BOSNIA: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Sarajevo in a formal two-day visit

Record ID: 217488

  • Title: BOSNIA: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Sarajevo in a formal two-day visit
  • Date: 6th April 2010
  • Summary: WIDE OF INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVO INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVO ERDOGAN ARRIVING AT UNIVERSITY TURKISH PM AND HARIS SILAJDZIC, MEMBER OF BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY ENTERING UNIVERSITY BUILDING ERDOGAN AND SILAJDZIC WALKING WHILE PEOPLE APPLAUDING STUDENTS LISTENING TO ERDOGAN ERDOGAN, SILAJDZIC AND OTHER OFFICIALS CUTTING RED RIBBON STUDENTS AND GUESTS APP
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABVM4EU137J8LQTU94JI2D9YQ7
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Sarajevo on Monday (April 5) in a formal two-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    Upon his arrival the Turkish PM attended a meeting at Bosnian Institute where he delivered a short speech.
    "We want all the Balkan states to live in peace, prosperity and friendship, and to have good relations among themselves, and to live in harmony that will for sure strengthen them. But that can be only achieved with honesty in their relations. But I have to say that unless there is lasting and honest peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina there will be no peace in Balkans," Erdogan said at the meeting.
    "Since 2009 all neighbouring countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been given liberalisation of the shengen visa regime and we cannot accept the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not part of that process, because Bosnia and Herzegovina must join the engine that strongly drives towards the European Union and it must take the place it deserves and which belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina," the Turkish PM said.
    Joined by the Bosnian Presidency chairman Haris Silajdzic, Erdogan officially opened a new campus of the International University of Sarajevo.
    Around 1,000 Turkish students attend university in Bosnia. The International University of Sarajevo is the largest of the three universities that are building what might become the largest complex of private colleges in the region. The other Turkish-funded college is the International Burch University.
    Bosnia, which like most other Balkan countries had been part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, has close ties with Turkey.
    On the second day of his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is to attend the 1st International Investment Conference and Business Forum and hold talks with Bosnian officials and investors from abroad.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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