Bosnian Ambassador to Greece, Milica Ristovic, said it would be “illusory” to expect that any Bosnian ambassador of Serb ethnicity obeys foreign minister's instruction to display the state flag at half-mast on July 11, the day which marks anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. She accused the FM of further deteriorating "already deteriorated relations" and of "increasing tensions among peoples."

Ristovic, the Bosnian Serb, noted that the embassy in Athens will not mark July 11 in any way because FM Bisera Turkovic issued the instruction without consent of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It is illusory to expect that any Serb ambassador will obey this instruction, especially after the open letter that we all signed on the occasion of March 1, so-called Independence Day of BiH,” Krstic told Srna news agency.

Bosnian Serb ambassadors and consuls sent an open letter to FM Turkovic on March 1, which is officially observed as the Independence Day of BiH, informing her they would not obey the instruction to “mark this non-existent holiday.”

They argued that March 1, the date which is disputed in the Serb-majority part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska entity, was actually the day of the “Sarajevo Wedding Attack – an attack of a wedding procession which resulted in the death of the father of the groom and the wounding of a Serbian Orthodox priest” and which was the “reason for the start of the war in BiH.”

The Law on March 1 was passed in 1995 by what was then called the Assembly of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and was recognised by the European Economic Community as the Independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, due to the lack of the Law on Holidays at the state level, this day is marked only in one part of BiH, the Bosniak-Croat shared Federation BiH entity.

Ristovic noted that Turkovic's instruction for July 11 is “another one in the series of same or similar ones that are sent to the diplomatic-consular network on the dates that matter to one people only – the Bosniaks.”

She accused the minister of further deteriorating “already deteriorated relations” and of “increasing the tensions among the peoples by implementing one-sided agenda of her political party.”

July 11 marks the anniversary of the mass killings of the non-Serb population in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which two international courts, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled was the act of genocide.

Turkovic's request to declare July 11 the Day of Mourning in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not make it to the agenda of the Council of Minister's session due to objection of Chairman Zoran Tegeltija.

Only the Federation BiH entity traditionally marks July 11 as the Day of Mourning in honour of the Srebrenica genocide victims.