IGK: Recognizing November 25 is a matter of both patriotism and human honor

The Institute for Research on Genocide Canada issued a press release on the occasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Statehood Day, which the Patria news agency transmits in full.

- On November 25, 1943, the first session of ZAVNOBiH (the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) was held in Mrkonjić Grad. At the aforementioned session, a decision was made to restore the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its historical borders, dating back to the time of medieval Bosnia, were confirmed, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was defined as one of six equal republics within the then Yugoslavia. By the decision of this session, Bosnia and Herzegovina was defined as a unified and indivisible state in which all peoples would have equal rights.

The greatness and historical value of ZAVNOBiH is reflected in the fact that instead of hatred it offered - brotherhood, instead of discord - unity, instead of division - equality, instead of servitude to foreigners - independence-sovereignty, in one's own state, political, economic and cultural community. ZAVNOBiH promoted and emphasized a unified Bosnian-Herzegovinian state in which meeting the state brings joy, in which meeting the other and different again brings joy. To all those who boycott this historical date, to all those who say that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an artificial creation with no future, to all those who deny the anti-fascist program embodied in the fight against aggression and genocide, to all those who suppress basic human rights and freedoms, to all those who in vain want Bosnia and Herzegovina only for their own purpose, to all prisoners of the past with erased histories, we say:

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a historical entity that has its own identity and its own history. The name Bosnian is not a term that determines national, regional or territorial affiliation. It is a name for a historical and civilizational process, something that through all historical changes and political oppositions has lasted a whole millennium, to an equal degree practiced in everyday life with equal vitality in each.

That is why it is impossible to ravage Bosnia and Herzegovina so that it remains ravaged and destroyed; it will always return to its level, to the level of the Idea of Bosnia and the Bosnian spirit. The defeat of that Idea and that Spirit is the defeat of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and  not the ruin of Europe. When it comes to crimes against that Idea and that Spirit, any compromise is a shameful betrayal of justice and truth.  Reconciliation is needed for the return of hope to man and civilization through the return of the Idea of Bosnia and the Bosnian spirit to its Bosnian-Herzegovinian source, but with the irrevocable condition that war criminals are prosecuted and punished, and the victim compensated. Without that, there is no and cannot be peace or reconciliation, truth, justice, or the historical return of the Idea of Bosnia and the Bosnian spirit to its source.

To all true heirs of the Idea of Bosnia and the Bosnian spirit, to all those who work so that the good land of Bosnia and Herzegovina always remains good, we congratulate November 25, Statehood Day, with due respect to all those who have woven their lives into the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its sovereignty, political subjectivity and territorial integrity, the statement says.