On Monday 8 July, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey visited Camp Butmir. The Commander of EUFOR, Major General Reinhard Trischak, as well as Colonel Ali Tanis, the Senior Turkish Representative, welcomed the President to the camp, where a superbly turned out honour guard of Turkish troops paraded in front of their national building to show the President their respect.
First Lieutenant Gokha Kaldirim, who worked hard to help ensure the visit was a success, said:
“It was a great honour for all of us for the President to come to Camp Butmir. It really motivates all the Turkish personnel on base when we realise just how high the interest in what we do in BiH is.”
The President, who is visiting Sarajevo in order to attend the ‘Southeast European Cooperation Process Summit’, discussed the contribution Turkish troops make to EUFOR’s mission before departing to the next event on his diplomatic visit.
