Winners of the "Ask Your Grandparents 3" competition visit sites of memory in WB
From 6th to 10th May 2019, the Institute for Democracy, Media & Culture (IDMC) with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) organized a study visit to sites of memory in the Western Balkans. This 5-day visit to Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo was organized in collaboration with IDMC partners in Albania and the region such as: The Albanian Association of History Teachers, ALPHA Centre in Nikšić, Memory Lab, BRAVO Association in Sarajevo, ZFD Forum in Belgrade and Prishtina, Centre for Public History in Belgrade and Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Kosovo. The study visit involved the winners of "Ask Your Grandparents 3", representatives of 5 different high schools from all over Albania: "Dhaskal Todri" high school in Elbasan; "Drita e Dijes", Berat, "Mahmud & Ali Cungu", Labinot, "Jani Kukuzeli", Durres and "16 Shtatori" high school in Shijak. They were accompanied by their teachers and IDMC staff.
Summary
1st & 2nd Day, 6–7 May 2019
Study Visit to Sites of Memory in Nikšić and Presentation of "Ask Your Grandparents"
The study visit for winners of "Ask Your Grandparents" competition started with the visit to sites of memory in Nikšić, the second largest city of Montenegro. The group was welcomed by the director of ALPHA Centre, Aleksandar Dedović and his staff. In the evening, Dedović showed them the city, the history about the churches, the castle and the transformations in the urban area. Through this visit the young people learned that in general the experiences of transition in the last years in Montenegro did not change much from those experienced in Albania.
Next day, the tour in Nikšić, guided by Dedović, took the young people at the monument to the killed partisans under the Trebjesa hill and at the monument of national hero Ljubo Čupić and the king Nikola. Young people from Nikšić joined this visit also. They had the chance to exchange experiences with the young people from Albania and to learn more about the culture of each other. This visit served for both groups to get to know each other more, to break stereotypes and to become good friends.
In the visit to sites of memory in Nikšić, in collaboration with ALPHA Centre was presented "Ask Your Grandparents" competition and the work of IDMC by Matilda Karçanaj, IDMC Programme Coordinator. On the other hand, the winners of the competition had the opportunity to learn more about the work of ALPHA Centre by Aleksandar Dedović, ALPHA director and for the activities of Youth Voluntary Club by Marina Došen. In this meeting IDMC and ALPHA Centre highlighted the importance of regional youth cooperation for the common future of the Western Balkans.
3rd Day, 8 May 2019
Study Visit to Sites of Memory in Sarajevo
After the tour in Nikšić, Montenegro, the visit continued on the third day to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The young group knew only a little about BiH, particularly about the war on 1992-1995, during the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The day in Sarajevo started with a guided city tour by Rijad Å piljak, a licensed tour guide. He told to the group that the first signs of a city in Sarajevo were early, but that the main development began in the 15th century under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. To see these developments clearly, the group visited the old part of the city, the bazaar, the mosque of Gazi Husrev Bej, the characteristic Ottoman clock, etc. The winners of the competition were acquainted with the most proud side of Sarajevo, the cultural diversity that made this city known as the Jerusalem of Europe. Near the mosque of Gazi Husrev Bey, Sarajevo had a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a Catholic church, showing four religious communities that historically coexisted with one another.
The guide continued on the side that showed Austrian architecture influence, dictated by the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From this part the guide talked about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip that spurred World War I, which later led to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and creation of Yugoslavia.
For Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nicolas Moll, coordinator of Memory Lab told a lot to the group. This part of the guide was mainly focused on the "Siege of Sarajevo" pavilion in the history museum and the monuments around it. Nicolas Moll told the group about the difficulties that the citizens of Sarajevo encountered during the several-year siege in the war. The objects, furnishings and the way of life under siege that were exposed in the museum were the trauma of war that according to Moll still remains today in the collective memory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. From the discussion with Moll, students learned that under siege Sarajevo citizens had no separation between one another or religious and ethnic differences. For young people from Albania, was impressive the fact that even though in the war, concerts were held in Sarajevo, to urge the international community to be solidarized and act more to stop the conflict.
4th Day, 9 May 2019
Study Visit to Sites of Memory in Belgrade
9th of May was the fourth day of the study visit with the winners of "Ask Your Grandparents" Competition in the Western Balkans. It also marked the Europe Day. IDMC had scheduled in program a study visit to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The day started with a city tour by Filip Vukadinović from TRN Translations. The guide with Filip was very special, as he spoke to the young people on the Albanian standard language and no one of the young people understood that he was a Serb. Thus in this trip the young people heard for the first time about the existence of the Albanology Faculty in Belgrade, where the Albanian language is taught. Vukadinović showed that apart from the historical moments that have divided Serbia and Albania, these countries have a lot in common such as the traumas of the past, the difficult transition and the intention to integrate into the European Union.
The tour in the city started with a story bearing the name of Albania, with the Albanian palace, a building built near the main pedestrian of Belgrade around 1940. Vukadinović said the name was related to a cafe that had been there, one of the most frequented coffee shops. Then the tour continued to Knez Mihailova Street, Kalamegdan Park, the Castle, Belgrade's Military Museum, the Victory and À la France monuments.
After visiting Belgrade's main historical sites, the group had the chance to get acquainted with the history of persecution of Jews and the Roma community in Serbia during World War II by Milovan Pisarri, historian and head of the Center for Public History. Pisarri guided the group at Sajmište concentration camp where 6,400 Jews and 600 Roma were held by Nazi forces in poor conditions. Presenting pictures and other data, Pisarri showed that thousands of people were killed through gas trucks. The historian also indicated that later the Yugoslav communist rhetoric would claim a number of 40,000 Jews who suffered this persecution. He explained this as part of the propaganda. The tour in Belgrade was closed with the visit to Skadarlja, the second most visited street in Belgrade, after Knez Mihailova, bearing the name of the city of Shkodra.
Through tis welcoming visit to Belgrade the participants learned more than the narrative offered in the media or history textbooks, thus breaking their prejudices for the city of Belgrade. Just as from the visit to Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia young people themselves experienced the safe possibilities of free movement in the beautiful region of the Western Balkans.
5th Day, 10 May 2019
Study Visits to Sites of Memory in Prishtina
The young winners of the "Ask Your Grandparents" competition had heard a lot about Kosovo, but very few of them had visited it. Therefore, the study visit of IDMC was a good opportunity for them not only to visit, but also to better understand the history of the country, the war, its difficult transition and the most important social issues.
The guide at the historic points of Pristina were Nehari Sharri and Korab Krasniqi from the Civil Peace Service Forum (ZFD) in Pristina. The main focus of the visits to the sites of memory was on the use of public spaces to track certain narratives as well as change these narratives over time. The visit initially started with the Park of Martyrs. The young people were told about the difficulties that Kosovo went through under Yugoslavia, the efforts to gain rights and then the war. Sharri and Krasniqi then focused on sites of memory that have been neglected. They stressed that no one cares about monuments as a whole. They are left unprotected by vandalisms. For this they brought the case of the inscriptions and fractures in the Park of the Martyrs, but even further as for example the monument of the partisans Ramiz Sadiku and Boro Vukmirović, where the bust of the latter had his head removed. Later, the young people visited the monument of Ibrahim Rugova, Zahir Pajaziti, but also the Statue of the Fallen during World War II, a monument built in the 60s by Yugoslav communists. Today the monument is referred to as the triangle and there is an alienated narrative. The sculpture with partisans was painted with the colors of the flags of the states that helped Kosovo gain independence. Other stops included the New Born monument and the Heroines.
Following this city tour, at the Youth Initiative for Human Rights office in Pristina (YIHR), IDMC presented its activities as well as the winning works of the "Ask Your Grandparents" competition. The director of IDMC, Jonila Godle, spoke of the interest of young people to get acquainted with the past and the importance that this process has in the development of society. YIHR director Marigona Shabiu and activist Trina Binaku also addressed the attendees. Welcoming and congratulating the work of IDMC they said that in general the focus of YIHR had also been the same, not forgetting the past. They pointed to public activities held over the years in memory of the missing people during the Kosovo war, over 1600 of them.
With Pristina, the five-day travel visit organized by IDMC in four Western Balkan countries came to an end. The young people said that the visits had exceeded their expectations and could hardly wait to return with their family and friends.
Organizer
Kontakt
Contact: @Matilda Karçanaj, IDMC Program Coordinator
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