The International Community is on the side of the four million people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), High Representative and EU Special Representative Valentin Inzko said today during a visit to Ankara, Turkey.

“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that they are not prevented from becoming citizens of a prosperous and stable state that is irreversibly on the path to becoming a member state of NATO and the European Union,” he said at a conference held to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

The HR/EUSR is in Ankara today for high-level talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. HR/EUSR Inzko briefed his interlocutors on the situation in BiH, and said that BiH leaders need to seize the current opportunity to return to constructive politics.

After the elections on 3 October there is the chance for a fresh start that neither the BiH authorities nor the International Community should miss. Diplomatic rapprochement in the region led by Serbia and Croatia, but with strong encouragement from Turkey has made a key contribution Inzko said. “I advocate further strong commitment of major international partners such as Turkey”, Inzko stressed.

In a speech given at the Turkish Economic and Political Research Institute, the HR/EUSR said recent “troubling developments” in BiH politics were at odds with the overall trajectory of the region. Attempts to roll back reforms have been caused by “a partial resurgence of ethnic nationalism.”

“No one in Bosnia and Herzegovina wants the next four years to be as confrontational and unproductive as the last four years,” the HR/EUSR said. “Citizens want progress not paralysis, integration not further division.”

He said constitutional reform negotiations should resume and can help to deliver some of the solutions for the future government to function properly.

“The basic premise of constitutional reform is to ensure that every citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina enjoys the same fundamental civil and political rights as citizens in the European Union,” he concluded.

The full text of the HR/EUSR’s speech can be accessed at www.ohr.int and www.eusrbih.eu