Tripartite Balkans Summit takes place in Turkey

Turkish President Abdullah Gul hosts President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolic and Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH) presidency members Bakir Izetbegovic (Bosniak), Nebojsa Radmanovic (Serbian), and Zeljko Komsic (Croatian) at the historical summit on May 14-15 in Turkish capital Ankara, which has significant importance as political relations between BiH and Serbia are in most moderate period. Leaders will discuss important topics related to the Balkans, and further steps under the presidency and vision of the leaders will be taken up during the tripartite summit. Nikolic made an apology for the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica; on the other hand, Izetbegovic became the first Bosnian leader to visit Serbia after the war in 1995. Participation of Komsic in the tripartite summit in Ankara has key importance because he reacted to statements of Nikolic about massacre in Srebrenica, and did not attend the previous summit in Belgrade. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited BiH last week, and persuaded Komsic to participate in the tripartite summit in Turkey. Komsic said after the meeting with FM Davutoglu that he would attend the tripartite summit in Ankara.    Tripartite sessions between Turkey, Serbia, and BiH were launched on October 10, 2009 upon initiatives of Davutoglu. On the other hand, leaders convened in tripartite summits for two times, and foreign ministers of the three countries have come together eight times ahead of those tripartite sessions. The current summit in Ankara is the first tripartite presidency summit since the summit in April 2011 held with the participation of Turkish President Gul, former president of Serbia Boris Tadic and BiH presidency members. "We want to consider all the countries in the region as the members of EU in the shortest time possible, which is our most important political goal purpose that benefits our citizens. We have to get rid of the historical prejudices," said Tadic after the tripartite summit in April 2011. "I call on the countries to cooperate in vital areas," said President Gul who drew attention to peace process between BiH and Serbia and cooperation among the three countries following the summit in April 2011.