Story highlights Croatian group would be willing to drop charges if Dylan publicly apologizes, lawyer says

Iconic singer Bob Dylan is accused of likening the Croatian people to Nazis

The remarks were quoted in an interview for the French edition of Rolling Stone magazine

The complaint was brought by a body representing Croatians in France

Bob Dylan is being investigated on suspicion of inciting hatred in Paris over comments he made in Rolling Stone magazine, French prosecutors said Tuesday.

An organization representing Croatians in France pressed charges against Dylan for allegedly comparing the conflict between Croatians and Serbs to the Nazis' persecution of Jews in an interview last year for the French edition of Rolling Stone.

"If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood," the influential singer-songwriter was quoted as saying.

While a Croatian group has said Dylan was referencing the violence that came with the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, it's unclear whether the long-outspoken musician was referring to Yugoslavia or the crimes committed when the Ustasha ruled Croatia during World War II.

The Paris prosecutor's office said Dylan was placed under formal investigation last month by the Paris Main Court for "public injury" and "incitement to hatred."

Vlatko Maric, secretary general of the Representative Council of the Croatian Community and Institutions, told CNN his organization had brought the case almost a year ago.

Explaining the council's decision to pursue the case against Dylan, Maric said the artist's remarks in Rolling Stone were of a "rare violence" that had deeply shocked people from a nation still wounded by the conflict of the 1990s.

Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Bob Dylan smokes a cigarette circa 1966. Dylan's music spoke to a generation of people during the 1960s, a tumultuous decade that forever changed America. He went on to become a rock 'n' roll legend and influence many musicians to come. In October 2016, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Dylan for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs in 1961 at The Bitter End club in New York City. His first album, "Bob Dylan," debuted in 1962 and consisted mostly of old folk songs. Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Joan Baez and Dylan perform during the March on Washington, a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, on August 28, 1963. Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs on stage in the 1960s. Dylan was known in his early career for playing the guitar and the harmonica, and for his distinctive vocal phrasing. Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan listens to recordings of his album "Highway 61 Revisited" in 1965. It contained "Like a Rolling Stone," which went to No. 2 on U.S. charts. Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation George Harrison and Dylan perform in the Concert for Bangladesh, held August 1, 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The concert earned them the Grammy Award for Album of the Year along with Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar and Ringo Starr. Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan appears on set for the film "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" in 1973. Dylan also recorded the soundtrack for the film. Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs on stage at Madison Square Garden in 1974. Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs with Robbie Robertson of The Band, right, and Van Morrison at The Band's farewell concert in 1976. Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs with Tom Petty at Farm Aid in Chicago in 1985. Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan poses for a photo with David Bowie in 1985. Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan and Bruce Springsteen perform together in 1990. Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Performance artist Michael Portnoy is taken off stage during Dylan's performance at the Grammy Awards in 1998. Portnoy had been hired as part of the background dancers for the performance, but his shirtless interruption was not planned and he was carted off stage. Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs in Brighton, England, in 2002. Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan appears with actress Jessica Lange during a news conference for the movie "Masked and Anonymous" in 2003. Dylan co-wrote the movie and starred in it. Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan poses for photos at the University of St. Andrews after he received an honorary degree at the Scottish school in 2004. Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation Dylan performs during the Grammy Awards in 2011. Dylan has won 10 Grammys in his career, as well as one Golden Globe Award and one Academy Award. Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Bob Dylan: Voice of a generation President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dylan in the East Room of the White House in 2012. The award is the country's highest civilian honor. "I remember, you know, in college, listening to Bob Dylan and my world opening up, 'cause he captured something about this country that was so vital," Obama said. Hide Caption 18 of 18

"An entire people is being compared to criminal organizations" like the Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan, he said. "The Croatians are peaceful people who respect Bob Dylan as an artist, but we must remind him that he can't make such remarks.

"We have nothing against him, but the Croatians do not want to be insulted."

Lawyer: We'd like a public apology

A lawyer for the Croatian organization told CNN on Tuesday that his clients would be willing to drop the charges if Dylan publicly apologized for his remarks.

"An apology is a better repair than a financial compensation," Ivan Jurasinovic said, adding that this would be a far more positive outcome for everyone.

"Bob Dylan is someone who is very much admired in Croatia," he said.

Asked if his clients had already contacted Dylan to request an apology, he said that the process was "ongoing" and that "they hoped something could be arranged."

Representatives of Dylan and Rolling Stone have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012, just one of many accolades to come the musician's way during half a century in the public eye. He was also named an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters this year.

Bloody conflicts

Between 1941 and 1945, Croatia's Ustasha erected numerous concentration camps "to isolate and murder Jews, Serbs, Roma (also known as Gypsies), and other non-Catholic minorities, as well as Croatian political and religious opponents of the regime," according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Croat authorities murdered an estimated 320,000 to 340,000 ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia under Ustasha rule, the museum says.

Decades later, the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s caused the bloodiest conflict on the European continent since World War II, with more than 100,000 people believed killed.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a U.N.-backed court, continues to prosecute war crimes committed during that time.

The tribunal has said "the most significant number" of its cases have dealt with alleged crimes by Serbians or Bosnian Serbs. But there have been convictions for crimes against Serbs by others, including Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians.