Former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the Zenica-Doboj Canton, during the 65th honorary session of the Cantonal Assembly in Zenica.

In his address, Mesic said Bosnia survived within its borders and that there will be no changes of borders in the future.

“This recognition reminds me of Bosnia’s most difficult moments when it took courage to fight for Bosnia’s survival. I had that courage, and I don’t regret it for one second. I had troubles in my own country, but we still did a great job, which was to preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina in its original borders. However, there are those who think borders can still change,” Mesic said. “The architecture of state borders is over in Europe. The last part that needs to be formalised is the formalisation of the Kosovo borders, everything else is definitely over and whoever thinks that they can change borders, is gravely mistaken. There will be no changes of borders.”

He said it was important that Bosnian people know this so they would stop wasting time.

Speaking about the ruling structures in Belgrade and Zagreb he said that they must send a message to Bosnian Croats and Serbs that Bosnia is their homeland.

“Your capital is Sarajevo and you should create your politics with the other two peoples and the rest of the Bosnian citizens, because only then will you be able to create your own happiness.”

Mesic stressed that the Belgrade political elite should send the same message to Bosnian Serbs: “Your homeland is Bosnia, your capital is Sarajevo”.

Serbia supports Bosnia as a single, united and sovereign country but the messages they are sending are contrary to the main message because they support a man who says he does not recognise Bosnia (The President of Bosnia’s semi-autonomous, Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik).

“These are the problems that leave room for those who still think they can change Bosnia’s borders or think that parts of Bosnia can be part of some other countries – which is impossible. Everyone should face the facts,” Mesic concluded. “The world has accepted the fact that Bosnia exists, and so has Europe. It is only a matter of time before the EU realises that they must accelerate the EU accession of all parts of Europe.”

He added that the EU may not be the most ideal alliance of states, but that united Europe is one of the main factors of world politics.

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