Too weird: Balkan countries celebrate failed Turkish coup

Maja Zivanovic, Blerta Begisholli, Hamdi Firat Buyuk and Marcel Gascón Barberá

Belgrade, Bucharest, Pristina, Sarajevo

BIRN

July 15, 2019

The Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, hoisted a Turkish flag on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the failed coup in Turkey, just a week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the country, when he urged the authorities to extradite suspected followers of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen – who Ankara blames for the coup attempt.

Matching events included photography and art shows as well as religious ceremonies, marches and sporting events organized on Monday in Skopje, Zagreb and Pristina. In North Macedonia, a reception and a religious ceremony were held in the Mustafa Pasha Mosque on July 15, organised by the Turkish embassy in Skopje and other Turkish institutions operating in the country.

In Sarajevo, several receptions and events organised by Turkish institutions and NGOs as well as a special religious ceremony in the city’s main mosque, the Gazi Husrev Beg Mosque, took place on July 15. A small symbolic marathon, the “15 July democracy run”, organised by Turkish institutions in Sarajevo, also took place on Sunday.

Ceremonies started in Sarajevo on July 10 with the showing of a documentary called Network,which was about the failed coup attempt. On July 12, the day was marked in Sarajevo’s historic Bascarsija square with a video screening organized by a Turkish lobby group in Bosnia, the Union of International Democrats, UID.

A friendly football match between Bosnian war veterans and Turkish soldiers who serve in Bosnia was organised in Zenica, in central Bosnia, on July 13, following a conference and a photographic gallery, which the Bosniak member of the Bosnian state presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, attended. “Turkey showed a great democratic example on July 15, 2016,” Dzaferovic said, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Turkish embassy and other Turkish institutions in Zagreb, Croatia, marked the “Day of Democracy and National Unity” on July 15 with a commemoration and the opening of an exhibition of photographs recorded on the day of the unsuccessful coup attempt.

A press conference was held on July 12 in the Yunus Emre Institute in Zagreb, where the Turkish ambassador, Mustafa Babur Hizlan, said that in defending the country from this threat, the Turkish nation had been willing to sacrifice its life to protect the state and democracy.

In Serbia, on the same occasion, Turkey organized on July 14 an international bicycle race, the “Turkish-Serbian Friendship Cup”, in Belgrade. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, who attended the event, highlighted the good relations between Belgrade and Ankara.

In Kosovo, the Turkish embassy organised a reception in Pristina on July 15. In the western city of Prizren, an exhibition of photos from the night of the failed coup was staged on July 13. Other activities included a showing of the documentary film The Network at the Kino Armata in Pristina on July 13.

On July 9, the same documentary was also shown in Skopje, capital of North Macedonia. Following that, a panel discussion was staged on the failed coup attempt.

On July 9, the same documentary was also shown in Skopje, capital of North Macedonia. Following that, a panel discussion was staged on the failed coup attempt.

The Turkish embassy in Romania marked the anniversary of the coup attempt with a ceremony in the Turkish Heroes Cemetery in Bucharest, where the ambassador, Fusun Aramaz, and other members of the Turkish community planted trees to “pay homage to our heroes fallen in the night of 15 July 2016”, Ankara’s representation in Romania said on Twitter.

Three years ago, on July 15, 2016, Turkey saw a failed coup attempt that was allegedly perpetrated by a minority group within the Turkish military.

Ankara accuses Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, of orchestrating the failed coup. It describes his supporters as the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation” or “FETO” for shorAt.

Gulen has denied any connection to the coup attempt and the US has ignored attempts to extradite him.

Turkish President Erdogan, meanwhile, is pushing Balkan countries to do more to close Gulen-linked schools and other institutions and hand over suspected “Gulenists”.

https://balkaninsight.com/2019/07/15/anniversary-of-failed-turkey-coup-marked-in-balkans/

(All the "celebrations" were organized by Turkish organizations or by Turkish embassies. Strange, these celebrations in countries occupied by Turkey for hundreds of years, and which saw revolutions against the Istanbul caliphate.)