Bosnia’s biggest defeat is the rapid departure of its citizens to western countries, which is absolutely expected, Slobodan Soja, a Bosnian historian and former Ambassador to Egypt and France, told N1 Wednesday, adding that only the irrational people decide to stay in the country.

Soja noted that over 170,000 people have left the country so far, noting that “If 25 years after the end of the war and the creation of a new state, we have come to see people fleeing this country, then that is the biggest defeat.”

He believes that everything that happened last year in BiH is “a story about a sad swamp in which we constantly quarrel and don’t understand that we, the normal people who do not like to quarrel, will not accept that the only solution for every country is when people communicate most normally and when they fight for the common good, and these constant conflicts that are mostly artificial are the thing that made our reality all these years.”

the former Ambassador said that the departure of people from BiH is quite expected.

“I think it can be expected in the coming years if common sense does not land in BiH, that people will sprint even faster. When I talk to young people, I can't lie to them. I tell them openly that it is not serious to plan for the future of children in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They [the politicians] stole our country from us. This is not our country, we have given that land to others and we don’t know how to get it back to ourselves. It’s sad, but it’s only natural that every reasonable person should leave. Irrational people are not leaving, only irrational people stay here and those who unfortunately can’t leave,” Soja said and added:

“The young people that are left in the country will literally have to run away, and in a few years they will sprint.”