Turkish President Visits Bosnia, Montenegro to Boost Trade

Erdogan at a ruling party congress in March 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/TURKISH PRESIDENT PRESS OFFICE.

Turkish public broadcaster TRT reported that Erdogan will also open a mosque in Sarajevo's old town that was restored by Turkish General Directorate for Foundations.

He will meet with members of Bosnian presidency and will also attend the wedding of daughter of Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the country's main Bosnian party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and a former member of the Bosnian presidency.

"Steps to be taken to accelerate the Bosnia and Herzegovina dimension of the Sarajevo-Belgrade Highway, the foundation of which was laid on October 9, 2019 and is also known as the Peace Road Project, will be on the table," TRT reported.

Turkey pledged to finance the motorway project between Sarajevo and Belgrade. However, although work has started in Serbia, no construction has begun in Bosnia.

The motorway sparked political tensions within Bosnia because the country's two entities wanted different routes, but it was then agreed that it will pass through both entities.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, is suspending his boycott of state institutions for the meeting with the Turkish president.

The boycott was initiated by the Bosnian Serbs after the High Representative, the international overseer of the peace deal that ended the Bosnian war, imposed legislation banning the denial of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This infuriated Bosnian Serb politicians, who do not accept that the Srebrenica massacres constituted genocide, despite the rulings of international courts.

Dodik argued that the meeting with Erdogan was too important to miss,...