Slovenian President Danilo Tuerk and the Chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, have said they will not attend the inauguration of the new Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, scheduled for 11 June 2012 in Belgrade, and thus followed the example of Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, Al Jazeera.Balkans television reported on Thursday.
Tuerk told an Al Jazeera reporter during a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Bosniaks in the Slovenian town of Log pod Mangartom he would not attend Nikolic's inaugural ceremony.
"I received an invitation, but I will not attend the inauguration. Why? Look, this is not the right time to talk about this," Tuerk told the Al Jazeera reporter.
The invitation to the event was also declined by Bakir Izetbegovic, who attended the commemorative ceremony in Slovenia.
Izetbegovic said that Nikolic personally phoned him on Wednesday evening to invite him to the inaugural ceremony.
Izetbegovic said this was a nice gesture, adding however that Nikolic had changed his rhetoric but that he would have to prove if he changed his position as well. He reiterated he would not attend the inauguration.
Given that Croatian President Josipovic announced on Wednesday he would not attend Nikolic's inauguration, the ceremony will not be attended by most of the presidents of the countries of the region.
