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ANKARA (AFP) - The Turkish foreign ministry in a statement expressed satisfaction over a series of guarantees by the United Nations interim administration in Kosovo, protecting the cultural rights of the Turkish community living in the volatile province. The Turkish community in Kosovo, which Ankara says numbers 60,000, had threatened to boycott the October local elections protesting that the U.N. mission did not issue registration forms in Turkish. It said the U.N. document reaffirmed the equality of the Turkish community with the Albanian, Serbian and other communities of the province. The document also pledged to issue all U.N. regulations in Turkish as well as ID cards in which Turkish would be used along with Serbian and Albanian. The U.N. document also gave the Turkish community the right to instruct children in Turkish within the framework of the education system in Kosovo. "Turkey will closely follow the implementation" of the guarantees, it said. The document was prepared after Ankara contacted the head of the U.N. administration in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, in July to convey complaints from Kosovar Turks over what they saw as U.N. disregard of the Turkish language. On condition of anonymity, a Turkish diplomat on Wednesday said that they did not know the reaction of the Turkish community to the U.N. guarantees. "But they are likely to increase Turkish participation in the elections," he added. The Turks enjoyed cultural autonomy under Belgrade's rule and did not join the Albanian struggle for independence although the two communities have a common faith in Islam. Turkey participated in the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia last year and contributes 1,000 troops to the multinational peacekeeping force in the province. |
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