TRTWORLD — Across The Balkans
20261011 183000 UTC
366 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:00] "the government wanted to avoid exactly what you
[00:00:03] have mentioned, panic and confusion, so this
[00:00:06] information was provided publicly, and
[00:00:10] then we we have the the outcome in the
[00:00:13] evening. um, in that sense, I do not expect
[00:00:16] any profound actions taken by the government in
[00:00:20] the sense of future
[00:00:23] security concerns related to this dimension, as I
[00:00:26] mentioned, we see an
[00:00:29] efficient..." reaction by the state authorities, the
[00:00:32] appropriate institutions, therefore I think that
[00:00:36] this is more kind of a signal for others that
[00:00:40] the state has the capacity to to to
[00:00:43] react to such provocations
[00:00:47] quite swiftly. A state of emergency has been imposed
[00:00:51] in the Pakistani province of, the government has
[00:00:54] also replaced the provincial head with a state appointed
[00:00:58] Fahrudin Radončić of governor. The province is the strong. hold of the PTI party led
[00:01:01] by former prime minister Imran Khan who has been imprisoned since
[00:01:04] 2023. main roads in the provinces capital
[00:01:07] Pishawar are blocked with shipping containers and the mobile
[00:01:11] networks are also reportedly cut. the state
[00:01:15] appointed governor claimed the decision was well
[00:01:17] received
[00:01:20] the presidential order imposing governor rule in the province.
[00:01:25] also elect 98 members of they hope this will usher in a new era of peace and development. they blocked all
[00:01:28] the roots by placing
[00:01:30] tainers, why have the roots been blocked? the public voted for them, where is
[00:01:34] democracy? who is not implementing the constitution?
[00:01:37] look here, wherever the constitution is not being implemented, you should
[00:01:41] get it implemented. why are you humiliating the
[00:01:43] public? to india now, where the cockroach
[00:01:47] protest movement leader abhijit dipke has been released from detention
[00:01:51] with two other senior leaders. they were
[00:01:54] arrested on Saturday along with thousands of others who took to the streets calling for the
[00:01:57] resignation of the country's election chief. Protesters accuse him
[00:02:01] of sidestepping rules and regulations and making several
[00:02:05] changes to the voter registration process. Several protesters,
[00:02:09] Bosniak part of the of mostly students were dragged onto a bus, some with visible
[00:02:15] commission says only 42% of injuries. And that's all for now, don't forget you can visit our
[00:02:17] website for details on all of our
[00:02:35] voters and strengthen oversight of
[00:08:37] system puts numbers at the forefront instead of the names of
[00:08:40] politicians. Cities Bosnia and Herzegovina were
[00:08:44] covered with posters, featuring different numbers and political
[00:08:47] candidates, promising citizens a better
[00:08:51] future, but behind the campaign messages and
[00:08:53] promises lies the everyday reality for
[00:08:56] citizens. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a complex
[00:09:00] political system, but beyond politics, how are
[00:09:03] people really living? Are they satisfied with the life in the
[00:09:07] country? We went to the streets to hear
[00:09:10] directly from the people. These posters all say
[00:09:14] the same thing, expect better, what more can you expect?
[00:09:17] What more can you expect? Nothing,
[00:09:19] this doesn't change, we all have
[00:09:23] wishes, but how many years have passed since
[00:09:26] the war, we're all standing still
[00:09:29] in one place. There are fewer and fewer factories,
[00:09:32] there are none for people to go to work like candy,
[00:09:36] for someone to take that, to work, to employ
[00:09:40] people. That's not there.
[00:09:44] Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing slow economic
[00:09:47] growth, a high cost of living, and the departure of
[00:09:51] large numbers of people from the country. For many
[00:09:54] citizens, the question is no longer just what the country's future
[00:09:58] will look like, but how to pay the bills, find a
[00:10:01] job and maintain their standards of living
[00:10:04] today. And the food is
[00:10:07] terrible, but terrible, do you
[00:10:10] agree? Terrible, even if
[00:10:14] you're not allowed something, you're not allowed this, you have to take what
[00:10:17] you're allowed, terrible, I would like
[00:10:20] a civil state, a state where all people have
[00:10:24] equal rights.
[00:10:55] systems in the world, but let's simplify
[00:10:57] it. At the state level and between all
[00:11:01] the entities, there is the three member presidency of Bosnia and
[00:11:05] Herzegovina that represents the country's three main ethnic
[00:11:08] groups. The Federation of Bosnia and
[00:11:11] Herzegovina elects one Bosniak and one Croat,
[00:11:15] and Republika Srpska elects one
[00:11:17] Serb. Voters also elect the 42
[00:11:21] members of the House of Representatives of the parliamentary
[00:11:24] assembly. Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[00:11:27] That's 28 from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
[00:11:31] 14 from the Republic of Srpska. These
[00:11:34] representatives legislate at the state level, approve the budget
[00:11:38] of Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutions and exercise parliamentary
[00:11:42] oversight, including in areas related to foreign policy,
[00:11:45] but that's not all. Voters
[00:11:50] the parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:11:53] and 218. representatives to its 10
[00:11:56] cantonal assemblies and Republika
[00:11:59] Srpska voters directly elect 83 members of the National
[00:12:03] Assembly of Republika Srpska as well as the
[00:12:06] president and two vice presidents of Republika
[00:12:08] Srpska. Voters directly elect the
[00:12:12] legislative branch at these levels: citizens do
[00:12:15] not directly elect the executive branches which include the state
[00:12:19] level council of ministers, the governments of the Federation and
[00:12:23] Republika Srpska and the...
[00:12:27] Instead, parliament forms them through parliamentary procedures,
[00:12:30] coalition building and political
[00:12:32] appointments.
[00:12:36] Bosnia and Herzegovina's electoral
[00:12:40] the country's 3.4 million registered voters turned out on
[00:12:44] October 4th. That's a 9 and a half percent drop
[00:12:47] compared with the previous elections in 2022, but this
[00:12:51] election was different. For the first time on the scene,
[00:12:55] new technology was introduced at polling stations to verify
[00:13:00] the electoral process. The aim was straightforward: to
[00:13:04] reduce the risk of election fraud and give voters greater
[00:13:08] confidence in the results. Now
[00:13:11] from Norway and we're part of the European
[00:13:14] Democracy and Dialogue Association and we're
[00:13:17] observing the elections. Well, as far as I understand, it's some kind of
[00:13:21] biometric system to make sure that the alleged
[00:13:28] So, considering that this is the first time the process was introduced
[00:13:31] with elections and these new devices, it's relatively
[00:13:35] difficult for older people to adapt to this way
[00:13:39] of voting, but of course, we as operators are here to train
[00:13:43] and help within our jurisdiction,
[00:13:46] of course, I'm trying to manage, it will be very difficult,
[00:13:50] I don't know how older people who are less
[00:13:53] educated will get information, data,
[00:13:57] do you know how this new system works?
[00:13:59] Not well, but I'll figure it out.
[00:14:02] How will I vote?
[00:14:05] Although the new system was confusing for some, the majority of voters in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:14:11] used their ballots to express
[00:14:14] support for a united Bosnia and Herzegovina and a
[00:14:17] better future. In your opinion, what should
[00:14:21] Bosnia and Herzegovina look like? It should look like one.
[00:14:25] president, with one government, that we are all together as
[00:14:28] we once were in former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:14:31] was united, and it should remain so in the future,
[00:14:34] however, these elections announce
[00:14:38] from the Croatian and Serbian side a catastrophe for Bosnia and Herzegovina,
[00:14:42] we must extend our hands to everyone and unite this
[00:14:46] country, why would we divide ourselves, Bosnia
[00:14:49] is huge, beautiful for everyone,
[00:14:53] what did they not have until yesterday?
[00:15:26] Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska is my home
[00:15:29] and my grandfather fought for this Republika Srpska,
[00:15:33] I will never leave it, it's possible to unite with...
[00:15:37] Serbia, to abolish the border with
[00:15:41] Serbia, I always vote for Dodik, for Željka,
[00:15:44] there you go, how he leads, how
[00:15:47] well the country, I don't know, we are
[00:15:51] satisfied with her, we always vote
[00:15:55] for him.
[00:16:09] Bosnia and Herzegovina voted. The race
[00:16:12] for the Bosniak seat was highly competitive, but Denis
[00:16:16] Bećirović of the Social Democratic Party emerged
[00:16:19] victorious with over 200 thousand
[00:16:22] votes. He defeated Runner-up Bakir Izet
[00:16:26] Begović of the Party of Democratic Action,
[00:16:29] along with Challenger Samir Ivendic of the party for Bosnia
[00:16:32] and Herzegovina and
[00:16:35] the Alliance for a Better Future.
[00:16:39] The Croat seat saw a major shift. Diana
[00:16:42] Filipović of the Croatian Democratic Union won
[00:16:46] with over 100 thousand votes, becoming the first
[00:16:49] woman ever elected to the Croat seat. She
[00:16:53] defeated two primary challenges in a competitive
[00:16:56] race. The Serb member
[00:17:00] seat. Jonović of the Alliance of
[00:17:04] Independent Social Democrats secured a dominant victory, forming a
[00:17:07] commanding lead over challengers Molinka Bojović of the Serbian Democratic
[00:17:11] Party and Nabutsha Vukanović of the Full Justice and
[00:17:15] Order Party.
[00:17:18] Meanwhile, in the race for president for Republika Srpska,
[00:17:22] Savol Minić, a close political ally of Milorad Dodik, running
[00:17:26] for the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, won.
[00:17:30] He established a strong lead over his main opponent Branko
[00:17:33] Blanuša of the Serbian Democratic Party. As well as
[00:18:01] They will rotate the position of presidency chair every 8 months over the next 4 years. They are
[00:18:05] among 518 officials. Under one of
[00:18:08] Europe's most complex and ethnically divided political
[00:18:11] systems. After 31 years, the system
[00:18:14] created by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in
[00:18:17] 1995 is seen as an obstacle to Bosnia and
[00:18:21] Herzegovina's path to Europe.
[00:18:24] Croats of different beliefs. Many of
[00:18:27] us do not think alike about everything, but
[00:18:30] all of us care about Croatian equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Bosnia
[00:18:34] and Herzegovina which is.
[00:18:37] The Dayton Agreement is the only chance we see to return to
[00:18:40] the original Dayton Agreement, if they still want to, maybe they will have
[00:18:44] a few more times for that, then we will see what we will do,
[00:18:48] so, the original Dayton means to return the army to Republika Srpska,
[00:18:51] to return the border police, to return everything
[00:18:55] that the high representatives
[00:18:57] or
[00:19:07] campaign for Republika Srpska to break away from Bosnia and
[00:19:10] Herzegovina. After the elections, he hailed his hand-picked
[00:19:14] candidates including Sveyonovic as
[00:19:17] success for Republika Srpska. He has also
[00:19:21] thanked his allies, US President Donald Trump and Russian President
[00:19:24] Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, reelected Bosniak
[00:19:27] president member Denis Bećirović says it's time to
[00:19:31] restart Bosnia and Herzegovina's talks on EU and NATO
[00:19:34] membership, which have stalled since they were.
[00:19:40] Bosnia and Herzegovina is the biggest victim in
[00:19:42] the region, on the other hand, Bosnia and
[00:19:46] Herzegovina is the biggest advocate for cooperation, peace
[00:19:50] and development.
[00:19:53] The future of our region is not in adopting the Russian
[00:19:57] model of relations with neighbors, but in
[00:20:00] adopting the European
[00:20:14] what's your take on the elections on Bosnia and Herzegovina and what is next for
[00:20:18] Bosnia now? Well, I'm not so optimistic, because this is the
[00:20:21] repetition of the elections that we had four years
[00:20:24] ago, with the slight change in which
[00:20:28] Dodik and Čović, pro-Serbian and pro-Croat
[00:20:32] political options are slightly stronger than they were,
[00:20:36] and they were very strong in the previous mandate. Uh, so I would
[00:20:39] say, um, things are slightly worse than they used to be and they were
[00:20:43] not good. So there are few options, basically
[00:20:46] uh, if Čović and Dodik, Croat and then the Serbian
[00:20:50] political option, if they don't want to go together with SDA, they can
[00:20:53] basically repeat the previous government, so they can enter a technical
[00:20:57] so-called technical mandate, that's also an option at the moment.
[00:21:01] Other option is for SDA, together with the
[00:21:04] HDZ and SNSD Dodik's and Čović's party plus SDP,
[00:21:08] Social Democratic Party to form some kind of government, that
[00:21:11] would be uh in terms of numbers, what is stable government, but it's a
[00:21:15] problematic government because uh
[00:21:17] basically uh it would it would it's would
[00:21:21] need agreement between SDA and the
[00:21:24] SDP, which in this moment uh is very hard
[00:21:27] to achieve. But definitely, I would say uh the division, the
[00:21:31] the the the partition and in this pro-Bosnian
[00:21:34] side among the Bosniak political parties is allowing
[00:21:38] Čović and Dodik to maximize their political will and
[00:21:42] position uh in inside
[00:21:45] Bosnia and that that is basically allowing Serbia and Croatia to be
[00:21:48] more influential. inside the Bosnian politics. So what
[00:21:52] do these elections tell us about how much Bosnia and
[00:21:55] Herzegovina's people trust the political system of Bosnia? They don't
[00:21:59] trust, um, unfortunately, and that is a trend
[00:22:02] which we can see across the world, especially in the Western
[00:22:05] countries. People, the participation rates during the elections
[00:22:08] are very low, also less
[00:22:11] people participated in this elections. So participation
[00:22:15] rates is somewhere around 40, 41,
[00:22:17] 42%, which is almost a percent less
[00:22:21] than it used to be in the previous uh previous
[00:22:24] elections, which is in a way a message
[00:22:27] of that voters are basically saying that they are disappointed with the
[00:22:30] Troika coalition on one hand, on the other hand they don't they didn't want
[00:22:34] to vote for SDA because SDA's uh result
[00:22:37] is more or less very
[00:22:40] very similar to what it used to be uh in in in
[00:22:44] 2022 general elections with a slight increase of some
[00:22:48] between 5 to 10%. And this Dayton system is
[00:22:51] designed that way that no one has enough power to change
[00:22:54] things. So, especially in the
[00:22:59] the political spectrum, where they are divided
[00:23:02] in among many political options, no one can
[00:23:06] gather enough votes to change anything. That's the problem. And people
[00:23:09] stopped believing that by voting they can change anything. I
[00:23:13] believe that is a wrong assumption, so people should not
[00:23:16] believe that way, yes you can change by voting, but these rates
[00:23:20] definitely cannot do that. The participation or turnout among the
[00:23:23] young population is around 20%, which is
[00:23:26] catastrophic. Uh, so you see that among young people, there
[00:23:30] is less and less interest to participate
[00:23:33] actively in the political life of the country. So that is leading to one
[00:23:36] thing, eventually that the
[00:23:39] political, that people who are in politics, who are in
[00:23:42] business will become some form of caste that will rule over
[00:23:46] the majority of population which is totally disinterested in the political
[00:23:50] processes. So I believe Bosnia is entering that phase of
[00:23:53] political culture, I would say. Uh, and that is that is
[00:23:57] not good, because uh, if that happens, they will just close
[00:24:00] the system and will never be able to change anything. Uh,
[00:24:04] only war or or some wider catastrophe, geopolitical
[00:24:08] catastrophe can change things, so that's why I believe participation
[00:24:12] in elections is very important, but it is extremely hard to explain to younger
[00:24:15] people who are losing hope that they can
[00:24:18] change things. Why Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:24:22] is still so much politically
[00:24:24] divided? Because uh first there was
[00:24:28] war in the 1990s, there was genocide in Bosnia and it was committed by
[00:24:31] the by by the sponsorship of Serbia and the neighboring countries
[00:24:35] and that genocide was committed against the Bosniak primarily Bosniak population,
[00:24:38] although it included non-Bosniaks as well, uh and that
[00:24:41] genocide which lasted for three and a half years has created
[00:24:45] uh has basically grouped ethnic groups in
[00:24:50] a separate geographical pockets. So Bosnia, before the
[00:24:54] war, it used to be mixed society, but war
[00:24:57] basically has distinguished these geographical localities of the
[00:25:00] ethnic groups, and on top of that
[00:25:03] you have the Dayton system, which basically has frozen
[00:25:06] the reality, war reality during the uh during
[00:25:10] the war, and basically that Dayton system has continued after the
[00:25:13] war, it was imagined to be a ceasefire, but it became a
[00:25:17] constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it became a political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:25:21] and on top of all that, so genocide and the Dayton Peace Agreement,
[00:25:25] you had the international community under the Schmitt which has
[00:25:28] further divided political system on these
[00:25:32] ethnic lines and it basically has killed the civic
[00:25:35] system, and this political
[00:25:38] circle of of 2026 elections
[00:25:42] has totally proven that that only if you are an ethnic political party
[00:26:06] political parties inside Bosnia who have this prefix of Serbian and the
[00:26:10] Croatian politics, uh they are acting as proxies of the two
[00:26:14] neighboring states of Croatia and of Serbia. Let's start from
[00:26:17] there. Uh, after that you have Serbia and Croatia who were
[00:26:20] actively trying to divide Bosnia and they never stopped
[00:26:24] in the 1990s they tried to do that, they were stopped by the
[00:26:28] by the resistance that was provided by the Bosnian side, so
[00:26:31] they could not do that. They partially did it, but they they could not finalize that
[00:26:35] project. After the war, they continued doing that by
[00:26:38] using their proxies, political proxies inside the political system of Bosnia and
[00:26:42] Herzegovina. So so you have a
[00:26:46] Russian malign influence here in Bosnia, which is actively helping the
[00:26:49] Serbian political option here in the region to to basically divide
[00:26:53] the region, and you have many more rise of these populist
[00:26:56] political parties in Europe and in United
[00:26:59] States is helping the Serbian and the Croatian.
[00:27:18] exists only in the Bosnian parts of Bosnian and the Serbian
[00:27:22] and the Croatian parts of the Bosnia, by the way, I have to say this as
[00:27:25] well, uh these Serbian and the Croatian parts of Bosnia and
[00:27:29] Hercegovina are results of the ethnic cleansing of the...
[00:27:32] Bosniacs and they are ethnically homogeneous.
[00:27:36] On top of that, you have the political homogeneous
[00:27:39] scene in those parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina, so you have the domination of a
[00:27:43] single political party in both, HDZ in the Croatian parts of Bosnia and
[00:27:46] Hercegovina and the SNS or Dodik in the Serbian parts of Bosnia and
[00:27:50] Hercegovina, uh and ethnically homogeneous parts. Only parts of Bosnia
[00:27:54] and Herzegovina which are still multi-ethnic, multi-religious
[00:27:57] and where political pluralism
[00:28:00] exists or democracy, if you will, are the parts where
[00:28:03] Bosniaks are majority. To simplify it,
[00:28:07] this Dayton system is killing Bosnia and
[00:28:09] Herzegovina, and this Dayton system is killing Bosniaks as a
[00:28:13] people. So Bosniaks are approximately 60%, according to
[00:28:17] unofficial results, 60% of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:28:21] cannot generate their political will, and they are basically
[00:28:25] basically hostages of the Serbian and the and the Croatian political
[00:28:38] goodbye to their long-time football captain Edin Džeko, they
[00:28:42] were also closing another chapter: the country's
[00:28:45] election season. The results have once again highlighted
[00:28:48] Bosnia and Herzegovina's deep political and ethnic
[00:28:52] divisions, while citizens continue to look for change and better
[00:28:55] future. The new leadership now faces the challenge of
[00:28:59] navigating those divisions and moving the country to... towards its
[00:29:03] European
[00:29:13] for this week. Until our
[00:29:16] stories on TRT World, social
[00:29:38] Israel has killed an unparalleled and
[00:29:41] unprecedented number of civilians with the
[00:29:45] full knowledge of how many civilian lives each
[00:29:49] bomb will take.
[00:30:10] Saudi authorities say another projectile hit the international airport in Riyadh as the
[00:30:13] Houthis claim responsibility for Saturday's deadly strike on the
[00:30:24] Israel expands its so-called yellow line in Gaza, forcing dozens of
[00:30:28] Palestinian families to flee in the middle of the
[00:30:30] night. Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to
[00:30:34] halt all strikes on each other's energy infrastructure. Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes the
[00:30:38] move.
[00:30:40] The Polish interior minister says the man who threatened and planned to attack Prime
[00:30:44] Minister Donald Tusk has been arrested.