Zeljana Zovko, a Croatian Member of the European Parliament from the HDZ party and a former ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), stated that 1.1 million citizens of BiH possess Croatian passports. As evidence that this group isn’t limited to Croats from BiH, she cited the Izetbegovic family. Bakir Izetbegovic responded by suggesting that this might refer to some of his relatives.
According to media reports, Zovko said that many Bosniak officials hold Croatian passports, some of them allegedly from the Izetbegovic family.
“During the war in BiH, more than 300.000 Bosniaks were sheltered in Croatia. Most later obtained citizenship and passports based on old claims that they or their relatives identified as Croats,” she said.
SDA party president Bakir Izetbegovic replied to Zovko’s statements in an interview, not denying that some of his relatives might have Croatian passports.
“I have close relatives born in Zagreb; perhaps some who were expelled from Samac ended up with passports (one of Alija’s first cousins married a Croatian woman from Brac, etc.),” Izetbegovicstated.
In addition to her claims about the Izetbegovic family, Zovko emphasized that over a million people from BiH have Croatian passports.
“When Croatia submitted its European Union (EU) application, it included the fact that 1.1 million passports had been issued to citizens who simultaneously hold BiH citizenship. This means that apart from ethnic Croats; Bosniaks, Serbs, and other citizens of the neighboring country also have Croatian citizenship,” she said.
A similar claim was made a decade ago by former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic (SDP) during his campaign against Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (HDZ) while visiting Herzegovina.
“If there were fewer obligations and more time for campaigning, I would gladly present my program in BiH. After all, 1.1 million citizens of BiH, many of whom are abroad, hold Croatian passports,” he said, although he did not mention the Izetbegovicfamily or the ethnic background of those with dual citizenship, Klix.ba writes.
