The fate of Bosnia-Herzegovina depends on discussions between local lawmakers with the support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Serbian and Croatian counterparts, the country's Serb leader Milorad Dodik said Wednesday.
The Serb member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina's tripartite presidency expressed his satisfaction with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Turkey.
"Last year, during Erdoğan's visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina, I stated that the problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina can be resolved with the mediation of Turkish President Erdoğan, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Croatian President Zoran Milanovic," Dodik told the SRNA news agency.
"The fate of Bosnia-Herzegovina depends on the dialogue of local politicians with the support of Erdoğan, Vucic and Milanovic. Other than that, no one's opinion will lead to a good outcome for Bosnia-Herzegovina."
When asked about the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina during a joint news conference Tuesday in Ankara with his Serbian counterpart, Erdoğan said that he and Vucic wanted the three leaders of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina to come together for a meeting in Ankara or Belgrade to work out the current political issues in the country.
The crisis flared after nationalist lawmakers in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina’s semi-autonomous Serb entity passed a nonbinding motion last year to start pulling the region out of the country’s armed forces, tax system and judiciary – a move long backed by Bosnian Serb leader Dodik.
Turkey, which has deep-rooted historical ties in the Balkans, has described the move as wrong and dangerous and has offered to mediate the crisis that has raised fears the country will relapse into ethnic conflict.
After a calamitous 1992-95 ethnic war that killed 100,000 people, Bosnia-Herzegovina was split into two widely autonomous regions – the Serb republic and a federation dominated by Bosniaks and Croats, overlaid by a loose central government.
Addressing reporters alongside Vucic following discussions in Ankara, Erdoğan said Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks alike should refrain from steps that endanger Bosnia-Herzegovina’s territorial integrity, urging all parties to act “with a sense of responsibility.”
“After these (Serbian) elections, we want to bring together the leaders of these three groups and to have a meeting with them. With this meeting, let us take steps to ensure Bosnia’s territorial integrity,” he said.
“We want to convene the three leaders – of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs – and accomplish this. We agreed on this,” Erdoğan said, adding that the talks could be held in Istanbul or Belgrade.
Turkey was late Bosniak Muslim wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic's biggest backer and has forged good relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina's post-war interethnic Bosniak-Serb-Croat presidency.
Earlier, local media reported that Erdoğan said Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Dodik and other regional officials had voiced their support for his meditation offer and that Ankara would intensify diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
Vucic called on Dodik last week to return to the country's national institutions, which Bosnian Serb political representatives have been boycotting since mid-2021 over a law criminalizing the denial of genocide.
International war crimes court judgments have branded the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide.
