 |
Silajdzic says Turkey’s role in Balkans ‘very positive’
“Three-way meetings [between Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia] are perfect and very successful. Such an initiative had not been set out on until now. Of course not all problems will be solved in these meetings, but a new climate has been formed in every sense among us,” Haris Silajdzic, the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency while assessing Turkey-led facilitation efforts for reconciliation between the Balkan nations.
Turkey initiated a series of foreign ministerial gatherings among the three countries in October of last year. Thanks to these meetings, Bosnia and Herzegovina announced it will appoint an ambassador to Serbia in February. The next demarche came from Serbia, when the Serbian parliament apologized in late March for the bloody Srebrenica massacre, a move interpreted by some as a giant stride towards reconciliation between the two nations.
Stressing that Turkey’s initiative to revamp strained relations among the Balkan nations will bring about positive results, Silajdzic said this will benefit all sides. “Turkey’s role in this is big. This role is creating a new climate, new relations in a region where all are neighbors. We need to be in better cooperation if we are thinking about the betterment of our societies. Turkey is working in this regard,” the Bosnian leader said.
Gül will pay a two-day visit to Bosnia on Sept. 2-3 to review bilateral ties between the two countries. Silajdzic said Gül’s visit is “very important” and that they will discuss in some detail the problems facing the country.
He also complained that not everyone in Bosnia thinks the way he does with respect to Turkey’s engagement in the Balkans and said “these people still live in the past.”
Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of Republika Srpska, a semi-autonomous Serbian political entity within Bosnia, accused Turkey last week of interfering in Bosnian internal political affairs and of acting in favor of Bosnian Muslims. “We resent the fact that Turkey wants a unified and centralized Bosnia, favoring only one of the peoples [living in the country],” Dodik told Bosnian state radio.
Silajdzic dismissed Dodik’s remarks and said he considers them “farcical.” “There is neither a peaceful nor a military way to divide the country,” he added.
Serbs in Bosnia control 49 percent of Bosnian territory and constantly advocate more autonomy. They adamantly oppose the centralization of the country. Turkey has repeatedly stated its support for Bosnia’s territorial integrity.
The 1992-95 Bosnian conflict left the country split into two semi-independent entities: the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation, each having its own government. They are united by weak central institutions.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
