Turkey outdoes EU, US, raising hopes for peace in Balkans

Speaking at a press conference after the most recent meeting in Ankara, Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj informed reporters that Borisa Arnaut had been appointed as the Bosnian ambassador to Serbia. Also speaking at the same conference, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told reporters that Serbia had officially agreed to receive a Bosnian ambassador to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina in Belgrade.

Furthermore, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the trilateral meetings between them over the last five months had sparked an important renewal in the image of the Balkans and pledged that the meetings would go on.

“Turkey has achieved something the European Union and the US had not,” said Caner Sancaktepe, an expert on the Balkans at the Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM), terming Turkey a key player in the Balkan region. He underlined that neither Bosnians nor Serbs have any reason to rely on Western powers when it comes to establishing peace in the region.

“Serbia was invaded twice by European powers during the world wars. Moreover, in 1999 NATO bombed Serbia. These are some of the events that have led Serbs to hold an anti-Western line,” he said.

Comparing Serbian relations with Bosnia to its relations with Western powers, Sancaktepe emphasized that even after the bloody war in the first half of the 1990s, Serbia still stands closer to Bosnia than it does to the West. He added that nothing prevents Serbia from trusting Turkey to be a fair broker in peace negotiations.

However, some say it is too early to label the appointment a diplomatic victory and Turkey’s mediation efforts a success because Turkish-ally Bosnia, not Serbia, was convinced to take the step.

Dismissing these claims, Christopher Deliso, an American journalist covering the Balkan region, said it was the Serbian side that was persuaded to accept the appointment of the Bosnian ambassador to Belgrade.

Commenting on Turkey’s historic ties with the Balkans, Deliso noted that they are not only beneficial but also indispensable for the region. “After the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, Turkey essentially gave up territorial aspirations in much of the Balkans and has thus not participated in most of the conflict-generating events witnessed since then, events that still fuel the mutual mistrust and antagonism between the Balkan states. Therefore, this exclusion has made Turkey a more trusted party, more acceptable to all sides, than any of the countries in the region, each of which inevitably has some outstanding issues with at least one of its neighbors,” he noted. Deliso also suggested that Turkey should keep itself away from each and every conflict in the Balkans, adding, “It is more beneficial for Turkey to retain its overall popular image in the Balkans, and let Brussels and Washington deal with the more unpleasant work.”

When asked whether the problem of Kosovo would constitute a factor that would lead to the abrupt breakup of ties between Serbia and Turkey, Sancaktepe said the Kosovo case will not create considerable tension between the two. “Serbia recalled its ambassador to Turkey when Turkey recognized the independence of Kosovo, but Turkey insisted on not recalling the Turkish ambassador in Belgrade,” he said.

He also added that this determined diplomatic stance on the Kosovo case has been very influential in gaining Serbia’s trust.

Turkey, along with most EU members and the US, welcomed Kosovo’s declaration of independence and recognized its independence just one day after it chose to break away from Serbia in February 2008.

“There is consensus over the establishment of peace. All sides know that conflict harms everyone,” Sancaktepe said, highlighting that only marginal ultranationalist circles in Serbia have spoken of war and the idea of a “Greater Serbia.”

Gözde Kılıç Yaşın, an expert on the region from the Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Analysis (TÜRKSAM), stated in an article published on the TÜRKSAM Web site that the trilateral meetings are a significant step not only for reducing tension between Bosnia and Serbia but also for putting forward a problem-solving model for the rest of the Balkans.

Furthermore, she put great emphasis on a new understanding that suggests that dialogue is not impossible among former rivals and that it is the first step to be taken when pursuing peace.

“If this process is able to establish peace, it will constitute a model for the resolution of problems,” she added.

Yaşın also warned that Turkish attitudes toward the region should be free from the country’s Ottoman past and that it should not make use of diplomacy that alludes to the centuries of Ottoman rule in the region. “Turkey should treat other Balkan states as equal partners,” she said.

Furthermore, she said if Turkey plays a constructive role in bringing about peace between Bosnia and Serbia, Turkish diplomacy should stand ready to engage in another round of fair mediation between Kosovo and Serbia.