Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday for a controversial working visit during which he will meet with Bosniak President Bakir Izetbegovic and speak at what is perceived to be a pre-election rally for the Turkish diaspora in Europe.
Turks from EU countries have poured to Sarajevo to attend the sixth congress of the Union of European Turkish Democrats, which is taking place ahead of the June election in Turkey.
Germany and The Netherlands have previously banned Erdogan’s campaigning on their territory but Bosnia has agreed to host the rally.
The gathering has drawn criticism from Serbs and Croats in Bosnia who see it as a sign of support for Bosniaks, namely Izetbegovic’s Party for Democratic Action (SDA), ahead of Bosnia’s October election.
Lawmaker Nikola Spiric of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), a Serb party that advocates Serb secession from Bosnia, said Erdogan’s visit shows that things that are not possible in Europe, are possible in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Even if he would not say a word, his arrival sends at least three messages – one for the Bosniaks, another one for the Serbs and Croats and a third for Europe. We will see what he will say but whatever it is, it will hardly contribute to the integration of this country that is being more and more divided,” Spiric said.
Branislav Borenović, of the Serb opposition Party for Democratic Process said in his statement that Erdogan’s visit should not draw so much attention.
Bosnian Croat leader, Dragan Covic, said that “as a friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina he is welcome. But the fact is that the announcement of such a rally has caused many concerns from another standpoint in the entire European Union,” he said.
“When we talked to friends from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, they told us clearly that that us hosting it was a problem,” he said.
“I hope the gathering will pass peacefully and that it will not leave negative consequences, except for Erdogan’s strategic positions because of which he has organized this in Sarajevo and is sending his message from Sarajevo,” Covic said.
But Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic said there is nothing unusual about Erdogan to sending pre-election messages from Bosnia as the country has never had any problems with Turkey and neither has any other country in the region.
He noted that Turkey is trying to be a “friend” and therefore he sees no reason for this “negative euphoria” that emerged over Erdogan’s visit.
Izetbegovic and Erdogan will lay flowers at the cemetery where soldiers of the Bosnian Army are buried in Sarajevo – among them Izetbegovic’s father, Alija Izetbegovic, the first president of the country since it seceded from former Yugoslavia.
The two will take a walk down Sarajevo’s Old Town, Bascarsija, Sarajevo’s medival Turkish quarter and pray in the city’s main mosque together.
But not everybody in the capital – dominated by Muslim Bosniaks – is thrilled about the visit.
Analyst Zlatko Dizdarevic said it seems the Turkish President does in Bosnia whatever he wants. In the Turkish “foreign policy projection we are defined as part of the Ottoman empire, and as a border region of it, so this is their attitude toward us,” he told N1.
The Social Democrats (SDP) believe the Turkish rally being held in Sarajevo is not in the interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Party for a Better Future (SBB) said the country needs Turkey as a friend but the rally “is over the limit.”
“We have submitted our candidacy for EU membership, so we have agreed to the EU foreign policy,” the party’s leader, Fahrudin Radoncic, said.
“If no other country has allowed Erdogan to hold his pre-election rally, why would Sarajevo allow it?” he asked.
“I’m afraid that this is his message to Western Europe – I’m here, in the Balkans. The problem is that we have no standards and procedures about who can gather here (…) I’m afraid we are setting a standard here that can cost this country a lot,” he said.
