Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday offered to help Kosovo and Serbia as they are set to resume their EU-mediated dialogue next week after a turbulent month in Kosovo’s north.

“We support the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels. We as Turkey are ready to contribute wherever possible, Mr Davutoglu said after meeting Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Thaci and Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj.

“If invited to offer support we are ready to contribute so that peace can reign in the Balkans.”

The Turkish minister is on a diplomatic tour of the Balkans which will also take him to Bosnia, Serbia and Romania, as Ankara is trying to increase its influence in the region.

Mr Davutoglu’s visit came just days before the EU-mediated dialogue was to resume after violence flared in northern Kosovo in late July when Pristina forcibly replaced ethnic Serb border guards attached to the Kosovo police with ethnic Albanian officers at two border crossings to enforce a trade ban with Serbia. Residents in majority Serb northern Kosovo reacted angrily and an ethnic Albanian police officer was killed and four injured in ensuing clashes.

European Union-mediated talks aimed at easing day-to-day headaches between the two sides are due to resume on September 2. The Turkish minister assured Pristina that Ankara “pays a lot of attention to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kosovo”.

“We do not want to have parallel structures in Kosovo and want it to exercise its sovereignty over all its territory,” he said, referring to administrative structures Serbia maintains in the north even after Kosovo declared independence.