Izetbegović's appointees: Džanko and Muhić as Sleeping Beauties during Turkey's crisis

In the past few days since the military coup in Turkey, BiH diplomats in that country have completely failed, namely Ambassador Damir Džanko and Consul General Began Muhić. On the night of Friday to Saturday, the eyes of the world were on Istanbul and Ankara, where scenes from the streets resembled the beginning of a war. Tanks in the streets, military planes, armed soldiers on one side and unarmed people on the other, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

Bosnians and Herzegovinians followed the events in Turkey with anxiety, given the large number of BiH citizens residing throughout Turkey, both for business and private reasons on annual holidays.

However, precisely at a time when we needed reliable and safe information and someone to be available to BiH citizens in Turkey, an unbelievable situation occurred.

Consul General Began Muhić, in a BHRT program on Friday evening, when asked by a journalist what he would tell BiH citizens in Turkey, said: "Let them not go anywhere, let them wait." Muhić also almost forcibly gave a phone number that BiH citizens could call and directed them to seek information online!

Social media flooded with comments after Consul Muhić's statement

Distressed family members who followed the development of the situation are outraged by the behavior of BiH officials in Turkey. While embassies and consulates of other countries in the region reacted promptly and made all their resources available to their citizens, Džanko and Muhić behaved like sleeping beauties. This duo, in statements to the media, provided information that everything was functioning flawlessly, from public transport to banks and institutions, even though yesterday was turbulent in both Istanbul and Ankara. Muhić even urged BiH citizens not to postpone their travel arrangements to Turkey, but stated that security recommendations were being followed. However, the question is, what security recommendations, when the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially issued none, unlike Croatia and Serbia, which recommended their citizens not to travel to Turkey for the time being and to stay safe if they are in Turkey.

This example only showed the harsh reality of the kind of appointees sent to diplomatic missions.

As early as June 2015, when he was appointed Consul General in Istanbul, Turkey, the media wrote about Muhić as an inexperienced appointee with no prior diplomatic experience. Muhić received this position thanks to SDA and its president Bakir Izetbegović, with whom he regularly shares photos on social media.

A source from Patria, well-acquainted with the events at the Consulate in Istanbul, states that Muhić speaks neither Turkish nor English, and his education is in agricultural engineering. He is originally from Živinice, where he held several local political positions.

On the other hand, Ambassador Džanko also initially avoided giving his mobile number to citizens and making himself available, even though all costs are paid from the budget funded by BiH citizens. Džanko became known to the wider public after it was revealed that he had been granted funds from the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs amounting to 10,000 US dollars for the education of his two children who live with him in Ankara. That payment is not illegal, but the question is how moral it is.