TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has marked the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, saying such horrors must not be forgotten in the current era of increasingly normalized anti-Muslim bigotry.

In a tweet on Friday, Zarif said 24 years ago this day “over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were massacred on European soil—the worst atrocity on the continent since WWII.”

“In this age of increasingly normalized anti-Muslim bigotry, such horrors MUST'NT be forgotten—not by Muslims, and not by Europeans,” he added.

July 11 marked the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity on European soil after World War II.

In July 1995, Serb forces systematically killed more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in the so-called UN-protected enclave in Srebrenica, Bosnia.

More than 1,000 are still considered missing from the mass slaughter during the Bosnian civil war.

Many victims were ambushed along forest routes while fleeing Srebrenica in scorching heat without food or water. They were either shot on the spot, or taken to collective centers where they were executed and thrown into mass graves.

MH/PA