Bosnia's Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic said her recent statements on the country's setup were misused and aimed to divert attention from the important ongoing processes, adding that her own and the view of her political party on a potential future arrangement of Bosnia and Herzegovina are already well-known.
Speaking to Face TV last week, the head of Bosnia's diplomacy and member of Bosniak main party, the SDA, spoke about a possibility of abolishing Bosnia's Serb-majority semi-autonomous region Republika Srpska (RS), arguing that this could happen with the “will of the people as well as support from abroad”.
Turkovic implied that abolishing Bosnia’s entities would mean a better life for citizens. She then commented on Bosnian Serbs insisting on Republika Srpska.
“They are under pressure, so were the Germans, who were under pressure from Hitler, but they overcame that period,” Turkovic said.
“Once the main person who is responsible faces an adequate punishment, or when he changes the course of his behaviour, many things are then set in a completely different context,” she said.
When asked whether she was comparing Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik to Hitler, Turkovic said: “No, I am not comparing anybody, just talking about various scenarios.”
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Her statements were met with strong criticism from Republika Srpska and the Serb leadership but Turkovic responded to that.
According to her, the vast majority of those who made comments “probably did not even watch the full interview.”
“Our view of the future arrangement of Bosnia and Herzegovina is well-known from before and has already been triggering public discussions. So, the party I belong to and I personally deem that our country would be the most functional with three levels of authority – the state, regional and local. Since these political stances are well-known and always available in public, I see no reason for the strong reactions that unnecessarily raise tensions,” Turkovic said on Monday.
She stressed the reactions were aimed to divert attention “from important ongoing and upcoming processes” and that they will “bring nothing good” in this region.
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“It is clear that recent developments at the UN, the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the European Union, as well as other announced processes, cause anxiety among the obstructors of the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is impermissible and I reject with disgust the misuse and misinterpretation of my statements, especially those claiming I was offending one people. Let me remind you that I denied and explained it in that very interview,” underlined Turkovic.
The minister, however, agreed it was necessary to avoid inflammatory rhetoric and to start respecting each other.
“To begin with, I suggest that the denial of genocide against Bosniaks ends, that court verdicts are respected, that war criminals are not glorified, that they are seized the medals they were given, that one people is not constantly offended by narrowing them down to a religious group, that religious leaders are not insulted,” Turkovic said in response.
