CROATIA AND TURKEY: TOWARD A DURABLE PEACE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

Year 1998, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 0 - 0, 01.09.1998

Miomir Zuzul

Abstract

Mr. Chairman, fellow panelists, ladies and gentlemen: I am pleased to be here with you today to discuss the crucial role that Turkey has to play in strengthening the foundations of regional stability and security. Before I begin, let me just outline the main elements of what I believe to be crucial in understanding the role of Turkey in the region. Firstly, I want to discuss the ways in which Croatia and Turkey have worked together to further bilateral relations in the fields of economics, politics and security. Secondly, I want to address the constructive role that Turkey has played in stabilising turbulent Southeastern Europe, in particular its role in maintaining stability and security in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Indeed, Turkey has played a vital role in forging a lasting and durable peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatia and Turkey have worked closely with Bosnia-Herzegovina to bring peace to that war-torn country, in particular by strengthening the Federation between Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks Muslims . Finally, I will address the issue of the future of NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovina in particular, and in the region in general. Here I want to outline a rather novel approach to responding to the challenges that the spectre of a long-term international presence poses to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s longevity. Simply stated, it is conceivable that NATO’s presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina—and by extension in Croatia, because Croatia wants to join the major European economic, political and security institutions—can be transformed from an open-ended peacekeeping mission into a regular NATO deployment. All that is needed is for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia to become regular NATO members and then NATO troops could be deployed there on the same basis as the US troops that have been deployed in Germany since the end of the Second World War.