The new government in Bosnia-Herzegovina should maintain good ties with Türkiye, Dragan Covic, the leader of the mainstream Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ) party, said Monday.
Speaking with Anadolu Agency (AA), Covic evaluated the election expectations in the country, relations with Türkiye and the election law decision of High Representative of Bosnia-Herzegovina Christian Schmidt, which is claimed to be in favor of the Croats.
Covic, which has become a "key party" in the efforts to form a government in the country after the elections, pointed out that it is "necessary" to form a government in every region where his party is present, and said that they will start the negotiation process on Thursday.
Stating that as a party, they will give priority to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the entity-level Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Covic said: "As a party, there are two issues that our partners need to know. The first is membership in the European Union (EU) and obtaining candidate country status. The second is reforms."
Emphasizing that the chair of the Council of Ministers will be Croatian due to the political structure in the country, Covic said: "Here we must be very clear in this part. We must deal with laws that no one has dealt with before."
He underlined that although Türkiye is not among the neighboring countries, it has a visible influence on the politics of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We should continue to have good relations with Türkiye, but not at the individual or political party level," he said and added that these ties should be at the level of national institutions.
Since the end of the 1990s war and the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, the country has had a political system dubbed as the world's most complicated. It comprises two entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
The two entities have broad autonomy and all actions require consensus from the country's three main ethnic groups – Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats.
The recent elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina entrenched divisions between the fragile country's three ethnic groups at a time of deep political crisis but looked set to tip its foreign policy toward the West rather than Russia, preliminary results showed.
Nationalist parties from all three groups were expected to dominate the national and regional parliaments, based on 70% of ballots counted, according to partial results of a range of elections held last Sunday issued by the election commission.
Non-nationalist Bosniak and Croat candidates will run Bosnia-Herzegovina's inter-ethnic presidency alongside a pro-Russian Serb nationalist's closest ally, the results showed.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has remained a dysfunctional and unstable state for almost three decades after the devastating conflict between its Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) after former Socialist Yugoslavia collapsed.
It is overseen by an international peace envoy, who imposed changes to parliamentary procedures after polls closed to prevent a post-election hiatus at a time when Croats and Serbs have both threatened moves that would undo the post-war order.
The central, regional and local contests in the country, divided since the war into Bosniak-Croat and Serb autonomous regions with overarching common institutions, pitted entrenched nationalists against candidates seeking to reform the economy. The parliamentary votes indicated that campaigns of blocking change were likely to continue.
The Balkans are a priority for Türkiye not only for political, economic and geographical reasons but also for its historical, cultural and human ties with the region.
Türkiye has in recent years ramped up its presence in the Balkans, both politically and economically. Bosniak communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia have mainly had close relations with Ankara, while Turkish companies have increased investment in infrastructure projects throughout the region.