Not Quite Royalty

I availed myself for making a few embarrassing remarks when I met with Ahmet Shala, as the Minister of Finance of Kosovo was impressed with how much not only I knew about his country, but about European economies. Let me back up. I finally found out what my host father, Tömar, does for a living. He owns about 500 18-whellers and companies ask his corporation to deliver goods. Also, a recent extension of the company is the purchase of energy reserves which they sell to the government. In addition to Türker, the company he owns, he also chairs the social and cultural committee for relations in the Balkan States. Tömar is Albanian, and moved to Turkey when he was 6. Yet he is extremely proud of his Albanian roots and has visited his homeland 3 times since I have been living here.

Let me clear something up for you that I was rather confused about. Tömar is Albanian. However, this is not his nationality, but his ethnicity. His family lived in both Albania and Serbia. The region of Serbia that they lived in is now the newly independent Kosovo. Therefore, though he is Albanian, he is also Kosovian, despite never having lived there. If you are still confused, no worries. The people who live there have a difficult time explaining the situation.



This time however, instead of Tömar going to the Balkan region, he invited one of his friends, the Minister of Finance in Kosovo, to Istanbul. Ahmet Shala, the minister, came with an entourage of his wife, 4 children, and another family of 4. Fortunately for me, the minister speaks fluent English (as did nearly half of the people he brought with him). However, none of them spoke Turkish, so the languages flying around the table included Albanian, Turkish, English, and French depending on who was talking to who. I had the pleasure of sharing a car with the Minister, and was able to speak with him about the problems that Kosovo is having not only with applying to the EU but also within Kosovo itself. I really was struggling to contain my excitement when he offered to host me for the weekend whenever I am available. So hopefully, I will be making a weekend getaway to Kosovo while I am teaching in Greece.