Even though 20 years have passed since the Bosnian War, the commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre has shown that the wounds are still fresh. Daily Sabah spoke with Ahmet Sejdić, who was one of the leading actors in defending Goražde during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, and witnessed many tragic events, about what happened during the war and the contemporary situation of the country.Twenty years have passed since the Srebrenica massacre. As a person who lived through the war and witnessed many tragedies, what can you say about the war?Srebrenica is still a fresh wound for us, and it will not heal as long as we are alive. After 20 years, what is left of the victims who suffered this heinous and barbarous massacre continue to be buried. Last Saturday, 136 innocent people who were savagely killed in Podrinje were buried.Srebrenica is the largest graveyard and a shame for all civilizations, as it has 6,377 martyr's partial corpses buried. The number of victims is estimated to be at least 8,372. Corpse limbs that were found in multiple and mostly secondary mass graves prove that this massacre was an organized murder and that the perpetrators are trying to cover their tracks.This massacre has become a message to following generations. At the international level, it will be remembered as one of the greatest shames of the U.N. Even after 20 years, the complete truth regarding this horrendous crime has yet to be told. Bosnian people should never forget what transpired in Srebrenica.The said truths greatly motivate us to vocalize what we lived through. We only desire that all countries should know and accept what happened; thus, justice will be served.As a soldier who served during the war, do you still have concerns that similar events may transpire, even after 20 years?I am actually not a professional soldier. I graduated from a renowned university where I studied forest engineering, and I was working in this field before the war. I was a reserve officer in the old Yugoslavian army. When the war began, I joined the Bosnian army as a volunteer. At first, I had 16 soldiers serving under my command. This number increased to 12,000 when I became the commander of Goražde. Almost all of the soldiers were volunteers, and they did not know anything about war. We had to teach them one by one.The Serbian military defines itself as "chetnik," and they have a relatively weak army. They lost more men than our army during the war, even though they possessed all of the military equipment of the old Yugoslavian army, and there was an arms embargo on Bosnia. For this reason, they took their revenge by attacking civilians and civilian targets. Srebrenica is one of the most tragic examples of this. I was born in Višegrad, which was 40 kilometers from Srebrenica. They were burning people alive in Višegrad; approximately 140 people were murdered this way. They cut the throats of 500 people and tossed them into the river from the Drina Bridge. Thus, the Drina has become the largest river graveyard. The genocide also took place in cities like Foca, Prijedor and Višegrad, along with Srebrenica. Civilians, numbering between 3,000 and 10,000, were murdered in these cities. This was not a first for the Bosnians. Since World War II, massacres have taken place in the same places with the same methods and often with the same perpetrators.I would like to talk about my own experience. I had a deaf-mute sister. They even saw her as a possible threat and murdered her under mysterious circumstances. We found only her headless body. When the war began, she was 39 years old, and the only reason for her murder was because she was a Bosnian. On the other hand, I never hurt the Serbian family that was our neighbor, even though I had lost both my sister and brother to war. I have never acted out of revenge; we did not do what they have done to us. We have never hurt a civilian. Our struggle is to make these truths known.They were calling us "Turks" with hatred. Their commander Ratko Mladic, when they entered Srebrenica, addressed his soldiers, saying that they were "taking their revenge on the Turks." Serbs were backed by Serbia, as Croatians were backed by Croatia; however, we did not receive significant support from Turkey during those days. Turkey was distanced.Returning to the question as to that whether I have concerns because of what the international community played on us, the concern is still there. What happened in Srebrenica clearly indicates this. If Srebrenica were a massacre against Serbs, there would not be even a single Bosnian left. Europe would have annihilated us.We do not like or desire wars. We never attacked; on the contrary, we were attacked. Our fight was in the limits of self-defense. However, this does not mean that we were afraid of wars. In the unit I was commanding, there were Serb volunteers who fought for Bosnia. Nevertheless, they were killed viciously by their kin with no remorse.What did you mean when you said 'Turkey was distanced?During the Bosnian War, Turkey did not have an active foreign policy, as it has today. If Turkey had these policies and strategic cooperation at the time, the war could have been short-lived, and some of the tragedies may have never been lived. In short, today's Turkey could have provided the support we direly needed. We had the perception during wartime that Turkey could not decide on whom to support. This was partly due to Serbian propaganda that declared us as jihadists and terrorists. We thought that Turkey might have had a similar mindset.Since World War I to the Bosnian War 20 years ago, most of the Bosnians who left our country settled in Turkey. We believe that there are a total of 6 or 7 million Bosnians in Turkey. During the Ottomans' 400-year rule in Bosnia, Bosnians were the people who internalized the culture of the Turks the most. Bosnia had become one of the largest provinces of the Ottomans.Turkey is not aware of all the truths regarding the war. While the Bosnians were never hostile towards the Serbs, they wanted to annihilate Bosnians just because we were Muslims. They continuously want to destroy us because of their "Grand Serbia" ideal. The culture we acquired from the Ottomans may have had an effect on their hatred. Regarding this, Turkey is not responsible for this situation; however, the people who have the "Grand Serbia" ideal are. As Bosnians, our mistake is that we did not put much effort in telling the world the truths about the war.The U.N. draft resolution that recognizes Srebrenica as genocide was vetoed by Russia. What are your opinions on this development?If this draft resolution were accepted, it would have shown that humanity was becoming aware of the heinous crimes and the horror of massacres. It could have shown that they were starting to understand God's words, "He who kills an innocent, kills all humanity."As you have said, Russia vetoed the draft resolution. Only an accomplice would do this. Russia supported our enemies during the war; therefore, we were actually fighting against the Russians. Russians still live in certain regions in Bosnia. Because they live in territories of the autonomous Republika Srpska, they do not face any challenge.After the Dayton Agreement, an autonomous Republika Srpska was established in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian administration has done what it could to cover up the massacres. They moved the mass graves to undisclosed locations. We were fighting against such ravenous enemies that they did not even allow us to give our relatives a proper burial. Moreover, most of the time only a couple of bones of the victims could be found, and their identities can only be identified by DNA tests. Some of the perpetrators are still alive and they are working in government institutions. Republika Srpska must be stopped, and this injustice has to end.In previous days, there was news stating that the U.K. and the U.N. were aware of a possible genocide attempt, and Srebrenica could have been prevented. How do you evaluate this news?The U.N. could have prevented the war, not just the genocide. Serbs had French and English soldiers as hostages. To save their lives, their countries did not act to prevent the genocide. It was estimated that the Serbs had around 50 hostages; these countries decided that these 50 lives were better than the lives of 8,372 unarmed and innocent people. Serbian soldiers were actually just bluffing, as they could never afford to kill these soldiers. If an air-supported intervention was realized, Serbs would have returned the soldiers unharmed. However, France and the U.K. did not take this chance.Our biggest sorrow is that our military was deceived. On June 10, 1995, a Belgian general told the Bosnian military not to fight to regain lost territories, as there was preparation for an air raid, and they should not lose their lives in vain. Our military did not attack until July 11, as they were waiting for that support.If Srebrenica had not been declared a safe zone, this genocide might not have transpired. The French, Dutch and English soldiers did not do their duty. When the Serbs entered the safe zone, they should have retaliated.Srebrenica is important, as the civilians were hunted as if they were wild animals. I am saying this because this process went on for seven to 10 days. While people were trying to flee, they were chased by our enemies and even lured into traps. Some of our enemies came with vehicles belonging to the Dutch military, deceived the people and later killed them. However, in 1993, Srebrenica had fought off a stronger attack by the Serbs. While the Serbs were significantly weak in 1995 when compared to 1993, our soldiers being deceived by NATO and U.N. forces caused the massacre to happen.The generals responsible for the massacre in Srebrenica are on trial. Do you think that justice is being served?Only some the people who committed crimes against Bosnia are on trial. Most of them are still in Bosnia; they are trying to dissolve the country and get rid of Bosnians. Twenty years ago, Bosnia was a unified republic; however, today, there are territories controlled by the Republika Srpska. This administration is built upon the massacre, and the architect of this project is Serbia. Administrators have even tried to defile the evidence. They do not want to reveal their roles in the genocide. The generals on trial are not enough for Bosnia's normalization; only when the perpetrators in Republika Srpska are exposed will the way to normalization be paved. Also, if Serbia and Croatia admit their crimes and make it known for coming generations, will we be satisfied. Our fight for justice is not over, just because the likes of Karadzic are put on trial. Court decisions are only an advantage to us. We still have to sue Serbia and Croatia. Serbia is our greatest enemy, as everything was planned and realized by them.There are allegations that the Srebrenica massacre was not a systematic genocide and that the public of Serbia was oblivious to what was transpiring. What are your opinions on these allegations?Srebrenica and all the other genocides that took place in various cities were not the actions of a few selected generals. These were a part of a comprehensive plan, and this plan was systematically implemented. Regardless, it is impossible that this genocide was carried out without the knowledge of Serbs. This genocide would not have happened if they did not know. These are not isolated cases; on the contrary, it is a highly cooperative action that includes a number of generals. Let's suppose that they did not know: Why don't they treat the Bosnians in Republika Srpska well? The Banja Luka administration still abuses Bosnians in schools, hospitals and institutions to force Bosnians out of their jurisdiction.Who is Ahmet Sejdić ?Ahmet Sejdić was the commander of the 1st Višegrad Brigade during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. The brigade was made up of refugees and genocide survivors from Višegrad. It defended the pockets of the Višegrad area from mid-1992 till May 1993. After the brigade was forced to leave the Višegrad region, and move to Goražde because of the fall of Rogatica and lack of supplies, he became the commander of the 808th Muslim Brigade in Goražde. He was one of the leading actors in defending Goražde during the 1994 Bosnian Serb offensive