Turkish Daily News 10-8-1995

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ANKARA- Turkey on Wednesday criticized an initiative by Russian

President Boris Yeltsin to invite only the leaders of Croatia and

Serbia to Moscow for talks for a peaceful solution to conflicts in

former Yugoslavia. "Turkey cannot understand why President Alia

Izetbegovic of Bosnia, which is the main party to the crisis in

Bosnia, has not been invited to attend the planned Moscow talks,"

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nurettin Nurkan told reporters.

"The absence of Izetbegovic will be a key missing factor for the

meeting," he said.

Turkey has welcomed a joint military action by Croatia and Bosnian

Muslims forces last week to liberate the northwest Bosnian Muslim

enclave of Bihac from Serb attacks, Nurkan said. He added that

Croatia's offensive last week against rebel Serbs in the Krajina

region was aimed at preserving the country's territorial integrity.

"As a result, however, Serb refugees from Krajina have entered Bosnia

in masses, changing the country's demographic structure against the

Bosnian Muslims," he said.

Also the Krajina Serb militiamen fleeing to Bosnian territory could

join the Bosnian Serb forces, causing another threat against the

Muslims, Nurkan warned.

To avoid these developments, Turkey supports Croatia's call for the

return of the Krajina Serb refugees to the country and their

reintegration to the Zagreb administration, he added. Vehbi Dincerler,

a leading deputy from the main opposition Motherland Party at

Parliament's foreign affairs commission, also said the Moscow meeting

could lead to very negative results for the Bosnian Muslims, as

Bosnian President Izetbegovic would not attend the talks in the

Russian capital.

Meanwhile, a statement released on Wednesday by a group of Turkish

intellectuals who plan to visit Bosnia in solidarity with the Bosnian

government, said the trip due to start on Friday has been postponed

one week due to the ongoing clashes in the region.

Croatia reassures Demirel on Croat-Bosnian alliance

Promise: Croatian Ambassador Biscevic says merging of Croat and

Muslim authorities in cards, signals rebel Serbs will be excluded from

'federal-confederal' arrangement

By Semih D. Idiz

Turkish Daily News

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ANKARA- Responding to widespread Western media reports of

preparations by Zagreb and Belgrade to partition Bosnia, Croatiahas

extended "unequivocal assurance" to Turkey that its alliance with the

Bosnian government against rebel Serbs would continue due to

"strategic necessity".

Informing the Turkish Daily News on Tuesday about a message he had

conveyed to this effect to President Suleyman Demirel the previous

evening, Croatian Ambassador to Ankara Hidayet Biscevicalso signalled

that Croatian military involvement in Bosnia may not be over yet.

Ambassador Biscevic -- who is known to be a member of Croatian

President Franjo Tudjman's inner circle -- said that the aim in Bosnia

now was to make the borders of the present federation between the

Muslims and Croats more "compact" and "to integratethe functions of

their authority".

In another key comment in this context, Biscevic expressed great

confidence in Belgrade's awareness that it had "few interests so far

to the West."

This appeared to add further credence to signs that the Croatians will

divert the concentration of their military operations in the western

part of Bosnia from Grahovo and Glamoc, which they have captured, to

the Bosnian enclave of Bihac in the north, which Ambassador Biscevic

announced has now been freed of the Serb siege.

Indicating that a high-level meeting between Presidents FranjoTudjman

and Alija Izetbegovic had taken place in Zagreb on Tuesday, Biscevic

said that one of the key subjects taken up in this context would be

that of a "single presidency" for theRepublic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

and the Muslim-Croat federation. Biscevic also said that once the

modalities of this merging of authorities -- based on an agreement in

late July in Split between Tudjman and Izetbegovic -- was worked out,

work would continue on securing the foundations of a confederal

arrangement between this federation and Croatia itself.

Turkey was also indirectly involved in the so called "Split Summit" in

that President Demirel had a separate meeting withTudjman and

Izzetbegovic the day before these two presidents got together in

Split.

While Demirel was not at the Split summit, diplomats say it is

inconceivable that "serious notes, information and messages were not

shared by all three presidents in their separate meetings."Demirel is

said to have strongly advised the two presidents on the continuing and

vital need to maintain their alliance and to act together in

coordinated fashion against continuing Serb aggression.

The Croatian ambassador, to highlight the success of theMuslim-Croat

alliance and to provide evidence for the need of its continuation,

announced that this alliance had effectively put an end to the Serb

siege of Bihac.

He said that there were plans, although unconfirmed yet, forTudjman

and Izetbegovic to visit "liberated Bihac" soon in a symbolic

expression of their continuing solidarity. Reading between the lines

of Ambassador Biscevic's remarks diplomats pointed out that a clear

merging of government-held Bosnian lands and Croatia appeared to be in

the cards.Asked to comment on the ambassador's remarks one diplomat

referred to "a friendly annexation process that appears to be

underway."

"What is being said effectively seems to be that the mechanisms of

merging government held lands in Bosnia and Croatia are to be

activated. In the meantime, the trappings of the exercise of

sovereignty are still being left to the Bosnian government within the

framework of a Muslim-Croat federation that will confederate with

Zagreb," this diplomat said.Appearing to acknowledge this indirectly,

Ambassador Biscevic said that such a federal-confederal arrangement

would also overcome the latent resistance by the West to the idea of

apredominantly Islamic republic in Europe.

He also implied that there is no room for rebel Serbs in this

arrangement, whom Ankara had been hoping would finally come around to

realizing that they, too, have to be part of a unitarian and federal

Bosnia, as the only means for lasting peace in the region.

"This federation in Bosnia now seems like it will be limited to the

Croats and Muslims because so far the Serbs have refused to take part

in it although they have been repeatedly invited to do so," Biscevic

said.

Using the term "Smaller Greater Serbia" Biscevic said that Serbia

would also come around to understanding that thefederal-confederal

arrangement between the Croats and Muslims was the only way for peace

and stability.

"Smaller Greater Serbia" as used by Biscevic appeared to connote the

reality of a merging of Serb-held lands in eastern Bosnia and Serbia

proper.

Biscevic also suggested that if the Serbs are to be excluded from the

federation in Bosnia this is basically "a reflection of the reality on

the ground," as much as it is a reflection of anything else that might

be being speculated about."This federation is also close to Demirel's

heart. We know this well. President Demirel also expressed confidence

in thepolitical wisdom of President Tudjman by saying that

PresidentTudjman is well aware of the advantages of such a

federation,"Biscevic said, giving some insight into his meeting with

theTurkish president on Monday.

Asked about this meeting Biscevic acknowledged that the core of his

meeting with President Demirel was represented by his assurance on

behalf of Croatia that Zagreb was totally committed to the agreement

reached with Bosnian President Alija Izzetbegovic in late July in

Split.

"I explained the overall situation concerning the Croatian operation

in what was formerly known as the Krajina. I explained our reasons and

motives for this operation as well as the strategic implications that

will follow from it for Bosnia,"Biscevic said.

"The Croatian action against [the Serb-held Western Bosnian towns of]

Grahovo and Glamoc is based on the declaration announced in Split

after the meeting of the presidents,"Biscevic said referring to the

operation in late July which took two strategic Serb held towns

immediately after the Serbs had overrun the so-called U.N. safe havens

of Srebrenica and Zepa.Biscevic said that meeting of Croat and Bosnian

Government forces in Bihac and their successes there against the rebel

Serbs was also a clear reflection of this cooperation."I also assured

Demirel that Croatia will not steer away from the Washington agreement

and the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia that followed from this,"

Biscevic said.

He was referring to the agreement signed in March, 1994 under the

auspices of Washington between the Muslims and Croats of Bosnia who

until then had fought a bitter war among themselves for nearly a year.

That agreement, strongly supported by Turkey which was also

instrumental in its being concluded, was also signed by Croatia laying

the groundwork for the present federal-confederal arrangement the

ambassador Biscevic referred to.

"I said [to President Demirel] that we now firmly believe that peace

can only be achieved in the spirit of the Washington agreement,"

Biscevic said.

He added that the aim of Croatian and Bosnian Government sides, "in

military terms in the coming weeks," was to ensure that the

Muslim-Croat federation is "territorially compact.""This is the only

way to reach peace and a balance in the region. The Western media is

simplifying matters by talking of apartition. The situation is more

complicated than that and fortunately the prevailing world powers

realize the merits of the federation and confederation arrangement,"

Biscevic said.He added that the vital interests of Croatians were also

closely tied in with continuing cooperation with the Muslim in Bosnia,

"despite some difficulties on the ground due to the problem of war

wounds and the vanity of some."

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