Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić, said tonight, at the reception marking Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Independence Day in the Sarajevo City Hall, that it is important to believe in our country, be realistic, but at the same time reject any kind of despondency.
Komšić emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite numerous challenges, shows the ability to rebuild and progress.
“You have to be wise, but also irrationally brave. Thirty years of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina have once again shown the country’s ability to rise from the ashes. Those years gave birth to a completely new generation, devoid of any complexes and artificially imposed doubts. In the faces of those children, I see the same faces that defended this country. I believe them too,” said Komšić.
In his address, he pointed out that tonight Bosnia and Herzegovina is celebrating the most significant event in its modern history – Independence Day.
“We celebrate March 1 as the Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The day on which, 34 years ago, our homeland gained independence through the democratic decision of its citizens, made in the referendum on independence. The first of March represents the expression of the age-old aspirations of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the independence and sovereignty of our homeland,” said Komšić.
He reminded that in the whirlwind of history, through different eras, BiH, like a river sinkhole, sank and rose, shrank and widened, was powerful and powerless, restless and peaceful, occupied and unoccupied, both weak and strong, but never at a single moment did it lose any of its meaning of existence.
“Although objective circumstances, especially in moments of weakness, often lead to a rational dilemma about whether such an organism makes sense, the life of an ordinary person, and even of a country, is not always rational, but is often, at first glance, irrationally brave and ready for any sacrifice. The same is true of our Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the uninitiated, an irrationally, often insanely brave country,” he said.
He claims that what has held this country together for centuries is its character and what this country is in its being and essence.
“In the nature of her character dwell generations of people who were ready to lay down their lives for her, all in order to defend Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country, but also as a way of life in these areas, the Bosnian way of life. Therefore, empires and different types of state organization changed, but Bosnian was always lived in spite of that. When I say Bosnian, I mean exactly these days when Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox, at the same moment, fast each for themselves, and all together, even together,” he pointed out.
This way of life, claims Komšić, outlived all the already mentioned forms of political organization, in all eras.
“And that, I would say, is the greatest strength of this country. Without this strength, our homeland would hardly have been able to overcome all the historical challenges and temptations it was brought before. It is precisely on the basis of this way of life, and I call it the Bosnian way of life, and on the basis of these beliefs and the idea of the equality of all citizens, that the referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was announced and successfully carried out. Today, looking the truth in the eye, we have to admit to ourselves that this idea of ours, which is in the very essence of our being, is in a big crisis on a global level,” he emphasized.
Komšić believes that the motivation of the powerful and powerful in the world has long been not only the accumulation of material wealth, which often triggers wars and mass suffering.
“We see that what is unpopularly called the clash of civilizations is taking place in the background, and we cannot and must not remain blind to this. The general progress of humanity, in the material sense, seems to be returning us to the Middle Ages in the spiritual and moral sense and dividing us into the persecuted and those who persecute. No one can claim with certainty that an escalation cannot occur at the international level, and precisely on identity grounds,” he believes.
Komšić says that BiH can do very little or almost nothing about this issue, but what it can do is remain true to itself.
“Therefore, I am convinced that we will never give up on the idea of living together, because it is in the nature of this country that is protected by the people themselves, some higher power or God himself, depending on how one looks at it. But we must be ready to endure and we must be ready to defend our country at all costs,” concluded Komšić in his address at the reception on the occasion of BiH Independence Day.
