There is enormous pressure on institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina to solve in a political way the issue of Turkish nationals who currently reside in the country and whose Turkish travel documents have been annulled, attorney Nedim Ademovic said in a press conference in Sarajevo on Monday.
“We believed this would never happen because we thought the institutions would solve the matter in a legal way, but the situation has been politicized to the extent where we have to defend our clients,” said Ademovic.
Bosnia's investigative media outlet Zurnal.info recently published that the Ministry of Security received a list with names of supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, the leader of so-called Gulen movement, an international organisation presently outlawed in Turkey as an alleged terrorist group.
The same source claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Bosnian authorities to extradite all Turkish citizens whom authorities in Turkey suspect of collaborating with the Gulen movement. According to Zurnal.info, Ankara delivered a list of eight Turkish citizens who now live in Bosnia and whose passports have been annulled.
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“No citizen can be extradited without evidence that he/she committed a crime. There is no process in Turkey, no investigation or indictment against them. Those are persons who normally work and live in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Ademovic.
Attorney Senka Nozica pointed out that the Turkish citizens in question live in Bosnia for a long time and were never part of a criminal case process.
“Our clients have been living in Bosnia for many years, some of them more than 20 years. They mostly work as teachers, professors, they're all married and most of them have children here,” Nozica told reporters, adding that their clients were not in a trial either in Turkey or in Bosnia.
“Some of our clients are renowned citizens in our society. We won't tell their names and you know that one of them was nominated for the April Sixth Award, which was not delivered,” she added.
Bosnia Presidency Chairman Milorad Dodik confirmed last week during the visit of his Turkish counterpart that they talked about Turkish citizens who reside in Bosnia and whom authorities in Turkey suspect of collaborating with terrorist organisations.
“Turkey has information regarding the attempted coup. It was tracked down that there are some people and institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly in the Federation (FBiH) entity and I think it is a matter for the Federation's institutions and I believe Erdogan completely understands that,” said Dodik, who met with Turkish President last week alongside other two members of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency.
But, Security Minister Dragan Mektic claims that what needs to be done first is to review the asylum request that those Turkish nationals applied for in Bosnia.
“After the decision on asylum is made, it will be followed by administrative procedure on their status. I cannot predict the outcome,” Mektic said in N1's programme last week.
The Gulen movement is known as FETO and its supporters, Gulenists, are the main suspects in the 2016 Turkish coup attempt.
Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of main Bosniak SDA party in Bosnia, joined on Monday Turkish President Erdogan in the ceremony marking the Democracy Day in Turkey and third anniversary of the attempted coup in that country.
