Turkey instigates diplomatic spat with Bosnian Serbs

It is worth recalling Erdogan’s anti-Jewish rant at Israel’s Shimon Peres in Davos in 2009, itself a diplomatic spat, but topped off with Erdogan walking out of a seemingly benign meeting of diplomats. What ensued is Turkish-instigated military confrontation with Israel which will surely grow after the interception of Turkish terrorist flotilla last year.
With yesterday’s diplomatic spat with the Serb Republic, like with Israel, Turkey seems to be signaling that Bosnian Serbs are Turkey’s next target of confrontation.
Yesterday, Erdogan’s confrontational modus operandi was in full display in the Bosnian Serb Republic when Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded that the flag of the Serb Republic be removed if he is to take part in a scheduled meeting with Nebojsa Radmanovic, Serb representative of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency.
Davutoglu was into 75 minutes of a no-show for a scheduled meeting with Radmanovic when Turkey’s delegation said that the reason for the delay is the hoisted Serbian flag.
Radmanovic promptly canceled the meeting citing that 75 minutes has passed.
“We believe that such behavior by the Turkish side is not exemplary and is a diplomatic incident that will surely have repercussions,” said Serb Republic’s statement on the issue.
Like Peres, Radmanovic does not have significant political power in the Serb Republic, but the instigated incident rhymes in a beat with escalating tensions with Israel that ensued after snubbing of Peres.
Sure, Davutoglu met with Serb Republic’s real power broker, Milord Dodik, and as we see in the picture Davutoglu had no problem with the Serbian flag hanging hoisted on his side of the room.
To Dodik, Davutoglu gave the expected sweet-talking points like, uh uh, like that Turkey supports “interior agreement and dialogue that is matter of domestic political actors and that solutions can be attained only that way”.
Davutoglu’s real reason for his arrival to Banja Luka is not to meet Dodik and talk empty phrases. Davutoglu purpose was expressed more symbolically in his visit to Banja Luka’s mosque where the Imam said that the rebuilding of the mosque will be done with the original rocks – the same rocks Turkish occupiers used to build their power in Bosnia.
M. Bozinovich