BELGRADE - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is currently in Belgrade to participate in the meeting of Southeast European Countries Cooperation Process Heads of States and Governments summit met with Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic of Serbia-Montenegro on Tuesday.
Sources said that at the meeting, Erdogan expressed his condolences to Zivkovic for murder of Former Prime Minister Zoran Cincic, and he said he would lay a wreath to the tomb of Cincic on Wednesday.
Noting that Turkey supported reform process initiated by Cincic, Erdogan expressed his pleasure with acceptance of Council of Europe membership of Serbia-Montenegro.
Erdogan said that cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal founded in the Hague for the for the Former Yugoslavia was another issue to which Turkey attributed importance.
Noting that there were a number of Turkish businessmen in Romania and Bulgaria, Erdogan said that they were ready to make similar cooperation with Serbia-Montenegro.
Regarding the Iraq war, Erdogan said civil losses were very sad, and he hoped the war would end soon. Erdogan stressed that Turkey was suffering serious economic loss due to Iraq war.
Meanwhile, Zivkovic said that they were determined to maintain the reform process initiated by Cincic, noting that they would bring the cooperation with The Hague to a concrete result.
Zivkovic added that they would be pleased with activities of Turkish businessmen in Serbia-Montenegro.
(MS-ÖS) 08.04.2003