SDA: Čović is not a promoter but a gravedigger of European values

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - SDA strongly condemns the statements of HDZ BiH President Dragan Čović equating civic BiH with an Islamic state.

- Such statements are very dangerous and stem from the Greater Serbian and Greater Croatian ideological kitchen. Their goal is to stigmatize the Bosniak people and all BiH patriots with the stigma of Islamic radicalism and thus portray them in a negative light to the Western world.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and all BiH patriots have experienced firsthand what this policy means in practice through the aggression, mass crimes and genocide committed by followers of the aforementioned ideologies, as evidenced by numerous verdicts of international courts.

Bosniaks, as a European people, will never renounce the civilizational achievements they inherit, their tradition and faith. It is precisely these values that have made the Bosniak people tolerant. Even when they were barbarically killed, even when they experienced genocide, Bosniaks did not resort to revenge or extremism, but persevered in civilizational values, truth and justice - the SDA stated.

Furthermore, this party points out that "instead of unjustly accusing Bosniaks, Čović would do better to look at his own environment where various anti-civilizational ideologies are flourishing, and ask himself what he should do to oppose these retrograde phenomena".

- BiH can only be built as a state of its citizens. That is how all well-ordered states in the world are built. Certainly, along with this principle, its multi-ethnic character should be respected, and this is already regulated by the Constitution. 

Advocating for BiH as an exclusively ethnic state means advocating for its division and undermining its European future.  Advocating for BiH in the way Dragan Čović and HDZ BiH envision does not mean fighting for the equality of peoples, but fighting for the dominance of one party over all others.

We call on Dragan Čović to understand this as soon as possible, because otherwise he will be remembered not as a promoter, but as a gravedigger of European values - the SDA added.