Komšić: The Idea of the Republic is Nobody's Private or Party Property

BOSANSKA KRUPA, (Patria) - Address by the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić on the occasion of the award of the "Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Bosanska Krupa" recognition:

"Dear citizens of Bosanska Krupa, dear Mayor!

It is an honour for me to receive your recognition of 'Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Bosanska Krupa' on the occasion of the Municipality Day. I take this opportunity to thank you all for the honour shown to me.
I am particularly pleased to receive this recognition on the day of the liberation of Bosanska Krupa from the aggressor. On this day, members of the Fifth Corps, that is, members of the 511th glorious brigade, liberated this town with a masterful action as part of Operation 'Sana 95' and forced the enemy of the state into a panicked flight.

The enemy left behind a destroyed and devastated town. However, its citizens who love it and who love this state, raised it back to its feet. That is why I am glad to see that Bosanska Krupa lives its own life, not the one the aggressor intended for it.  

Thus, the aggressor did not succeed in his goal. His goal will forever remain elusive to him, but our goals are still alive. More alive than ever. Right here in this town, last year, during the election campaign, I spoke about the goals of those of us who love and fight for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and I said then that we must preserve faith in the idea of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Now I will repeat the same thing I said then.

The day we stop believing in the idea of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the day we will lose even this kind of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Do not let them kill the idea of the Republic, the democracy we nurtured among ourselves even when there were no political parties. We, politicians, must not just 'tolerate' it but always highlight it as a fundamental value of politics and our BH society. Let us stop only speaking for ourselves and our own, let us stop only listening to ourselves and our own. Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a republic state, will again be a society in which, as before, everyone was turned towards everyone else. I believe in that and that is why I am in politics.

The idea of the Republic is nobody's private or party property, but the legacy of March 1st of the vision of a civic state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It does not belong to one people, nation or religion, but to all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who feel this country is theirs, as well as to those who are no longer among us.  

It is worth advocating for this idea in every possible way, and we will best advocate for it by preserving peace. Peace is, in fact, our only weapon. A weapon before which those who seek to undermine the sovereignty of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, inventing some other sovereignties, will sooner or later capitulate. We are not in as much of a hurry as they were to dismantle the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As the saying goes: patience is a virtue.

We face a struggle ahead using peaceful political means to improve Bosnia and Herzegovina through necessary reforms and make it a modern state for all its citizens, by integrating into larger security, political and economic systems."