SUMMIT OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMEA PLATFORM IN KIEV – KOMŠIĆ: I WOULD BE A VICTIM OF AGGRESSION, SUPPORT TO UKRAINE MUST BE CLEAR AND LOUD

SARAJEVO, AUGUST 24 (ONASA) – Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić, at the third summit of the International Crimean Platform in Kiev, Ukraine, said that he comes from a country that was also a victim of aggression and attempted violent seizure of territory.
– As the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is my honor to participate in the third summit of the Crimean Platform and from this place to send a clear and unambiguous message of support to the Ukrainian people in the fight to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, which, of course, includes Crimea. Crimea is Ukraine – said Komšić, adding:
– I come from a country that was also a victim of aggression and attempts to forcibly seize territory. As in the case of Ukraine, the military aggression of a far stronger and larger military power towards Bosnia and Herzegovina was preceded by political, media, economic, and any other aggression, including the cultural one – an attempt to deny the cultural identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples, presenting them as fictional , regardless of the thousand-year history of Bosnian statehood.
He emphasized that even the circumstances of the aggression against Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina are similar.
– In February 1992, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina voted in a referendum choosing an independent and sovereign, multi-ethnic, democratic, European Bosnia and Herzegovina. That democratic expression of the will of the vast majority of the citizens of my country was met with aggression, ethnic cleansing, camps, genocide in Srebrenica, the siege of the capital Sarajevo – said Komšić, noting:
– While we followed the events in Kiev at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, when the Verkhovna Rada and the citizens of Ukraine sent a clear message through democratic means that they wanted to tear their country out of its vassal relationship with Russia, and direct it towards the free part of the world and the European Union, we feared a similar scenario that we experienced 20 years earlier – illegal aggression and attempted annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory. These acts were a clear violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, as well as the Treaty of Friendship between Russia and Ukraine.
He pointed out that the seizure of Crimea was only a prelude to continued aggression.
– Unfortunately, the seizure of Crimea, followed by ethnic cleansing and numerous other violations of human rights and freedoms, was only a prelude to the continuation of the aggression that followed in February 2022. This time, the goal of the aggressors was and remains the overthrow of the democratically elected Ukrainian authorities, the submission of the Ukrainian people to the regime in the Kremlin – said Komšić.
In the end, he said that the inviolability of state borders must be collectively protected.
– Together, we must resist such intentions and protect the basic principles of international law and order, on which the security, stability and prosperity of the entire world depend. The inviolability of state borders, as well as the political independence of sovereign countries, must be collectively protected. There must be no compromise on these matters. Defending its right to exist and be free, Ukraine today pays a huge price for defending those basic principles. That is why we must be loud and clear in supporting Ukraine and condemning the aggressors. Thank you for your attention. Glory to Ukraine – concluded Komšić, announced the Public Relations Service of the BiH Presidency.