Publication

Perspectives - The Past is now

Politics of Denial and Dealing with the Past in the Western Balkans
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The Belgrade and Sarajevo offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, together

with our editor Miloš Ćirić, have invited relevant voices to reflect on what was

achieved over the past decades in the fields of documentation, memorialization, and

processing of recent history. We wanted to learn which actors and factors determine

the cultural context, who could deconstruct the hate narratives, how nationalism

affects the culture of remembrance in the respective societies, and why the most

brutal of experiences did not lead to a better understanding of common history

in the region. In this volume, the role of the external actors is also critically questioned: what were Western donors able to achieve? Why has dealing with history never become mainstream despite the efforts of many brave, consistent and professional individuals? Is there even a need for a moratorium on dealing with the past so that new spaces for peaceful coexistence can emerge?

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Product details
Date of Publication
24.05.2023
Publisher
hbs Sarajevo, hbs Belgrade
Number of Pages
78
Licence
Language of publication
English
Table of contents

2 unclosed chapters of the past

Nino Lejava

3 facing the past in the post-Yugoslav space

Tamara Šmidling

9 the past is still someone’s present

Vildana Selimbegović

14 why the facts matter

Bekim Blakaj

17 Serbia: nationalism without alternative and politics of memory without self-reflection

Milivoj Bešlin

20 Bosnia and Herzegovina: three decades of facing the past

Lejla Gačanica

23 Croatia: facts about the past in the shadow of victorious narratives

Branka Vierda

26 Kosovo: wartime memories challenged by the courts

Una Hajdari

29 Montenegro: is there anything to remember at all?

Miloš Vukanović

33 North Macedonia: amnesty and silence around the 2001 insurgency

Prof. dr Irena Stefoska

36 towards politics of hope: an interview with Orli Fridman

Miloš Ćirić

40 the case of Prijedor: struggle for victims’ recognition

Edin Ramulić

43 decades of women-led initiatives for peace

Marijana Stojčić

46 the media: from tools of war to vehicles of denial

Dinko Gruhonjić

50 efforts to deconstruct the hateful narratives

Aleksandra Bosnić Đurić

53 the war in the classrooms

Srđan Milošević, Aleksandar R. Miletić

56 imposition of legal standards and their sustainability

Selma Korjenić, Ajna Mahmić

59 a critique of western-funded memorialization initiatives in the Balkans

Jasmin Mujanović

62 the clash of the myths

Mirko Medenica

66 on populism and historical revisionism

Thomas Schad

70 the future without remembrance

Dragan Markovina