Diplomacy Scandal With Turkish Embassy

Turkey commenced construction of Sarajevo embassy, municipality authorities want to tear it down because it has no permit.

BH diplomacy chief, Sven Alkalaj, will have an unpleasant conversation with Turkey’s ambassador Büllento Tulun these days, because the municipality police want to tear down the Turkish embassy building which is being constructed without a permit, the Sarajevo Dnevni avaz daily writes.

Turkey did not request the construction permit in time

Novo Sarajevo municipality inspector Sinisa Zec, who ordered finalisation of construction to the performer, OKI company, without notifying the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his intention, announces he will go a step further and do something immemorial in world diplomacy. He said he would issue out a resolution for the entire object`s demolition in a couple of days, because, according to him, “the investor never received a permit for its construction, which means the object was constructed illegally”.

-Turkish Embassy did not request the disputable permit in time, and when they subsequently submitted a request, they did not deliver the appropriate documentation, and were rejected. This is why we will forward the demolition resolution to the BH Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and not the name of the embassy- Zec said.

Diplomatic scandal

Truthfully, Zec could not be precise to say if the Turkish embassy building will indeed be demolished, because, he explains, “anything is possible here, we are a land of miracles”.

Incidentally, this case, which is slowly turning out to be a diplomatic scandal, might cost BH dearly. Turkey began constructing the embassy on Vilson`s promenade based on inter-state agreement, which specified Turkey will ensue a location in Ankara to BH, and in return will obtain a space for its diplomatic representation in Sarajevo. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs arranged the urbanistic agreement about the promenade, construction commenced. In the meantime, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was supposed to ensure other papers but someone in New Sarajevo had a problem with the building being four floor tall, in stead of two, as was specified in the regulatory plan for this part of city.