A panel titled "The Name of Victory: Türkiye" was organised by the Presidency's Directorate of Communications in Tirana, the capital of Albania.
Moderated by AA Board Member Prof. Yusuf Özkır, the panel featured Recep Şehitoğlu, Faculty Member at Gaziantep University's Department of Political Science and Public Administration; Prof. Ardian Muhaj from the Institute of History at the Academy of Sciences of Albania; analyst Marlind Laçi; and Vehap Kola, Faculty Member at the University of New York Tirana (UNYT) affiliated with the Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV).
At the opening of the panel, Naime Öztürk Meral, Counsellor at Türkiye's Embassy in Tirana, emphasised the importance of holding such an event in Albania, a friendly country where FETO continued to have a strong presence.
Stating that the event was an important part of efforts to raise awareness among the Albanian public, Meral said:
"In Albania, we see that FETO maintains its attempts to manipulate the Albanian people through the religious, health, and education sectors. We continue to explain at every opportunity that FETO is a new-generation terrorist organisation rarely seen in history, so that Albania does not endure the bitter experiences our country has gone through."
AA Board Member Özkır emphasised that FETO posed a serious risk and threat wherever it was present, saying that such events were important in terms of raising awareness and shaping public opinion.
"A country must have a government that determines its future by democratic vote"
Stating that the night of July 15 was not only a coup attempt but also an intervention in Turkish democracy, Şehitoğlu said, "That night, an attempt was made to destroy and overthrow a democratically elected government."
Prof. Muhaj stated that Türkiye and the Turkish people were among the Albanians' best allies and that they wanted Albanian institutions to be purified from FETO.
Analyst Laçi stated that if Albanian citizens truly understood FETO's structure within the state and private sectors, they would understand how dangerous the organisation was and said, "FETO has a presence in Albania in a variety of sectors, including private education and medicine, justice, the army and police, and the Republic of Albania's intelligence structure. This makes the presence of this terrorist group even more dangerous."
UNYT Faculty Member Kola noted that what occurred in Türkiye on July 15, 2016, was an act of overthrowing and subjugating the will and legitimate right of a democratically elected government to determine the country's future and said, "The people of Türkiye, President (Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan and advocates of democracy gave the following answer on the night of July 15: A country must have a government that determines its future by democratic vote."
The film 15/07 Break of Dawn was screened as part of the panel.
A message from the Presidency's Head of Communications, Burhanettin Duran, was also read at the event.
As part of the panel, the film 15/07: Break of Dawn was screened, and photographs taken during and after the coup attempt were exhibited.
