EUROPE NOW Šepić: ZAVNOBiH laid the foundations, Brussels is BiH's goal!

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Bosnia is a resilient country, intertwined with a thousand-year tradition, with its natural borders and the people who make it up. While Medieval Bosnia was our cradle of statehood, and ZAVNOBiH in Mrkonjić Grad our consensus of the entire nation, the 1992 referendum and the defensive-liberation war confirmed our country as a full international entity, said the president of the Independent Bloc, Senad Šepić.

"The Dayton Agreement merely confirmed this in Annex 4 – Article 1 confirmed the continuity of Bosnia and Herzegovina's statehood, with an internal structure modified by this Constitution and with existing internationally recognized borders. It is clear to all serious historians that our country did not originate in Dayton, but the foundations of its modern statehood were laid precisely in Mrkonjić Grad. On November 25, 1943, in Mrkonjić Grad, an internal consensus on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina took place, while the opposing sides in Dayton signed an agreement with fig leaves in their pockets and (un)hidden ambitions to finish off Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state," Šepić adds.

As he says, the leaders of such a policy have long been Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, who, often with support from Serbia and Croatia, try to impose ethnic division as a common place, which inevitably leads to a black scenario for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Those who like to call themselves pro-Bosnian politicians, led by Bakir Izetbegović, on the other hand, respond to such a policy by worrying about their own positions, privatizing institutions and public budgets. This country has withstood stronger players than the aforementioned, but what is the real answer in these turbulent times? While we remember today why November 25th is important for our country – both because of the content of the messages and because of the unity of all three peoples and citizens – good news first comes from Washington. Joe Biden is the new US president. He and his administration (like those before him) will be friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but there is no doubt that the new US president will open new perspectives for the future of our country. With Biden at the head of the USA, NATO will surely finish the story here. Likewise, what should be our goal is membership in the European Union – now," Šepić points out.

He adds that Washington and Brussels can help us with this, and the common future of all peoples and citizens in this country with such a goal would expose and reject today's political leaders who draw their power from the status quo and ethnic divisions.

"The Independent Bloc is working on the 'Europe Now Platform,' which will be a strategic document based on the needs and recommendations of the European Commission. This political platform will provide a vision for our future, riding the wave of changes in the United States and new messages from Josep Borrell, the European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Our membership in NATO and the EU will mean that we have overcome Dayton, and opportunities for a better quality of life will open up. ZAVNOBiH gave us the foundations, and Brussels should be our goal. We will get there by respecting our tradition, culture, history, and statehood. Therefore, I congratulate all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina on November 25th, Statehood Day," Šepić concluded.