Who and why is pushing Bosniaks into all the world's problems?

By: Rasim Belko

Continuous internal political chaos does not allow Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state to define its interests and, accordingly, position itself or bypass geopolitical issues, problems, and conflicts. Faced with a decades-long struggle with internal and external anti-state elements, Bosniak politics as a state-building factor fails to find a formula for action. Add to this the fact that Serb politics in BiH exclusively follows the politics of Serbia, and the politics of BiH Croats follow the moves of Zagreb.

Therefore, it is clear that the Bosniak/Bosnian political factor, in addition to anti-state policies, must find a way to better combat international challenges. This has not been the case so far, so representatives of these state-building policies have run offside, acting ridiculously in an attempt to be an important political factor in the game of the serious and powerful.

For example, while half of Europe clearly stated that it did not want migrants from the East, and a significant part protected such a stance with barbed wire and even more barbed security policy, Bosniak politicians approached the problem that the world feared with pathological emotionality. “We were migrants, we understand them,” was the message used five years ago to justify allowing migrants into the territory with a Bosniak population. Especially in the Una-Sana Canton, which experienced a severe migrant crisis for several years.

Today, the wrongness of such decisions is most evident, because due to the significant presence of migrants, Bosnia and Herzegovina is targeted as a terrorist threat, and it also has a serious problem with the EU, especially with Croatia.

And then Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine. Even before the world's most powerful countries took a stance, rallies in support of Ukraine were held in Sarajevo, and Bosniak/Bosnian politicians unequivocally took Ukraine's side, again in a pathological, sacrificial mode of “we know what aggression is.” Serious diplomatic conflicts with Russia followed, even though both Ukraine and Russia stood by Serbia during the NATO bombing due to war crimes. And Ukrainian fighters, like Russians, came to kill Bosniaks during the aggression. Did any Bosniak politician read anything about this? No, nor could their entirely illiterate advisors point it out. It is important to take a side, and who cares that no one even asked them to take a side.

Instead of engaging in politics and taking care of the interests of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniak/Bosnian politicians were more concerned with waging geopolitical wars for various reasons and the needs of others, attacking a significant number, even the most powerful.

Bosniak politicians also attacked and condemned many, unaware that their attacks were shots in the dark. The USA, Russia, China, Iran, Germany, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Israel, Syria… came under political fire.

And it is completely clear where the Bosniak/Bosnian politics' desire to play the clown in the sphere of the world's strongest countries comes from. That desire stems from complete political immaturity and ignorance of the need to solve internal problems. Because politicians who are losing on all political fronts must find a topic that will make them interesting to the public. Who cares that Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens will not benefit from all of this.

Such actions have led Bosnia and Herzegovina to a situation where it has no serious partners on a global level today. Because, those it had, politics has driven away with its actions without any substantial interest in the country, and has signaled to all others that it is not a credible partner with whom partnerships last long on solid foundations. For example, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić did not want to impose sanctions on Russia, but he met with Zelensky and somehow turned the situation to his advantage.

The public is the key filter for the functioning and actions of authorities in democratic processes. But, whether due to external influence or divided publics for various reasons, the situation in BiH could be called doubly bad.

On the one hand, voters for whom world interests are more important than highways, the judiciary, who advocate more for Ukraine than for the issue of imposing constitutional amendments, and so on. On the other hand, there are politicians who, due to corruption, do not offer many concrete solutions, but accept the game with voters and act as representatives of the UN, not the BiH authorities. In such a situation, the development of partnership relations with other countries largely depends on the voter filter, and this is no longer politics, but anarchy.

Because, if Bosnia and Herzegovina has an interest in cooperation with Finland, Iran, or China, and voters (influenced by the media) are not in favor of it, such cooperation is impossible from the start. Because, unlike developed, large countries, Bosniak politicians first look at what the neighborhood says, and only then make decisions. In such a situation, their scope of action is limited, because everything they do will be met with hostility. If we add to this the fact that we are an underdeveloped, poorly constructed small country in the heart of a seismic zone, it is clear that our possibilities are inherently limited, and politicians without vision make them almost minor.

That is why we are a social community that deals more with the oppression of Uyghurs in China than with the oppression of Bosniak Muslims in Srebrenica, Bijeljina, Zvornik, Vlasenica…

And that is actually a phenomenon to be studied. When it comes to rushing to NATO members, BRICS, G7, we are first. And when it comes to defending our compatriots 50 kilometers from our place of residence, then we call for help from NATO, EUFOR, the UN, and the EU.

Bosniak politics from a country with about three million inhabitants sharply and boldly condemns the behavior of China with more than a billion people. India, on the other hand, with 1.4 billion inhabitants, does not even get involved when China is agitated around Taiwan, or the US is bombing in the East.

Because, Bosniak politics seeks a way out of its suffering and ignorance in the suffering of others, and the EU, NATO, the UN will take care of the solutions… That is why Bosnia and Herzegovina is an European premature baby of uncertain destiny.