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| No speech in parliament for Turkish leader |
| 24 October 2009 | 11:33 -> 13:29
| Source:
Beta, Danas |
BELGRADE --
Turkish President Abdullah Gul will not address the Serbian parliament on Monday.
His speech to Serbian MPs was announced earlier as part of his visit to Belgrade.
But on Friday, a statement from parliament said that Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović had cancelled a special session, "due to changes in the agenda of the Turkish president's visit to Serbia".
The session was to have taken place at 16:00 CET, on Oct. 26.
Serbia, and Turkey, "key countries in Balkans"
Turkey and Serbia have during the history become key countries in the Balkans, they continue to have that role, and that is why their cooperation is important, Gul said ahead of his trip to Belgrade.
In an interview to Belgrade daily Danas, he added that development of joint projects was important for peace and stability in the region.
"Adopting an approach of strategic cooperation that has peace and stability in the Balkans as its goal is important, as well as developing of joint projects. My fried President Boris Tadić and I will dedicate ourselves to cooperation turned toward the future, and to concrete projects that we will be able to achieve," Gul was quoted.
He went on to say that Turkey's recognition of the Kosovo Albanian unilateral secession declaration in February 2008 "was not directed against Serbia", and that it came because Turkey has had "since ancient times strong and special relations with the people of Kosovo, whose independence came as a result of the international community's long engagement".
"That position should in no way stand in the way of development of relations between Turkey and Serbia," stated he, and added that in the past two years, Belgrade and Ankara have been maintaining and developing their ties "precisely within such an approach".
As officials from the two countries met recently they signed a series of bilateral agreements, including that on free trade and regarding a Turkish loan to build roads in the Sandžak region.
Gul said that his delegation when he arrives here on Monday will include leading Turkish businessmen.
When the newspaper's reporter noted that Turkey is one of the important "interlocutors" in the bids to solve problems faced by Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Turkish president said that his country is assigning great significance to the fact that Bosnia is "preserving its territorial integrity, multi cultural and multi ethnic composition and sovereignty".
"Attempts to undermine authorities in the central government will not bring any good to any ethnic group. Turkey wishes to see integration, not fragmentation prevail in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that is the desire of the international community," said he.
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