Erdogan travels to Balkans as tensions rise between former Yugoslav states

Andrew Wilks

Sep 6, 2022

(From L-R) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (3rd-L) and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) attend a meeting with members of Bosnia and Herzegovina's tripartite presidency Sefik Dzaferovic (3rd-R), Milorad Dodik (2nd-L) and Zeljko Komsic (2nd R) and Bosnian Security Minister Selmo Cikotic (R) in Sarajevo on Sept. 6, 2022. — AFP via Getty Images

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off on a three-day Balkans tour on Tuesday to try to mediate a crisis that threatens fresh conflict among former Yugoslav states.

Erdogan’s first stop was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where politicians from the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska — one of two political entities that make up the country — have made calls from the enclave to run its own affairs and form an army.