Turkey remembers Srebrenica genocide

By Zuhal Demirci, Adam Abu Bashal, Ercan Canbolat and Sinan Uslu

ANKARA (AA) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday led Turkish tributes to the dead of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia.

The Turkish leader said: “Letting the genocide in Srebrenica be forgotten, underestimated or denied shall never be allowed.”

Erdogan also had strong words for the UN’s failure to protect thousands of Muslim Bosniaks fleeing Bosnian Serb militias, describing as “cowards” those who “handed civilians taking sanctuary over to murderers”.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb forces attacked the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops tasked with acting as international peacekeepers.

Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces who were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, Serb troops led by General Ratko Mladic -- who now faces genocide charges at The Hague -- overran the UN zone.

The Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing about 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone. Some 15,000 Srebrenica people fled into the surrounding mountains but Serb troops hunted down and killed around 6,000 civilians in the forests.

- 'Bosnia's pain is our pain'

Other senior Turkish officials also marked Tuesday's anniversary.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: "Bosnia and Herzegovina's pain is our pain. Turkey is determined to keep track of the oppression and massacre their Bosnian brothers faced, and stand by them in their strife."

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted: “We remember our brothers we lost in the genocide, with God’s glory and grace.”

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus attended a memorial ceremony in Potocari, close to Srebrenica, where 71 newly-identified victims of the killings were laid to rest in a collective burial.

In the Turkish capital, Ankara, a ceremony was held at the city’s Alija Izetbegovic Park, named after the wartime Bosnian president, where a monument to Srebrenica stands.

Bosnian ambassador Bakir Sadovic said: “God tests people to learn lessons. The Srebrenica test shows us that we should not be weak, because weakness always attracts enemies.”