under threat, but in such a scenario we will be ready for combat. The drones will help authorities in a number of areas, including monitoring the country’s territory, strengthening the rule of law, the fight against illicit cannabis cultivation, territorial protection and collection of geospatial data.

These aircraft capacities will also help us to monitor the road traffic, track down wanted persons. As such, they will help police and law enforcement agencies to fully monitor the territory and build state-of-the-art capabilities to combat cultivation of narcotics throughout the territory, track potential forest fires. They will also help in the fight against unauthorized constructions, damages to the public and private properties.

I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I would like to reiterate that it is impossible to sufficiently thank Mr President, our dear friend and the excellent friend of this country and nation, namely the President Erdogan, the Defence Minister, who has been really keen to help us, because the operation was not an easy one in terms of building the right and financial and legal channels.

I would also like to thank the CEO, who although I haven’t been his wedding witness, he still was so kind and so graceful as to offer us very favourable conditions.

The flexibility demonstrated by the CEO and the Turkish company has been very important for us, although everyone knows that the company is currently unable to really meet all the ever growing demand for the Bayraktar drones.

Last, I would like to say it must be both quite strange and funny to use something that people have dedicated songs to, although everybody knows that songs are dedicated to heroes, soldiers and ordinary people. While the Bayraktar brothers have developed a product to which a song is dedicated and it just takes accessing YouTube and one can find a song about Bayraktar drones, which have inspired a song of the Ukrainian resistance.

It is a brand that makes you powerful, builds trust and confidence, as well as it earns respect. This is what you are actually granting to Albania today; more power, more confidence in its own strength and of course more respect for itself.

So God bless you and I hope that Tirana is convincing enough for you to come back and I look forward to starting and working with you to expand the field of interventions and cooperation because after all Albania is your second home and you know it.

Thank you very much!