MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The rise of radical Islamists is the direct result of Arab spring protests, Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, one of the two administrative entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Sputnik Serbia.
"The countries that have imported various ‘springs’ and wars are now dealing with a boomerang effect. One feels sorry for the innocent victims, they have nothing to do with big politics," Dodik said.
The Arab Spring revolutionary demonstrations broke out across the Middle East in 2010-2011. They have also been classified as "color revolutions," together with a series of regime changes caused by protests in several post-Soviet republics in 2000s.
Last month, the speaker of the upper house of Russian parliament Valentina Matvienko warned at an Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Geneva against the illegal backing of armed groups to overthrow legitimate governments through the so-called color revolutions and imposing democratic principles without taking into account national and cultural characteristics.
Matvienko named the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group in Iraq, Syria and other Middle East and North African countries as an outcome of these "short-sighted" policies.
ISIL radicals are notorious for their violent and brutal tactics. They have claimed responsibility for the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 and injured over 350 people.
"The world is not giving a sufficiently adequate response to the threat of radical Islamism. The Europe of open borders is apparently not able to deal with numerous challenges, including this one. The Schengen Agreement is at risk," Milorad Dodik also warned.
According to Dodik, over 350 Bosnia and Herzegovina residents have joined the ranks of ISIL radicals, while about 23 percent of Muslims in the country are under the influence of radical Islamism.
"Naturally, not all Muslims have come under the influence of radical ideology," Dodik said, adding, however, that a conflict between the Christian and Islamic civilizations is nonetheless very apparent.
The Bosnian Serb politician stressed that the EU open border project and the unified EU policy is failing because of the rise of ISIL and other radical Islamists and the resulting influx of refugees from the Middle East.
"I cannot say that I am a convinced pessimist, but I no longer believe in the Europe that was demonstrated several years ago," Dodik told Sputnik Serbia.
Over 710,000 migrants arrived in the European Union during the first nine months of 2015, according to the EU border agency Frontex.
The migrant crisis that Europe is currently facing was sparked by conflicts in the Middle East, particularly in civil-war-torn Syria, which has been struggling with the rise of ISIL militants.
