Sarajevo meeting bears fruit: ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina Action Plan’

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj and Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic had a trilateral meeting in Sarajevo on Monday. This was the third such trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers.

Davutoğlu, Alkalaj and Jeremic reached an agreement on certain points, such as coming together more frequently, intensifying Bosnia and Herzegovina’s relations with neighboring countries and fair representation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at international organizations.

Within this framework, countries that have lent support to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership in NATO will institutionalize their joint support by gathering under the umbrella of the “Friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The foreign minister of Slovenia, which joined the European Union in 2004, will lead this group’s efforts within the 27-nation bloc, while Turkey will be the leading country concerning efforts within NATO as well as within certain Southeast European platforms.

Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, has been holding the chairmanship-in-office of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) since June. Ankara’s efforts to strengthen Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is plagued by simmering tensions over governance and power-sharing issues, will continue in the upcoming days and months.

On Tuesday, the Turkish capital hosted Nikola Spiric, prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Spiric, accompanied by a delegation, had talks with both President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Today, Gavrilo Grahovac, the culture minister of the federation government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is scheduled to arrive in the Central Anatolian city of Konya, which will host a meeting of the ministers of culture of the SEECP from Wednesday to Friday. Participating ministers are also expected to attend Şeb-i Arus, a ceremony held annually on Dec. 17 marking the death of 13th century Sufi saint Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi.

Ankara will, meanwhile, today host the leaders of various Bosniak groups within Bosnia and Herzegovina who have been at odds over the political process regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Turkey trying to reconcile their differences. In the meantime, the leaders of Croat groups living in Bosnia and Herzegovina will gather at a similar meeting led by Croatia.

Srebrenica gesture from Serbs

In October, on the sidelines of a ministerial-level meeting of the SEECP, Davutoğlu brought together Jeremic and Alkalaj in İstanbul for their first trilateral meeting. In November, the three held the second such trilateral meeting in İstanbul.

The fourth meeting will be held in Belgrade in the third week of January. Within a short time after the Belgrade meeting, the foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Turkey will come together in Zagreb.

In February, Davutoğlu will meet with representatives of various segments within Bosnia and Herzegovina at a meeting to be held in Spain. Speaking with a small group of journalists who accompanied him during his visits to Zagreb and Sarajevo earlier this week, Davutoğlu said Serbia recently agreed to take certain constructive steps within the process. As part of this, Serbs are expected to condemn the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The Turkish side has reportedly already suggested a formula for the format and the content of the condemnation which would please both the Bosnian and Serb sides.

Turkey has decided to lend financial and technical support to an institution working for finding bodies of the missing persons who disappeared during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, which split the country into two highly autonomous entities -- Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation, handing each entity its own government, parliament and police.

While Davutoğlu was in Sarajevo, Turkish Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Vefahan Ocak traveled to Banja Luka, the largest city in the Republika Srpska entity, in order to meet with Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of Republika Srpska -- the predominantly Serb region of Bosnia and Herzegovina.