Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic said during the OSCE ministerial conference in Stockholm that the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina “requires attention and calls for the involvement.”

Referring to words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from a day ago at the same event, Turkovic said she agrees with him on saying “let's be honest.”

“Honesty makes us say that a high-ranking official of Bosnian government and the leader of the strongest political party in one of Bosnian entities effectively calls for the secession of that entity,” Turkovic warned.

She recalled that the official in question, Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, announced plans for withdrawal of the Republika Srpska entity from Bosnian Armed Forces and establishing the entity's own army.

“This move would ruin years of progress in the Bosnian defense reform. I do not need to remind you that similar rhetoric resulted in more than 100,000 lives lost in Bosnia and Herzegovina, most of whom were innocent civilians. Europe said ‘never again’ after the Holocaust. Yet, less than 50 years after that, we have witnessed genocide in the heart of Europe,” Turkovic stressed.

“Those who deny the Holocaust and genocide, celebrate convicted war criminals, right-wing extremists and nationalists are ready to take what is not theirs. That is the political situation in BiH. A situation that requires our attention and invites us to get involved,” she added.