Blic daily reported that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan completely changed his stance on the Balkans, after saying the project of “Greater Albania” is not only bad but also dangerous. He made these remarks in an interview to the Albanian TV station only three days before holding parliamentary elections in Albania. “These are bad things. You see what happens in the Middle East, Iraq, and Syria. We do not want such crisis to happen in the Balkans. (…) We respect the sovereignty and integrity of all countries and that has to be clear. That is why such games must not be played in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia,” stated Erdogan, thus disappointing many supporters of the so-called “Greater Albania” among Albanian politicians. Blic daily further analyzed potential reasons that lead to such change in his stance, listing the three reasons that could be behind it. The first problem is Fethullah Gulen (80) who is in the USA at the moment and under CIA protection, according to claims of official Turkey, influencing for decades situation in his fatherland through thousands of non-governmental organizations present in schools, education, social and political systems in Turkey. Reason number two is ISIS as according to Blic some of the biggest bases of the terrorist ISIS in Europe are located in Albania and Kosovo. At the moment when entire world fights ISIS and Erdogan’s position in international relations is more and more uncertain, he would not dare to support a state in which bases of the greatest world’s enemy are located. Reason number three are Kurds. Erdogan is placed between “two fires” after his plan to oust Bashar al-Assad failed. Fear from the creation of the Kurdish state forced Erdogan to lower his ambitions towards the Balkans. The chaos in Syria encouraged Syrian Kurds and now many are expecting that the USA will support creation of Kurdish states at the territories of Iraq and Syria, while Erdogan considers them as mortal enemies.

This could represent an end to Erdogan’s imperialism, Blic reported. Failure in the Arab world, his condemnation of Gulen’s supporters in Albania means that his attention is no longer focused on the Balkans but focused on internal Turkey’s problems, foremost Kurds.