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Osman Aga, Sultan Murat, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the political gambler Aleksandar Vučić

2025-10-11 15:55:11Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA ENVER ROBELLI
Vucic and Erdogan

When Turkish President and devout Muslim Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Belgrade a few years ago and a state banquet was organized on the occasion, of course without pork and brandy, the Minister of Police Ivica Dacic, who is the son of a Serbian militiaman who had served in Prizren, grabbed the microphone and did what terrifies many music fans: he sang Osman Aga's song in Turkish. Erdogan is a politician who never laughs (how could he?), but that evening his facial features suggested that he was a little cheerful. The new Serbian-Turkish friendship was being celebrated.

When a few years ago Aleksandar Vu?i?, then in the position of Prime Minister, was asked by journalists about his presidential ambitions, about the many opposition candidates, and whether he felt the same way about those words of Sultan Murat who allegedly said: "All the Turks rushed to Tsar Lazar", Vu?i? replied: "Murat was a serious man and a true commander, while ours don't even come close to him."

When Aleksandar Vu?i? held a press conference a few years ago (in fact, his entire career is a press conference), he was praised for his good relations with Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, saying that he is very careful and does not forget to wish Vu?i? a happy birthday or ask if anyone in the Vu?i? family gets sick.

On one occasion, Vu?i? boasted that he had learned how to pronounce the name “Erdogan” correctly (without the letter “g”). This great friendship, publicly celebrated, is now, according to Vu?i?, in danger, because Erdo?an has sent several suicide drones to Kosovo. Suddenly, Turkey, according to the great geostrategist from Belgrade, is not seeking stability in the Balkans, but rather is aiming to create the Ottoman Empire and turn Belgrade into a small pasha.

Vu?i?'s anger is part of his daily political show. It should be clear to any politician with an average sense of reality that in the international arena you can't have great relations with everyone. You can't meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly and expect to be applauded by Erdogan. You can't go to Vladimir Putin's military parade in Moscow and expect understanding from the West.

But you can't fool the Russians either, by selling weapons to the Ukrainians through third countries (Moscow's secret services accused Vu?i? of stabbing the Russians in the back). You can't remain almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and oil, sell critical infrastructure to Russia (for example, the oil industry) and act as if you're not listening to warnings from Washington and Brussels.

The day comes when you have to pay the bill, and even attempts to bribe some minor chess piece moving in Donald Trump's orbit won't help. US sanctions against the company "Naftna industrija Srbije" (NIS) have already come into effect.

In 2008, when Kosovo became independent, the then Serbian leaders, in order to further embrace Moscow, sold NIS to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom. When all European countries (except Belarus) imposed sanctions on Russia for its attack on Ukraine in 2022, Vu?i? swore and boasted that he would not join the EU sanctions against the Kremlin, but would rather Belgrade advance in European integration.

This policy of sitting on a few chairs is reaching its limits. Currently, many chairs on which Vu?i? sat are being toppled; even the rock in the White House where Vu?i? sat on September 4, 2020 to sign an agreement with Kosovo, during which there was much talk about the economy, energy, the Pristina-Belgrade airline and other projects, has been overturned. Three years later, an armed gang in the service of the Vu?i? regime attempted to start a war in northern Kosovo, with the aim of occupying that territory.


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