With the singing of the "March of Peace" and "God's Justice", the anthems of Turkey and Serbia, and the salute of the Honor Guard in front of the Palace of Serbia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spends September of the pre-election year in Turkey in the Balkans.
After Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he arrived in Belgrade with the delegation, and the journey continues in Zagreb.
A number of bilateral agreements were signed, and the two presidents said that cooperation between Serbia and Turkey has never been better.
"The results we have achieved show that we managed to raise the relations between Serbia and Turkey to the highest level," said Serbian President Vučić.
Turkish President Erdogan said that relations between the two countries are developing more and more every day, and economic cooperation is one of the indicators for that.
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Erdogan is on his third official visit to Serbia in the last five years, in the year before the presidential and parliamentary elections in his country.
The previous time he stayed was in 2019, when 140 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries were marked.
In addition to a deeply connected history, Serbia and Turkey today are connected by much more than frequent diplomatic visits.
Who all came from Turkey to Serbia before Erdogan
Businesses and workers
There are currently 705 companies active in Serbia whose founders are natural and legal persons from Turkey, as well as 209 entrepreneurs, Turkish citizens, according to the data of the Agency for Business Registers provided to the BBC.
The largest number of companies operate in the field of construction of residential and non-residential buildings, non-specialized wholesale trade, wholesale trade in textiles, catering and consulting activities related to business and other management, according to APR's response.
"Turkish investments continue to come to Serbia and investors from that country employ more than 10.000 people," Aleksandar Vučić said after the meeting with Erdogan.
According to data, workers from Turkey are among the most numerous foreigners employed in Serbia National employment services.
Turkey reached the 21st place in the list of countries with the largest investments in Serbia, and in the first quarter of this year, investments amounted to 13,9 million euros. published recently by Tanjug, referring to data from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
The good economic cooperation between Serbia and Turkey is also reflected in the foreign trade exchange, which reached 2022 billion euros in the first half of 1,2.
That is an increase of 51,5 percent compared to the same period in 2021, Tanjug was told in the PKS.
"Our economic and trade relations are the driving force behind our cooperation.
"Despite the pandemic, we continued to grow," Erdogan said.
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The security of Turkey depends on the security of its close land spheres, and the booming economy in the Balkans is in this sense a guarantee of peace, according to Vladimir Eisenhamer, an expert in international politics and assistant professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Security.
"In this context, Erdogan comes with a story of economic prosperity, especially the Open Balkans initiative, which can bring stabilization to the region, as well as the continuation of strong bilateral economic ventures, some investing in production, some in infrastructure.
"With this initiative, Turkey is once again strengthening its influence in the region, which has weakened in previous years, with the war in Syria, the refugees, the economic crisis - this is Turkey's comeback," explains Eisenhammer.
A free trade agreement has been in force between Serbia and Turkey since 2010, which means that goods can be exported and imported without customs duties and, in some cases, at preferential prices.
Passengers from Serbia and Turkey, in the two countries, will soon be able to travel only with an identity card, according to the protocol concluded by the countries.
Guests from Tursk
In recent years, Serbia has become an increasingly interesting destination for tourists from Turkey.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that traveling only with ID cards will further improve relations between the two countries.
According to the data of the Tourist Organization of Serbia (TOS), there were about 62.500 tourists from Turkey in the country in the first six months.
After guests from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turks are the second most numerous tourists in Serbia in 2022.
"Tourists from Turkey most often stay in big cities, about 90 percent. Belgrade and Novi Sad are the most visited destinations," TOS told the BBC.
From 2008 to 2018, there was a constant increase in tourists from Turkey in Serbia.
The following year saw a slight decline, but already in 2019, a record was recorded - almost 108.000 Turkish tourists, 11 percent more than the previous year, according to TOS data.
After 2020, when the corona virus pandemic broke out, guests from Turkey are now returning to Serbia.
"I am glad that we hear the Turkish language more and more often in our country, that we see more and more Turkish tourists," said Vučić after the meeting with Erdogan.
Turkey is also an interesting destination for tourists from Serbia, and as Erdogan stated, 2022 guests from Serbia have stayed in that country since the beginning of 300.000.
TIKA
Guests from Turkey are often interested in the sights in the restoration of which the Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Coordination (TIKA) participated.
President Erdogan announced that the restoration of the Bajrakli Mosque in Belgrade will soon begin through that agency.
Since 1992, TIKA has implemented 343 projects and activities in Serbia, it was announced on the organization's Twitter account.
The projects that have been implemented so far are in the field of education, health, social infrastructure and protection of common cultural heritage.
Encompassing many fields such as education, health, social infrastructure, and protection of the common cultural heritage, a total of 343 projects and activities have been carried out by TİKA in Serbia, since 1992. pic.twitter.com/aNu6IwxErK
— TİKA (@tika_english1) September 7, 2022
Realization of activities through projects implemented by TIKA is a mixture of economics and politics, Vladimir Eisenhamer believes.
"There are opportunities, there is good will, there is an open space for Turkey to flow into Serbia and other countries, so it would be unreasonable for a serious country like Turkey not to take advantage of such an opportunity," Eisenhammer believes.
Political asylum seekers
After the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, political dissidents came to Serbia.
Turkish authorities accuse political opponents and some military officials of trying to seize power in the country by force on July 15, 2016, which resulted in a series of indictments and arrests.
A large number of people fled abroad, and one of the destinations was Serbia.
From July 15, 2016 to January 20, 2021, Turkey submitted 16 requests for the extradition of its citizens from Serbia, reports Radio Free Europe.
In the same period, the extradition of five people was approved, the answer of the Ministry of Justice of Serbia is yes CSR from October 2021
One of those who are waiting for the final decision of the Serbian judicial authorities on extradition is Edzevit Piroglu, a Kurdish politician and activist accused by the Turkish authorities of being a member of "armed terrorist organizations".
He is accused of participating in the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which were the first national street movement against the Erdogan government.
United Nations Committee Against Torture he asked Serbia not to extradite him to Turkey.
Joint police patrols
Turkish and Serbian police patrols work together at certain border crossings in Serbia during the tourist season.
The agreement on joint patrols was signed in 2019, during Erdogan's previous visit.
The first patrols were established in June 2020, and as it was said then, the goal was to facilitate the crossing of border crossings for Turkish citizens.
What does Erdogan's visit mean to the Balkans, and what does it mean for Erdogan?
Analyze Vladimir Eisenhamer, an expert on international politics, Faculty of Securitydof the University in Belgrade
The question is not what Erdogan can do for the Western Balkans, but what the Western Balkans can do for Erdogan.
In the first part, there are many positive aspects, and there are also tricky, daily political ones, which concern the relations between Belgrade and Brussels, Belgrade and Berlin, Belgrade and Paris.
Erdogan comes at a time when the Western Balkans have been flooded by foreign envoys, foreign advisers, special envoys, (American envoy Gabriel) Escobar, (European mediator Miroslav) Lajcak, (British envoy) Stuart Pich, visits by foreign political and security advisers (German Chancellor Olaf ) Scholz and (French President Emmanuel) Macron.
There is great interest in the stabilization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, which is of course more related to the issue of the presence of Russia, the crisis concerning Ukraine and the growth of Chinese power.
The West, especially Germany and France, feel that the Balkans are slipping out of their hands, while on the other hand, America and some other external players, such as Russia, are taking matters into their own hands and the Balkans are increasingly falling under their influence.
For this reason, it is the right time to re-introduce Turkey into the game, as an alternative player, that is, an alternative partner of Serbia.
Belgrade plays on that card, showing Erdogan as someone on whom and how it can rely economically at a time when a new possible economic crisis is something that shakes the whole of Europe.
With pressure from one side coming from Macron and Solac, Vučić is pulling the Erdogan card.
Turkey will use its presence in the Balkans for the purpose of Erdogan's presidential campaign and his party's parliamentary campaign.
Experience teaches us that during election years, Erdogan always intensifies his rhetoric when it comes to Bosniaks, that is, the protection of Bosniaks in the Balkans, in order to ingratiate himself with the electorate made up of the Balkan diaspora, which constitutes a reliable electorate.
Given that difficult elections await him, the first one he may lose at the presidential level, he should be expected to work on mobilizing voters.
What was Erdogan's previous visit to Serbia like?
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