Turkey Marks Failed Coup’s Third Anniversary Across Balkans

The Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, hoisted a Turkish flag on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the failed coup in Turkey, just a week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the country, when he urged the authorities to extradite suspected followers of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen - who Ankara blames for the coup attempt.

Matching events included photography and art shows as well as religious ceremonies, marches and sporting events organized on Monday in Skopje, Zagreb and Pristina. In North Macedonia, a reception and a religious ceremony were held in the Mustafa Pasha Mosque on July 15, organised by the Turkish embassy in Skopje and other Turkish institutions operating in the country.

In Sarajevo, several receptions and events organised by Turkish institutions and NGOs as well as a special religious ceremony in the city's main mosque, the Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque, took place on July 15. A small symbolic marathon, the "15 July democracy run", organised by Turkish institutions in Sarajevo, also took place on Sunday.

Ceremonies started in Sarajevo on July 10 with the showing of a documentary called Network, which was about the failed coup attempt. On July 12, the day was marked in Sarajevo's historic Bascarsija square with a video screening organized by a Turkish lobby group in Bosnia, the Union of International Democrats, UID.

A friendly football match between Bosnian war veterans and Turkish soldiers who serve in Bosnia was organised in Zenica, in central Bosnia, on July 13, following a conference and a photographic gallery, which the Bosniak member of the Bosnian state presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, attended. "Turkey showed a great democratic example on July 15, 2016," Dzaferovic said, Anadolu Agency reported.

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