Tripartite BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik expressed gratitude to the presidents of Turkey, Serbia and Croatia, who said they would be willing to mediate in talks to reach an agreement between political leaders in BiH on ways to end the ongoing political crisis.

Dodik said that “Erdogan is a great statesman of a great country”, and that the Turkish President is not only supporting Bosniaks, but is approaching the problem in Bosnia objectively.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously said he is willing to meet with political leaders of the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia, together with the presidents of Croatia and Serbia, in order to discuss ways to end the crisis in the country.

He was referring to the leaders of the strongest parties among Bosnia’s three major ethnic groups – Dodik, who is the leader of the ruling party in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, the leader of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Dragan Covic, and the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Bakir Izetbegovic.

Dodik expressed gratitude to Erdogan, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic and Croatia’s Zoran Milanovic, adding that  Covic is also willing to negotiate in such a format. The only one opposing it, he said, was Bakir Izetbegovic.