ADMINISTRATIVE-POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND THE IDENTITY QUESTION

Abstract

The Balkans has a geopolitical position in which there have been the earliest civilizations. The Balkans have been had a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-faith structure throughout the history. Bosnia-Herzegovina has embodied many different constituents in the Balkans and has undergone some troublesome processes because of this complicated structure. The war between the Serbs and the Bosnians which has been considering among the greatest tragedies in the last period of 20th century has caused many destructions and depredations in the region. It has been signed the Dayton Peace Agreement in December 1995 for ending this destruction, stopping the war and establishing peace. It has been foreseen by this agreement that the serenity and peace would be established after the war through forming the administrative-political structure of the country according to the ethnic identities. However, a common citizenship consciousness could not be raised because of that the ethnic-based formation of the agreement which is acted as the constitution has become the structure of the country much more complicated. In this study, it will be addressed a short history of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Dayton Agreement, the three great constituent elements, and the problems raised from the agreement in terms of identities.