Komšić: The survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a matter of the survival of civilization

(Patria) - At the joint Ceremonial Academy on the occasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Statehood Day, organized by the Canton of Sarajevo, the City of Sarajevo, and the municipalities of the Canton of Sarajevo, the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić also addressed the audience in the City Hall.

"November 25, the day of renewed statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the fundamental identity determinant of our country. This determinant has its various meanings, which are, I would say, political, institutional, and cultural meanings.

Although it existed for hundreds of years before in various forms, as a banovina, a kingdom, as a territory under the jurisdiction of great empires, with its special role within those empires, BiH was first constituted as a state, or rather as a Republic, on November 25, 1943.

Unlike previous arrangements, the concept of a Republic is a concept of a modern civil society, that is, an achievement of the great European revolutions. November 25, 1943, is an expression of the maturity of Bosnian-Herzegovinian society as a whole.

That society, or rather its most progressive parts, drawing on past experiences, found the strength, courage, and intellectual capacity to realize themselves through the National Liberation Movement," said Komšić.

He added that it was 'not only in the fight for a more modern form of social organization, but also to convince the broad masses that the fight for the Republic, the fight for the Revolution, is what they must participate in if they want to be creators of history and the state'.

"And indeed, that generation became the creator of history, given the fact of what it endured and suffered in the fight for its democratic beliefs, which resulted in the constitution of the Republic.

The Republic was constituted on principles that, in a social sense, have always been respected in a traditional way, on the principles of mutual respect between simultaneously similar and different peoples.

But then, the peoples and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the first time, while respecting all specificities and all similarities, found a common language. That common language was contained in the simple formulation of ZAVNOBiH that Bosnia and Herzegovina is neither Muslim, nor Serbian, nor Croatian, but both Muslim and Serbian and Croatian and of all other citizens who live in it.

That common language of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina not only established the Republic as a principle but also as a state apparatus, without which the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina could not have come to life.

Almost five decades of ZAVNOBiH peace formed numerous state institutions, from political, through judicial, security, educational, and cultural. The period between 1943 and 1992 was the realization of ZAVNOBiH's ideas. This period should not be idealized from this temporal distance, but it should not be belittled either, because it was precisely this period in which republican institutions were built, which were again crucial in the defense against the aggression on the Republic of BiH," added Komšić.

Also, an important aspect of ZAVNOBiH is, according to Komšić, the final definition of BiH as a multi-ethnic space, which in itself implies participation in government and social life of all members of different ethnic groups, without ethnic discrimination that is present today, and against which all of us who are for a civic BiH are fighting.

"This was precisely the struggle waged by the National Liberation Movement. A struggle that rested on civilizational values, for which we are still fighting today. These values are under fierce attack. Sometimes these attacks come from Europe itself and the EU, which is also founded on the principles of anti-fascism.

However, we will not give up on this fight for democratic and civilizational values, regardless of how Europe treats them, because the generation of 1943 did not give up on these values even then, in the conditions of an occupied Europe by fascism.

We will not, because our political, institutional, and cultural heritage is anti-fascism, because our historical heritage is the democratic and anti-fascist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And in the hardest years, in the years of aggression against our country, we did not renounce these values. We will not renounce them today either, because we believe in them, and we will believe in them.

The survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not just a matter of the survival of the state. It is a matter of the survival of civilization. For those of us who believe in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is not even a question, but a matter of dignity that no one can take away from us. And therefore, let us be proud of what we believe in! Let us be proud of Bosnia and Herzegovina," added Komšić.