Foreign minister Çavuşoğlu commemorates ‘mother’ of Srebrenica victims

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s foreign minister on July 23 commemorated the late Hatidza Mehmedovic, an activist who fought for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

Mehmedovic, head of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association, died in the capital Sarajevo on July 22. She was 66.

“We will always remember her as someone who sought justice for the victims of Srebrenica,” Mevlüt Çavusoğlu posted on Twitter.

“Her cause will continue forever,” Çavuşoğlu added.

Mehmedovic died at a clinic while receiving treatment for cancer. She will be buried in her hometown of Srebrenica on July 25.

After losing her husband and two sons in the genocide, Mehmedovic dedicated her life to raising awareness of the genocide and became a symbol of resistance.

“I will be a mother no more,” she said in the wake of the genocide.

“I will not be able to have grandchildren. I will not be able to have a son, and I will no longer know what all of this happiness means,” said Mehmedovic.

Her association represents the mothers of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys massacred by Serbian forces in 1995.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb forces attacked the United Nations “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 Croatians to form their own state.

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.

International courts have defined the massacre of more than 8,000 people as “an act of genocide.”