Unrest in Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be a nation-state like, for example, its closest neighbors Croatia and Serbia, nor a tri-national one, because that is the model by which it currently functions and we are witnessing something that, among decent words, cannot find a suitable description. Serbs in Serbia and Croats in Croatia are majority nations and peoples and are doing what is fitting for majority nations – striving to make their countries as stable and strong nation-states as possible and to elevate them to the heavens.

Serbs in Bosnia and Croats in Herzegovina, on the other hand, are doing everything to pull BiH down as much as possible, on the one hand, doing what generations of their ancestors never even thought of – “sowing and planting in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and praying to God for rain in Serbia and Croatia,” and on the other hand, achieving what their predecessors and many others/others failed to do for centuries: primarily to de-state their country – Bosnia and Herzegovina – as much as possible, believing that this will ensure better living conditions for their peoples than they have in a unified state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are tearing and eroding its centuries-old fabric by forming quasi and para-state entities with an administrative republic and a virtual – economic – third entity.

Bosniaks in Serbia and Bosniaks in Croatia, as minorities, are seeking a way to make their statuses – whatever they may be – as stable as possible and to advance them from mere religious communities to at least national minorities with all the rights guaranteed to them by the European Charter on Minority Rights, or however they manage to achieve it, or in the worst case, however it turns out.

Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the indisputably most numerous people, regardless of percentages, have barely been keeping their heads “above water” for two decades, and through mismanagement, and even ignorance, they persistently strive to identify the most numerous people with a religious community, seemingly “copying” this from the Serbs, as only they have managed to identify Serbdom and Orthodoxy to such an extent that any attempt at separation would most resemble an operation on Siamese twins joined at the heart. It is clear even to medical laymen that such an operation can only end with the death of one or both “twins.” It is not difficult to deduce the danger into which Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina are placing themselves with such “politics.”

Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the majority people, live on barely a quarter of the territory of their country and state, and are unable and not given the opportunity to form a state that, although not strong and national, would at least be normal and functional to the extent that all its inhabitants would be equally well or poorly off.

The political interests of Bosnian-Herzegovinian ethnic political elites, primarily external and then internal, are based mainly on an emotional level rather than any other identification with larger and more significant “players” on the regional and broader geopolitical stage. The desired and strictly maintained status quo in Bosnia and Herzegovina is maintained solely and exclusively by mutually feeding fears: “Bosniaks” fear the country will disintegrate, “Serbs” fear BiH will be അവൻ (unitarized) (whatever that means), and “Croats” fear that the results of the 2013 census will eventually be revealed…

According to the latest news, they can sleep peacefully because there will be no census in 2021. In the given contextual environment, the solutions for Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least those visible on the horizon, are reduced to only two options: 1. a secular, civic, nation-state modeled after some existing ones, for example, Belgium, or 2. the disintegration or dissolution of the country.

Since the first option most closely resembles a “unitary” BiH, it can be assumed that both Serbs and Serbians, as well as Croats and Croats, in a foreseeable political consensus, will activate all available resources against it, despite the fact that such a state would grant them even more rights than they currently have. However, since such a state mandates the rule of law, i.e., the enforcement of laws instead of the current practice of merely voting and preventing the activation and functioning of competent institutions, it can be said that the current Bosniak political entities will also be against it. Therefore, the disintegration of the country or its division into three “entities” that de facto already exist and function, although de jure only partially defined, remains.

The dissolution of Bosnia, or more understandably, its disintegration, is possible – despite all other claims and more or less successful attempts – only with the consent and help of Bosniaks. Although there is no Bosniak who would not swear that they would allow it at any cost, the Bosniak political elite is doing so by indoctrinating Bosniaks with an obscure theory and even more obscure practice that, in all likelihood, resembles love – Turkophilia! That is, the claim that we, Bosniaks, have been Muslims since the arrival of the Turks in Bosnia... which is contradicted by everything: from common sense to truthful historiography.

Namely, besides directly confirming the nationalist and great-power projects and centuries-old tendencies of the policies of neighbors, the fate of Bosniaks as a people (not a nation) is directly linked to the fate of a political project in a distant country, condemning them to political death in case of the fall of the AK party regime in Turkey. The third likely option, the status quo, besides being mentioned third, is actually the first, because it is the most likely.

Unfortunately, the people who desire power and authority in such an environment are the most suitable to acquire it and, ironically, the least suitable to use it. Bearing in mind the nature of power in BiH – friendly-nepotistic control and disposal of resources and budgets – the political entities involved in the process of governing Bosnia and Herzegovina are reduced to their true essence, which cannot be labeled otherwise than cartels.