ANKARA, 19 January 2022, (TON): Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said “he and Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic agreed on Tuesday to broker crisis talks involving all parties in Bosnia after elections in Serbia in April.”

The crisis flared after nationalist lawmakers in post-war Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Serb entity passed a non-binding 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 Milorad Dodik.

Turkey, which has deep-rooted historical ties in the Balkans, has criticized the move as “wrong, dangerous” and has offered to mediate in the crisis, which has raised fears of a relapse into ethnic conflict in Bosnia.

After a calamitous 1992-95 ethnic war that killed 100,000 people, Bosnia was split into two widely autonomous regions, a Serb Republic (RS) and a Federation dominated by Bosniaks and Croats, overlaid by a loose central government.

Addressing reporters along with Vucic after talks in Ankara, Erdogan said “Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks alike should refrain from steps that endanger Bosnia’s territorial integrity and that all should act with a sense of responsibility.”

He said “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.”