At Tuesday's dinner, which was held in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's honor in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Ivica Dacic performed Osman Aga, a Turkish folk tune which is well-known by many nationalities in the Balkans and Thrace (an area which is split between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey).
However what came as a special surprise is that the top Serbian diplomat sang it in Turkish, causing heated applause in the audience, namely the Turkish leader and his wife Emine and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his wife Tamara Djukanovic.
Sırbistan Başbakanı Ivitsa Dačić’in yorumuyla Osman Aga. #Erdoğan #Serbia #Turkey pic.twitter.com/mWx8Z13rcB
— Murat KINACI (@kinacimurat) October 10, 2017
It seemed to inspire the Serbian politician to sing more, so he performed Serbian song Miljacka. The mufti of Belgrade, Mustafa Jusufspahic, seemed to like this one the most, and tipped the singer.
Being a diplomat, the Serbian Minister seems to be quite fond of singing in public in foreign languages: last summer in Greece, he sang a dozen songs in Greek and one in Russian, while during Vucic's inauguration in June he and former Italian FM and adviser to the Serbian president Franco Frattini sang a duet: "O sole mio."
During the dinner, Erdogan and Vucic exchanged gifts: the Serbian President got a Turkish hand-made kilim rug, while his Turkish counterpart was given a chess set and a bicycle.
