Socks bearing the face of Ratko Mladić were labeled Made in Türkiye. Turkey filed a criminal complaint; a representative of the inspected firm claims he didn't recognize the man

Turkey's Ministry of Trade has filed a criminal complaint over socks bearing the portrait of Ratko Mladić, which, according to Balkan media, were sold in Serbia and carried a "Made in Türkiye" label. On Wednesday, September 16, ministry inspectors checked a company in Istanbul's Bayrampaşa district that had been linked to the product. They did not find the Mladić socks there. Hürriyet ↗ Cumhuriyet ↗

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mladić commanded the Bosnian Serb army. In July 1995, his units occupied Srebrenica, a small town in eastern Bosnia that was a UN-protected enclave full of refugees, Bosnian Muslims known as Bosniaks. In the following days his forces murdered more than 8,000 men and boys there, which the international tribunal has called genocide in several rulings. BBC News na srpskom ↗

The UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced him to life imprisonment in November 2017 for genocide in Srebrenica as well as for terror against civilians in besieged Sarajevo, which his army shelled for years. The appeals chamber upheld the verdict in June 2021. IRMCT ↗ Mladić died on August 27 while hospitalized in The Hague. He was still in the custody of the UN mechanism that took over his case after the tribunal, and was awaiting transfer to a country where he was to serve the rest of his sentence. IRMCT ↗ Pravda ↗

In Serbia and in Republika Srpska, one of the two parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, many still consider him a hero to this day. This was evident after his death both at football stadiums and at his funeral in Belgrade, which thousands of people attended. BBC News na srpskom ↗ Inside World Football ↗

A label without a manufacturer

The socks carry the brand name "Blue Land Socks" and a stylized portrait of Mladić in military uniform. According to the label, they are 80 percent cotton, 15 percent polyamide, and 5 percent elastane, with Turkey listed as the country of manufacture. The label does not state who made them, who imported them, or who distributes them. Rijeka Danas ↗ Sandžak Danas ↗

The Serbian portal Sandžak Danas, which wrote about the socks on September 13, pointed out that the barcode begins with the digit two, a number from the range that the GS1 system reserves for restricted distribution, meaning that neither the manufacturer nor the country of origin can be determined from it. The portal found only an older, no-longer-active listing on the Serbian marketplace KupujemProdajem, where Blue Land brand socks with various photo prints were sold for 299 dinars a pair, or roughly 2.55 euros. The model featuring Mladić was not among them, and the portal was unable to determine who is selling the socks bearing his face. Sandžak Danas ↗ Rijeka Danas ↗

Ankara: "I didn't know" is not enough

The ministry was responding to social media posts claiming that the socks were being exported to Serbia. A representative of the inspected company told inspectors that the firm had once done business with the Serbian company Blue Land. He reportedly did not recognize the man in the image, and once he found out who it was, he ended the cooperation about a year and a half ago. Habertürk ↗ Cumhuriyet ↗

Inspectors took a sample of other socks made by the same company, found deficiencies in their labeling, and sent the sample to an accredited laboratory. Over the Mladić socks, the ministry filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office against the company and the individuals involved, for glorifying a crime and its perpetrator. According to the ministry, statements such as "I don't know him" or "I didn't know" do not replace the duty of care that trade requires, and an exporter must know everything about goods labeled "Made in Türkiye." The daily Hürriyet, in its headline, called Mladić the "Butcher of Bosnia." Hürriyet ↗

The Bosnian portal 072info had already described similar socks under a different brand in July, while Mladić was still alive. According to it, socks from the Turkish brand Jenes Socks bearing the faces of Mladić, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadžić, and World War II Chetnik general Draža Mihailović were being sold in an underpass at Belgrade's Terazije. According to the portal, other motifs included Vladimir Putin, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Viktor Orbán, and Robert Fico. 072info ↗

A banner in Plzeň and a minute of silence at the derby

On the day of Mladić's death, Crvena zvezda played the second leg of a Europa League play-off in Plzeň. Its fans from the Delije group displayed a banner reading "General, eternal glory and thanks," and the club published a photo of the banner on its official profiles with a saluting emoji. BBC News na srpskom ↗ That evening, Viktoria Plzeň overturned a 3-0 first-leg defeat in Belgrade, winning 5-1 after extra time and advancing to the league phase of the Europa League. Slovak players Patrik Hrošovský, the team captain, and Dávid Krčík were among the scorers. STVR ↗ Lidovky.cz ↗

The Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center called for UEFA to exclude the club from European competitions. On September 4, UEFA fined it 90,000 euros for racist and discriminatory behavior by fans and for a message unsuitable for a sporting event. In addition, the club is barred from selling tickets to its fans for its next away match in UEFA competitions. BBC News na srpskom ↗ Telegraf ↗ Inside World Football ↗

Two days later, the day before Mladić's funeral, a minute of silence was held in his honor at the Belgrade derby between Crvena zvezda and Partizan. On the north stand of the stadium, in front of about 25,000 spectators, home fans unfurled a banner bearing his face and the slogan "Pravac Potočari," meaning "Direction: Potočari." Mladić spoke these words in July 1995 before his soldiers entered Srebrenica. BBC News na srpskom ↗

A BBC reporter, on a ten-minute walk from the bus stop to the stadium, counted more than 20 people wearing T-shirts with Mladić's face, and one of the fans was even wearing socks with his portrait. BBC News na srpskom ↗

Read also: Thousands attended Ratko Mladić's funeral in Belgrade

*Illustrative photo: the memorial and cemetery for the victims of the genocide in Potočari near Srebrenica, June 2018. Author: miketnorton / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.*