French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy for NYT: I have a special attachment to the medal given to me by Alija Izetbegović

French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy opened the doors of his Paris home to New York Times journalists and showed them the space where he spends most of his time and where his books are created. Although he says he does not form attachments to objects other than books, he did point out one exception, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

- The medal I received from the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, in 1993 when I was in Sarajevo filming a documentary about the war in Bosnia. It is the only medal I have accepted from a state government, including my own, probably because it was given to only a few people. And because I thought I deserved it - said Henri-Lévy for the NYT.

Lévy was one of the first French intellectuals to call for military intervention against the Serbian army in Bosnia in the 1990s and spoke very early about Serbian concentration camps. He is the author of the documentary film "Bosna" about the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he portrays the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an army defending the honor of Europe and Alija Izetbegović as a fighter for cosmopolitanism and freedom. He calls him the Bosnian de Gaulle.

He published a diary he kept during the war in Bosnia, under the symbolic title "The Lily and the Ash," in which he analyzes the beginning of the wars in the Balkans, and on May 23, 1992, he wrote:

- Pascal Bruckner at Flora. (...) I try to tell him that he is confusing two things: the war in Croatia, where, whether we like it or not, two nationalisms are clashing; the war in Bosnia, however, where one nationalism and one cosmopolitanism, which is the honor of Europe, are opposed.

When President Alija Izetbegović died, the French philosopher described him with the following words:

- The beret with those white lilies, which Izetbegović wore, has an inalienable place, next to Allende's bulletproof vest and Gandhi's white cotton sari. And I know, that man was not just anyone.