Serbian leader due in Ankara next month

By Nazli Yuzbasioglu

ANKARA

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will pay an official visit to Turkey on May 7, according to Serbia’s ambassador to Ankara.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Ambassador Zoran Markovic said that five government ministers -- including the foreign trade, telecommunication and tourism, foreign, communication and transportation, and energy and agriculture ministers -- would accompany Vucic, in a sign of areas of future cooperation.

Markovic, who took office on April 5 after presenting his credentials to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that before his current posting, he served as consul general in Istanbul for more than four years.

“We paid a lot of attention during those four years to economic issues. Our economic cooperation was raised enormously,” he said.

He added that many Bosnians living in Turkey who left Yugoslavia in the 1960s and came to Turkey for various reasons serve as a bridge between Serbia and Turkey.

“The mentalities of our two nations are completely the same. What I used to say to all my colleagues [was] ‘If you don’t know how anybody here, in Turkey, will react in a particular situation, just imagine how you would react in the same situation, and you will get exactly the same reaction’.”

He also stated that the two societies have vast similarities and that Serbian and Turkish share 6,000 words in common.

Markovic also stressed that the rise in mutual tourism between the countries allows people to know each other better and see the similarities.

Underlining the importance of economic ties between the states, he added:

“Our future relations will be based on the economy. If we talk about mutual interests, economic interests, I can assure you that our bilateral political relations will rise. Because that will be a sign of the rise of the economy.

“Our two presidents made the precondition to enlarge any kind of cooperation. Now the business community needs to recognize this and use the opportunity.”