Center for Eurasian Studies organized a book launch on 21st of October, 2013, at Ankara University Culture and Art House ANKÜSEV (ANKÜSEV), moderated by Aslan Yavuz Sir, entitled “Aza Beast - Attacking the Roots of War” written by Dr. Colum de Sales Murphy, the President of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and translated into Turkish by (R) Ambassador M. Sina Baydur. Guests received short presentations on Balkans by Ambassador Murat Karagöz, and book by Dr. Colum de Sales Murphy and (R) Ambassador M. Sina Baydur.
(R) Ambassador M. Sina Baydur, the first speaker at the meeting, expressed that she felt emotional while talking about her personal experiences and the importance of translating the book into Turkish in order to understand what happened in Bosnia better, although it has been a long time since the book was written.
Dr. Colum de Sales Murphy touched upon also his personal experiences while he was working for United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the reason why he sees Sarajevo’ so special during his speech. Also he draw attention to two main reasons why the BiH is still an important issue in the international arena; firstly because of the ‘’brave people, people who lived the tragedy, people who are spirited nevertheless very positive’’ and secondly the fact that we will commemorate the 100th year of 1914. During a conversation with Radovan Karadžić, refering the international community, Karadžić stated that ‘’You are treating us as a beast’’ therefore the name of the book has been decided as ‘’Aza Beast’’ . He expressed how he felt after this accusation with a well-known Balkan saying; “''When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you. Hence, he pointed to the importance of underlining that United Nations who adopted big missions in BiH and international community was inadequate to avoid crises and savageness.
He continued his presentation with his comments on how international community acted towards Bosnian issue, criticisms mostly. He also compared the situation in Bosnia with the crisis in Somalia in order to explain his points better. He came up with the idea that United Nations acts slow when reacting to these conflicts because of both wide bureaucracy and opportunities.
He also said he met two kinds of people in BiH; Realists, first group, who believe that it takes a very long time for United Nations Security Council (UNSC) (or other relevant organizations) to take action in the times of crisis and inefficiency eventually it would not be possible to avoid human casualty. Idealists, the second group, with an exact positive opposite point of view, believe that UN or NATO would react to crisis urgently and it is possible for international community to avoid crisis urgently and determined in a short notice. Dr. Colum de Sales Murphy concluded his presentation stating that there was something wrong with UN policy; it took a long time for international community to take action and Bosnian people suffered.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for the Balkans and Central Europe Ambassador Murat Karagöz contributed in the book launch with his presentation which is mostly on the Turkey’s position towards the Balkans. He said there are main 4 pillars; security for all, highest political contact, economic interdependence (among Balkan countries and Turkey bilaterally) and protection of the diverse nature of the society such as culture, religion etc. He concluded his speech with explaining Turkey’s contribution to the Bosnian issue - soft loan credits, establishing a platform named Friends on Bosnia in Washington DC - and increasing awareness on the situation of BiH.