Bosnia and Turkey are “brotherly” countries and must continue to strengthen their economic ties, Turkey’s President and the three members of Bosnia’s Presidency said after they met in Sarajevo on Friday to discuss relations, joint projects and the political situation.
“BiH has a special place in the hearts of our people,” the Turkish President said, adding “we would like to express our great gratitude to our BiH brothers and sisters for the messages of solidarity they sent us after the floods in Turkey.”
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“We talked about relations in the region and on the world stage. We have updated the free trade agreement. This will contribute to increasing both our trade and investments in BiH. We also see the importance of strengthening our cultural ties. We also talked about current events in the Balkans,” he said.
“Our goal is to have a billion euros in trade between our countries,” Erdogan stressed.
The Croat member of the tripartite Presidency and current Chairman of the institution, Zeljko Komsic, said that BiH has successful cooperation with Turkey, but also that there is “room for improvement.”
“Erdogan informed us about the situation regarding Turkey's investments in BiH, the problems he is facing as they are trying to increase investments. We talked about specific projects to bring Turkish investors on an equal footing with domestic companies. We also discussed the intention and need for our two countries to sign an agreement for cooperation in the energy sector,” Komsic said.
Komsic said that internal affairs in BiH were also discussed and that he hopes that the current blockade of BiH institutions due to a decision by the political leadership in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity will come to an end soon.
In July, the former High Representative in BiH tasked with overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, Valentin Inzko, used his special powers to impose amendments to the law that make genocide and war crimes denial, as well as glorification of war criminals illegal.
Political parties in the Serb-majority RS entity strongly disagreed with the move and decided that RS representatives will not participate in the work of state institutions until the issue is resolved. The RS National Assembly also rejected the High Representative’s amendments.
According to Komsic, the blockade of state institutions over the issue is a “waste of time and energy.”
Komsic’s Bosniak colleague in the Presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, said that relations between Turkey and BiH are “brotherly.”
“Turkey is a great friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Erdogan is our great friend. Turkey does not ask us for anything, it only offers. If I were to summarize our bilateral relations, I would say that Turkey and President Erdogan are important factors in the stability of the Western Balkans. We ask President Erdogan to continue with this stabilizing policy,” Dzaferovic said.
The Serb member of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, also praised Erdogan’s role in maintaining stability in the region, adding that he familiarised him with the political situation in the country.
“An internal agreement is best. We believe more in cooperation with Erdogan than in imposed solutions,” Dodik said, referring to the role of the High Representative in BiH.
“I am convinced that if Turkey was involved in the story with the High Representative it would not have ended in such a mess. Erdogan is a man who understands that, even though I know that he has his own position on it,” Dodik pointed out.
He repeated that “Republika Srpska can not accept having some foreigner impose laws.”
Dodik said that the Dayton Peace Agreement “was destroyed through interventions of the international community.”
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