Turkish PM Visits Bosnia to Discuss Gulenists, Investments

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told parliament on Tuesday that he will make an official trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 29-30 - one of the highest-level Turkish visits to the Balkan country in recent years.

"We will visit Bosnia this week. As you know, Bosnia is a very important country for us," Yildirim said.

He will arrive with a delegation to discuss several topics of importance to Ankara including the vexed issue of supporters in Bosnia of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara claims that Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who now lives in exile in the US, was behind the failed July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

Turkey has repeatedly asked Bosnia to close Gulen-linked schools and other institutions which have operated in Bosnia for decades and to hand over alleged Gulen movement members.

Yildirim will also discuss the Sarajevo-Belgrade motorway project and other Turkish investments in Bosnia, as well as the upcoming elections in the country this autumn.

The route of the motorway was decided in Istanbul at meeting in January between Erdogan, the Bosnian presidency's Bosniak member Bakir Izetbegovic and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The Turkish delegation now plans to finalise the project and looks for options to extend the motorway project to Novi Pazar in Serbia's Sandzak region via the Bosnian city of Visegrad.

The visit is also being seen as part of preparations for Turkish President Erdogan's planned trip to Bosnia in May.