11 July 2018•Update: 11 July 2018
By Talha Ozturk, Lejla Biogradlija
SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
Marking the 23rd anniversary of the genocide, Gul, who was leading a delegation of deputies, took part in the funeral service for 35 newly identified victims of the genocide.
The memorial center -- just northwest of Srebrenica -- is the focal point of remembrance for friends and relatives of the more than 8,000 people, mostly men and boys, murdered by Bosnian Serb militias.
"Although 23 years have passed since the genocide, the wounds are still fresh. Those who committed the genocide, those who stayed silent and those who turned their backs 23 years ago are being judged by history and humanity," said Gul.
He said that they participated in the ceremony on behalf of Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan and Republic of Turkey to express solidarity with the relatives of the martyrs.
Hakan Cavusoglu, a lawmaker from Turkey’s ruling party, also expressed solidarity with the victims of the genocide.
"I guess the pain will never end. Srebrenica faced a great deal of cruelty, brutality and genocide," said Cavusoglu.
Cavusoglu said that there would not have been any genocide in Syria, Palestine and Myanmar if the world had not acted as a spectator on Srebrenica genocide.
After this year’s funeral the number of burials in the cemetery rose to 6,610.
Vesid Ibric, only 16 when he was killed, will be the youngest victim to be buried this year. Sahin Halilovic, the oldest, was 71.
Remzija Dudic, who was brutally murdered by Serbian troops despite being 6 months pregnant, will also be laid to rest.
- Failure of 'safe area'
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 6,000 of them in the forests.
So far 6,610 victims have been buried at the Potocari Memorial Centre. At last year's commemoration, 75 Srebrenica victims were interred at the site.
Every year, the remains of more victims are identified and buried in Potocari on the anniversary of the genocide.
Nearly 170 identified victims are in the Podrinje identification center in Tuzla, but largely due to incomplete remains the victims have not yet been buried.
Hundreds of Bosniak families are still searching for missing people as a large number of victims were thrown into mass graves around the country during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
A total of 8,400 people remain missing since the war’s end, according to the Institute for Missing Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
