Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Ministers,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to join the distinguished Ministers, who took the floor before me in thanking Minister Corlățean for hosting this meeting. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Romanian Chairmanship for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to my delegation.

I would like to convey the best wishes of my Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was, regrettably, not able to attend this meeting in the last minute, due to other engagements.

It is not only our common past or shared values, but a joint vision for the future that binds us together. Balkans need a common vision for the future as we need to address the challenges of the era.

Turkey is determined to closely cooperate with our Romanian friends to ensure that the SEECP remains the unique forum for strengthening regional cooperation, dialogue and good neighborly relations in the region.

We are glad that the era of ethnic conflicts and wars is over in the Balkans. However, the region still remains to be unstable within the most prosperous continent of the world.

History has shown that any instability in the Balkans has negative political, economic and security effects not only in Europe, but also in the globe.

An incomplete integration of the region with the European and Euro-Atlantic institutions may encourage ethnic and religious division. There is no doubt that the prospect of integration with the EU is a valuable incentive also for enhancing prosperity in the region.

So, our primary task must be to ensure the EU to continue to enlarge by including new members from the Balkans.

In terms of the EU integration, there is a positive momentum emerging in our region.

Croatia has achieved the EU membership. We hope that this will be followed in due course with other accession and candidate countries from the Balkans.

Montenegro is also swiftly moving along its EU path.

We also expect that a new momentum will be achieved this year regarding the EU-Turkey relations. There is a strong political will in this respect on our side.

The EU perspective has become a pull factor for regional cooperation. The Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Process is a good example. We fully support the Dialogue Process, which has been remarkable, and yielded many tangible results so far.

We consider the agreement reached between Kosovo and Serbia last year as a milestone, not only for the normalization of relations between the two countries, but also for the whole region.

Following the historic Brussels agreement, I am pleased to see that hopes have been substantially raised for the European integration of both countries. We welcome the fact that the EU began the accession talks with Serbia, and launched the negotiations on the signing of Stabilization and Association Agreement with Kosovo.

We are also pleased with the suggestion to nominate Serbian, Kosovar and the EU leaders for the Nobel Peace Price for their critical roles in normalization of relations between two countries.

In this positive political climate, we would be happier if Macedonia would start the accession talks and Albania would get the candidate status. Bosnia and Herzegovina also needs to move forward without further delay towards its European and Euro-Atlantic destination.

Distinguished Ministers,
Dear Colleagues,

Turkey attaches particular importance to the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is also crucial for the regional stability.

We understand that the sources of recent unrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina are mainly economic difficulties, unemployment and social injustices fueled by political instability.

We should all assist Bosnia and Herzegovina to overcome its political instability. We may play a crucial role for decreasing the tension.

These events have yet again demonstrated that Bosnia and Herzegovina has no other viable alternative other than full integration with NATO and the EU. We cannot tolerate Bosnia and Herzegovina to be left behind. We firmly believe that our Bosnia-Herzegovinian friends are able to display solidarity in dire times.

The recent draft agreement reached between the Bosniak parties on the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling in the Federation is a good avenue for the successful conclusion of the issue. The EU may play a positive role by appreciating the efforts made by the Bosniak parties in formulating this agreement.

Distinguished Ministers,

I know that you follow the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina closely. Minister Davutoğlu visited Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. He had consultations on what may be done to alleviate the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina with various authorities including the Members of the Presidency and High Representative Inzko.

Turkey has always stood by Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be brought into question. Turkey is ready to help everyone regardless of their ethnic, national and religious background. At this moment, there are three steps to be taken immediately.

1. The economic and political situation caused the people to lose their most important thing, which is hope. Without hope we cannot achieve any progress. The EU is the most critical actor that can raise hopes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, revitalization of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU vision and accession into NATO is of utmost importance, not only for Bosnia and Herzegovina but for the stability and security of the entire region.

2. There is an urgent need for an economic package to be put together by the international community for the economic and political stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

3. During the visit of Minister Davutoğlu last week, both High Representative Inzko and the various political leaders underlined the shortcomings of the Bosnia and Herzegovina security services to effectively fill the security vacuum, arising from jurisdictional confusion and inadequate equipment.

We know that we are all on the same European boat and have to work together in charting our common future. The socio-economic and political difficulties in the region and incomplete integration process of the region to Euro-Atlantic institutions highlight the need for a deeper regional cooperation.

In this sense, participation of Kosovo in the RCC has been noteworthy, thanks to the constructive approach also by our Serbian friends. We should also continue to encourage the SEECP to embrace the whole region with the inclusion of Kosovo.

Taking this opportunity I would also like to greet Kosovo’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Enver Hoxhaj, who is among us today.

Unfortunately, last June we missed the opportunity to have a Summit Meeting due to the reasons we all know very well. However; this must not discourage us to work on finding a permanent solution to Kosovo’s inclusion in the SEECP. We must instruct our Political Directors to work on finalizing this chapter under the Romanian Chairmanship, and enable our forum to embrace every one of us.

The SEECP is the only home-grown initiative in the region, and thus holds a special importance. It has proven its effectiveness over the years. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the foundation of our Forum, we should be aware of the necessity for a reevaluation towards strengthening our cooperation within the SEECP in order to face new challenges more efficiently.

I am pleased to note that the establishment of the “Ad hoc Expert Group” has been agreed upon last year during the Macedonian Presidency. I believe that this Group will contribute to make our Forum more result-oriented by generating concrete proposals.

I would also like to draw attention to our Parliamentary Presidents’ wise decision to inaugurate the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly.

We simply wish to inject new dynamism into SEECP and hope that the Romanian chairmanship will follow up these matters as a priority. It is the right moment for the SEECP to focus on genuine cooperation and tangible projects for our next generations. This being said, we welcome other consultation mechanisms in the region geared towards intensifying our consultations and cooperation, such as the “Brdo Process”. We are following closely the “Western Balkans Six” initiative.

We also value and appreciate the cooperation between Visegrad Four (V4) and the Western Balkans. We participated in the meeting last October in Hungary which was very useful. We plan to organize V4+Turkey meeting this year in Turkey.

We want to see a safe, secure and prosperous Balkans. In order to contribute to peace and reconciliation efforts in the region, we also have useful trilateral cooperation mechanisms with Serbia-Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have proven to be effective and resilient cooperation schemes.

Distinguished Ministers,
Dear Colleagues,

We all agree that European integration is a must for a better future of our region. Our region has a lot of potential for becoming a zone of stability and prosperity. As a genuine shareholder of this history and culture-rich geography, with the recent positive developments particularly regarding European integration, we believe that the target is within reach more than ever.

But; we also need to be aware of our own responsibilities that rest on our shoulders for creating a region, which will be not in the periphery but an integral part of Europe. That’s why for our common future we should work together based on a dynamic and institutionalized regional ownership, enhanced with all-inclusiveness principle.

Thank you.