Marking the "Day of Republic Srpska", in East Sarajevo

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - JANUARY 09: Bosnian Serb troops take part in a parade in East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on January 09, 2023 to mark 09 January -- the Day of Republika Srpska, which is one of the country's two ethnic regions, locally called entities. On that day 31 years ago, the self-proclaimed constitutional assembly of Bosnia's ethnic Serbs, passed the Declaration proclaiming the Republic of Serbs (Republika Srpska) within Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the intention of seceding from Bosnia and merging with neighboring Serbia. Only a few months later the war broke in Bosnia and Herzegovina claiming more than 100,000 lives and displacing more than two million people. The bloody 1992-1995 war between ethnic Bosniaks (Muslims), Serbs and Croats ended in 1995 by the Peace Agreement brokered in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A. The part of the peace solution was the administrative division of the Balkan country into two ethnic entities -- the (Bosniak-Croat) Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Srpska Republic. Due to numerous atrocities that the Bosnian Serb troops committed against Bosniaks and Croats during the 1992-95 war, including the 1995 genocide in the country's eastern enclave of Srebrenica. Bosniaks have been strongly opposing the public celebration of the 09 January. In 2015 the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the Day of Republika Srpska unconstitutional. The binding decision, however, has never prevented Bosnian Serb authorities from celebrating it, which the parade in East Sarajevo proves. (Photo by Elman Omic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)