Nikolaidis for N1: The West will not help, Bosnia has only itself and its citizens

Speaking on N1's Novi dan, Nikolaidis sharply criticised Serbia's handling of the funeral, as well as the policies of the European Union and the United States towards the region.

"Serbia is playing the game of lies, and it is playing it very well. And it played that game of lies with this funeral as well. Of course this was a state funeral, what else was it? Of course Ratko Mladic's family did not bring tens of thousands of people onto the streets and equip those people with patriotic props. Of course the family did not send Porfirije to give a speech. Of course it did not send state aircraft, state honours and so on. This was a classic state funeral, but Serbia is sufficiently skilled at the game of lies to lie that it was not."

Nikolaidis argued that the main threat facing the region is Greater Serbian nationalism, which he believes has become stronger and more organised.

"Greater Serbian nationalism today is far more organised, institutionalised, refined and trained than it was in 1992. In that sense, Greater Serbian nationalism is more dangerous today than it was then."

He also rejected the idea that an "other Serbia" currently represents a genuine political alternative.

"So that other Serbia does not exist. We have been waiting for 30 years for that other Serbia to be born, to come to power, and then something will happen."

Nikolaidis was equally critical of Western policy, arguing that the EU and the US had failed to confront the ideology behind the crimes committed during the wars of the 1990s.

"You have a very wrong policy which decided to sanction some of the perpetrators of genocide, but not the ideology in whose name the genocide was committed. And in the meantime, that ideology has only, as I told you, grown stronger and become more organised and more dangerous."

He said Bosnia and Herzegovina's political leaders must respond to the situation by developing a strategy based on the reality on the ground rather than expectations of international assistance.

"Those who have taken responsibility, who have taken the privileges, money and everything else that comes with the status of political leaders, and I am thinking primarily of the political elite in Bosnia and Herzegovina, really should sit down and devise a reasonable strategy for what is happening."

Nikolaidis summed up his message in a stark warning:

"The West will not help. Bosnia has only itself and its citizens."

At the end of the interview, he also addressed genocide victims and survivors of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Those are the greatest people we have. Our greatest people are not writers like me, nor other artists, nor journalists, nor scientists. Our victims are the best people we have. And that is the tragedy of this region," Nikolaidis concluded.