Ankara: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he and Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday agreed to broker crisis talks involving all parties in Bosnia after elections in Serbia in April.
The crisis escalated after nationalist lawmakers in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Serb unit after the war passed a non-binding resolution to weed out the region from the country’s armed forces, tax system and judiciary – long termed by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad. Backed by a step dodik.
Turkey, which has deep roots in the Balkans, has criticized the move as “wrong, dangerous” and has offered to mediate in the crisis, which has raised fears of a re-emergence in ethnic conflict in Bosnia.
After a devastating 1992–95 ethnic war that killed 100,000 people, Bosnia was split into two largely autonomous regions – a Serb Republic (RS) and a federation dominated by Bosniaks and Croats, which formed a loose was imposed by the Central Government.
Addressing reporters with Vucic after talks in Ankara, Erdogan said that Serbs, Croatians and Bosniaks alike should refrain from actions that threaten Bosnia’s territorial integrity and should all be treated “with a sense of responsibility”. ” should work.
“After these (Serbian) elections, we want to bring together the leaders of these three groups and have a meeting with them. With this meeting let us take steps to ensure the territorial integrity of Bosnia.”
“We want to convene the three leaders of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs – and get it done. We agreed on it,” Erdogan said, adding that talks could take place in Istanbul or Belgrade.
Predominantly Muslim Turkey supported the late Bosniak Muslim wartime leader Alija Izebegovi and, after the War of Bosnia, maintained good relations with the inter-ethnic Bosniak-Serbo-Croatian presidency.
Earlier, local media quoted Erdogan as saying that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Dodi and other regional officials had extended support for his mediation offer, and that Ankara would intensify its diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
Vucic told the news conference that Serbia remains committed to Bosnia as an intact state and that the preservation of peace and stability in the Balkans is paramount, along with “with respect for differences.”
Vucic last week called on Dodi to return to the national institutions that the Serb republic has boycotted a law denying genocide from mid-2021.
International War Crimes Court rulings have branded the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces as a genocide, something nationalist Serbs deny.
Serbia was a protectorate of wartime Bosnian Serb separatists and remains close to Bosnia’s post-war Serb unit, sharing a border with it.
Dodi’s separatist rhetoric has fueled Serb nationalist rallies and events in the cities of the Serb Republic.
Earlier this month, the United States imposed new sanctions on Dodi for alleged corruption and threatening the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia. The EU also said last week that the Bosnian Serb leadership faced EU sanctions and tensions over the loss of aid should continue.
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