“Letters from Yugoslavia” consists of translation of previous articles published in Turkish language in different portals which are piled in "Yugoslavya Mektupları" and current articles that are published in İleri Portal, the press agency of TİP (Workers' Party of Turkey).

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Sunday 20 May 2018

“LET ERDOĞAN ORGANIZE HIS PRE-ELECTION MEETING IN BELGRADE?”


(Original text: Published in May 19, 2018)

Once he was prohibited to hold pre-election meetings in European countries, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE) by-passed this problem with a meeting in Sarajevo. When this clever idea appeared in newspapers almost a month ago, neither MoFA of Republic of Turkey, nor Embassy of Turkey in Sarajevo, nor Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a statement about the issue. Later on when the posters of the meeting were published in social media, we became aware that it was officially not a pre-election meeting, but RTE was just to participate in the general assembly of Union of European Turkish Democrats. It was a clever act for official legitimization of the meeting but disputes continued in Bosnia since then, becoming fiercer everyday.


RTE, who is a professional in polarizing a society showed his talent in Bosnia as well.
While the disputes are going on, AKP supporters flowed in Sarajevo. Some Bosnians are fine with it. Tens of thousands of Turks will make shop keepers happy. But those who are thinking more about the long term outcomes of this rally in Sarajevo are more cautious.

Bosnian public is almost divided into two camps regarding RTE’s rally in Sarajevo. The disputes are going on. In the meantime RTE’s manipulative tactics are in duty in Bosnia as well. (See:
Discourse of hatred became dominant on the discussions about RTE’s rally in Sarajevo. People began to insult each other heavily in social media. Seems that what we call “vindictive generation” in Turkey, signifying the new typology of youngsters of post-truth society have well thought strategies of manipulation to their Bosnian comrades.

İzetbegoviç seems to have learnt a lot from his master as well. Last week, during the youth meeting of SDA in Sarajevo/Ilidza, the member of presidency of the country which is stuck in corruption and poverty, where hundreds of thousands of people escaped from country since the war, who has nothing to offer to his citizens more than a discourse of being a member of EU claimed: “West does not like our friend. A lot of Bosnians with complexes do not like him as well”.
According to Izetbegoviç, those who oppose RTE’s pre-election rally in Bosnia are people with complexes.

Bosnia was under Ottoman domination for 425 years and even those viziers, who were assigned by the Ottoman Empire to Bosnian Vilayet were not that much devoted to sultan. The viziers would stay not more than a day in Sarajevo on their way to Travnik or Banja Luka paying attention not to disturb locals. Member of presidency of the independent and sovereign state of Bosnia and Hercegovina seems to be more loyal to sultan than the viziers of old times!

Surely, RTE’s Sarajevo rally will have effects in internal and foreign politics of Bosnia. The most important internal effect will be on right-wing SDA and the leader Bakir İzetbegoviç. For some time RTE have overt support for SDA despite the objection of other parties on involvement of Turkey in the internal politics of Bosnia. In SDA congress on May 26, it is expected that Bakir İzetbegoviç will announce his wife Sebija İzetbegoviç’s candidacy for presidency and surely RTE’s visit will be a valuable support for Izetbegoviç.

Probably, most serious impact of Erdoğan’s rally will be on EU-Bosnia relations. There will certainly be some implications since Bosnia has accepted the political action of a leader that is not allowed in European countries.

Most probably, RTE’s Sarajevo rally will have the most serious negative impact on post-Dayton politics of Bosnia, which is already in crisis. RTE’s political involvement in Bosnia is very much in favour for the Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik. Recently, Dodik by-passes Belgrade and have direct contact with Putin, which was highly criticised by Bosnian presidency. Now thanks to RTE he has legitimate reasons for that. If Izetbegoviç allows RTE to have rally in Sarajevo, Dodik may invite Putin to Banja Luka for his own pre-election campaign. It is RTE’s pre-election rally which serves basis for Milorad Dodik’s irresponsible political actions as well.

As it is known, Putin’s reply to NATO’s enlargement in Balkans is destabilization of Balkans. His message is clear: If NATO enlargement in Balkans continue, the region will be destabilized. A strategy which opens path for armed conflicts in the region, respectively in Bosnia. A strategy similar to how Putin implied in Ukraine and what RTE -Putin’s buddy- does is an act supporting this strategy.
Another issue is that, something which would never be expected happens in Bosnia: A will against Turkey is rising in Bosnia as well, despite the cultural and historical ties between Bosnia and Turkey. In social media, it is quite often to read comments like; “In fact Turkey is not that much close friend of us”. It is very often expressed that for Turkey Bosnia is taken for granted, while political and economic relations of Turkey with Serbia is more densed. It is also expressed widely that Turkish investments in Bosnia are more “procurement” than new investments in order to create more jobs and support production.

It is also taken attention by many that TİKA’s (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency) often uttered 300 million USD investment in Bosnia is mostly spent for the renovation of historical Ottoman sites, but not for projects aiming to reduce poverty or unemployment.
In addition to all of those, after Vuçiç’s visit to Turkey two weeks ago when he was welcome with flashy ceremonies in Ankara, that İzetbegoviç was never welcome like that, some Bosnians ask: “If Erdoğan gives so much importance to his relations with Vuçiç and Serbia, why does not he organize his pre-election rally in Belgrade?”

Saturday 19 May 2018

AK-BOTS ARE IN DUTY IN BOSNIA AS WELL

(Original text: Published in May 18, 2018)

Well-known public manipulative methods of AK-bots in Turkey which are in increase in Turkey especially during election period seems to be active in Bosnia as well before Erdoğan’s disputable pre-election rally in Sarajevo.

When European countries have declared that they will not allow Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE) to organize pre-election rallies in their countries, AKP found a solution to this by giving a decision to organize a rally in Sarajevo at May 20 by involvement of Turkish AKP supporters. This created reactions in Bosnia since then.

Bosnian community is polarized into two groups between those who support RTE’s rally in Bosnia and those who oppose it since the news on rally appeared in Bosnian media. Part of Bosnian society is affirmative for RTE’s rally, while some others who think that RTE exploits positive stance of Bosnian prole towards Turkey and RTE while they also know that RTE collaborates well with conservative government in Bosnia.

Three days ago a survey was launched in Klix.ba, one of the most popular web portals in Bosnia and some strange things occurred yesterday. Following the moment that survey was launched, the “no” replies for “Do you support Erdoğan’s pre-election rally in Sarajevo” was far more than “yes” votes. However, with the manipulation of AK-bots, the “yes” votes suddenly exceeded “no” votes, [which is a very well-known tactic of AKP in Turkey].

The screenshots photos below Show how it happened: