When he visited Serbia in 2017, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan he did not miss to visit Novi Pazar. There he was greeted warmly, with shouts of "Sultan Erdoğan" and "Allahu Akbar (God is great)".
Erdoğan thus became the first president of Turkey to visit Sandzak, where he also stayed in July 2010, but in the capacity of prime minister, when he opened the Turkish Cultural Center "Ataturk" in Novi Pazar.
this time, visit Sandžaku was not foreseen. Instead of the President of Turkey meeting with the leaders of the largest Bosniak parties in Novi Pazar, the unofficial center of Sandzak, they went to see him in Belgrade.
The meeting was attended by Rasim Ljajić, founder of the Sandžak Democratic Party (SDP) and president of the SDPS, Sulejman Ugljanin, leader of the SDA Sandžak and Usame Zukorlić, president of the Justice and Reconciliation Party (SPP).
There is not much information about that encounter. A portal close to the SPP announced that the president of that party was sitting right next to the Turkish president.
The SDA Sandžak, whose president Ugljanin has a decades-long friendship with Erdogan, briefly announced that he "spoke with the presidents of the Bosniak parliamentary parties", but also that he emphasized the importance of "joint action in the interest of the Bosniaks of Sandžak and active cooperation with state institutions".
Drones are more important than the Bosniak-Muslim minority
Opinions are divided in Novi Pazar about the non-arrival of the President of Turkey in Sandzak.
Sead Biberović, a political analyst, believes that Erdogan "once again showed that Serbia is more important to Turkey as a country to which it can sell drones or some other weapon, than the Bosniak-Muslim minority, which it can possibly use before some presidential elections in Turkey or Serbia or to show his desire to become the undisputed world leader and protector of Muslims".
"By not coming, he showed that he is more important to him." autocratic colleague Vučić with whom, behind closed doors, he can freely agree, for example, on the terms of the sale of weapons where both will be financially good, while Serbia does not realistically need those drones, as well as the rifles, because there is no real danger of being attacked. The two can also discuss the creation of some kind of axis of autocrats because Erdogan gets along much better with Putin, Orban or Vučić than with the leaders of democratic European countries. All this is more important to him than the Bosniak minority, which has many huge problems, most of them like other citizens of Serbia, but also many additional ones that concern the realization of basic minority rights," emphasizes Biberović, writes the portal Danas.
Economic cooperation at an all-time high
Political scientist Fahrudin Kladnicanin recalls that the Turkish president visited Novi Pazar twice and that those visits "confirmed the interest and commitment of the current Turkish administration to Sandzak".
"We cannot expect President Erdogan to come to Novi Pazar every time he visits Serbia." All current actors of political and religious life were in Belgrade. "Some met with him personally, and others with members of a wider delegation," says Kladnicanin.
He notes that a lot remains unresolved from the agreements signed in 2017, during the visit of the Turkish president to this city.
"Turkey did not finance anything that it promised then, except for the opening of the consulate, which is not an insignificant thing. This confirms the constant Turkish presence and extremely visible cultural cooperation. Turkey and Serbia have extremely good political cooperation, built friendly relations, au economic sense the cooperation between the two countries is at a historical maximum", this interviewee of Danas assesses.
He believes that regardless of the fact that there are no economic incentives from Turkey for Sandzak, "Erdogan's authority and the way he communicates with the Bosniak political elite clearly emphasize that cooperation with the authorities in Belgrade is imperative."
"Our political actors understand that very well. Among other things, Turkish commitment with the understanding of Belgrade, namely Aleksandar Vučić, contributed to the relaxation of political conditions. The citizens of Novi Pazar cannot expect large and capital projects from the President of Turkey. They can expect emotion and maybe an understanding of the situation, but problems are definitely solved by Belgrade," concludes Kladničanin.
Erdogan's popularity is declining
Nikola Kočović, editor of Radio Sto Plus' Information Program, assesses that the absence of the Turkish president in this region "does not necessarily mean that Sandžak and Bosniaks have lost their importance and are no longer in Ankara's sphere of interest."
The opinion is based on the fact that Erdogan met with Bosniak political leaders Ljajić, Ugljanin and Zukorlić in Belgrade.
"I think that the 'golden age' in those relations has passed or at least is slowly passing. Although Erdogan continues to enjoy great popularity among Bosniaks from Sandzak, I think that it is significantly less than seven years ago, when the 'sultan', during his visit to Novi Pazar, was sincerely cheered by several thousand people without being 'spontaneously' brought by buses", he emphasizes. Kočović.
He claims that what, then, only a few people thought, now many are speaking loudly and asking what they have from Turkey and why "our friends are investing in Krupanj and Leskovac, and not in Sandžak".
"Unfulfilled promises from seven years ago, when four agreements were signed during the visit of Erdogan and Vučić, which provided for Turkey's investments in this city, as well as Jošanička Banja, contributed to this," Kočović points out.
He recalls that the Turks then undertook to finance the construction of a new kindergarten, two new bridges in the city center, and to restore and rehabilitate the hamam in Novi Pazar and the Turkish bath in Jošanička Banja.
In seven years, the projects in Novi Pazar have not progressed, "it is not known whose fault", and "it is paradoxical that the one in Jošanička Banja was realized".
Source: Today
