CONTRADICTING HISTORICAL REVISIONIST MEMORY POLITICS, ETHNONATIONAL COLLECTIVISM, AND ANTI-TRANSFORMATION OF CONFLICTS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

CONTRADICTING HISTORICAL REVISIONIST MEMORY POLITICS, ETHNONATIONAL COLLECTIVISM, AND ANTI-TRANSFORMATION OF CONFLICTS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

The paper analyzes the normative-formative framework that denotes the connection between memory and identity as a crucial origin of conflicts. In addition to concerns about memory politics, historical revisionism, ethnonational identity collectivism, the paper dissolves the connection between phenomena highlighting outcomes of the peace process, transitional justice, and its ethical/moral connotations. The study argues that Western Balkan's sociopolitical stability depends on declining conflicting and contradictory memory order within radical sociopolitical processes. The revisionist contention memorializes conflicts and wars as the fundamental concept of ​​ethnicity/religion/nation. It overlaps with the neoliberal and neoconservative reduction of all competitive relations, in which only the stronger have the right to existence. Discarding dominant ethnopolitical narratives is essential for conflict transformation and transitional justice for all ethnoreligious communities. The Balkan historical events and conflicting memory (WW2/Yugoslav wars) caused sociopolitical dominion shaping the collective behavior of ethnic groups. The damaging ethnic/religious practice of genocide denial and honoring war crimes within people's social lives can become a matrix for future conflicts.  Placing memory politics with radical populism is a critical condition of collective identity politics in the former Yugoslavia. Scientific rationality can provide a solid path through the anomalies in the form of political ideologies.

___

  • Aleksov, Bojan (2009). We the people, Austria, USA, Hungary: Central European Univerity Press.
  • Arendt, Hannah (1994). “Organized guilt and universal responsibility”. In Jerome Kohn (Ed.), Essays in Understanding: 1930-1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace. Bajtal, Esad (2010). “Psihosocijalni kontekst političkih elita u BiH (Psycho-social context of political elites in B&H)”. Almanah - Časopis za proučavanje, prezentaciju i zaštitu kulturno-istorijske baštine Bošnjaka/Muslimana, No. 48-49: 227-240.
  • Bajtal, Esad (2010). “Psihosocijalni kontekst političkih elita u BiH (Psycho-social context of political elites in B&H)”. Almanah - Časopis za proučavanje, prezentaciju i zaštitu kulturno-istorijske baštine Bošnjaka/Muslimana, No. 48-49: 227-240.
  • BBC News (2022). Fears of new conflict as Bosnia-Herzegovina faces growing Serb nationalism. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slnnVLGKeIM. January 10, 2022.
  • Beglerovic, Nada (2020). Milorad Dodik’s Use of Contentious Rhetoric in (De) constructing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Identity: A Discourse-Historical Analysis. Masaryk University Press.
  • Bieber, Florian (2021). The Rise of Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans, New Perspectives on South-East Europe. New York: Springer International Publishing.
  • Bojic, Drago (2019). Dehumanizirana sjećanja u kulturi zaborava (Dehumanized memories in a culture of forgetting). Retrieved from https://www.tacno.net/banja-luka/dehumanizirana-sjecanja-u-kulturi-zaborava/. Acessed: 12.03.2022.
  • Brockmeier, Jens (2002). “Remembering and forgetting: Narrative as cultural memory”. Culture and Psychology, Vol. 8(1): 15-43.
  • Butler, Judith (2018). Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  • Capo Zmegac, Jasna (2015). “Prijepori oko naslijeđa prošlosti i memorija u Hrvatskoj: znanstveno-popularna publikacija pod pritiskom ideologija (Controversies over the heritage of the past and memory in Croatia: a scientific-popular publication under the pressure of ideologies)”. Stud. ethnol. Croat., No. 27: 105–129. doi: 10.17234/SEC.27.3.
  • Case no. IT-04-74-T, ICTY, Second amended indictment: Prosecutor of the tribunal.
  • Cipek, Tihomir (2009). “Remembering 1945: Saving and Erasing. On the power of family narratives”. In Culture of Memory: 1945. Historical Breaks and Overcoming the Past. Edited by Sulejman Bosto and Tihomir Cipek, Zagreb: Dispute.
  • Cipek, Tihomir (2019). Historijski revizionizam u Bosni i Hercegovini, Socijaldemokratska politika sjećanja između dva totalitarizma (Historical revisionism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Social Democratic politics of memory between two totalitarianisms). Sarajevo: Friedrich Erbert Stifung.
  • Colovic, Ivan (2016). “Smrt na Kosovu Polju - Istorija kosovskog mita (Death in Kosovo field - A History of the Kosovo Myth)”. Beograd: XX vek.
  • David, Lea (2020). The Past Cannot Heal Us, The Dangers of Mandating Memory in the Name of Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Diegoli, Tomasso (2007). Kolektivno pamcenje u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo: Fond otvoreno društvo Bosna i Hercegovina (Collective memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo: Open Society Fund Bosnia and Herzegovina).
  • Dimitrijevic, Nenad (2021). Slučaj Jugoslavija: Socijalizam, Nacionalizam, Posledice (The Case of Yugoslavia: Socialism, Nationalism, Consequences). Beograd: Samizdat.
  • Dnevni Avaz (2019). Žrtve rata poručile Dodiku: UN i EU potvrdili su da su genocid u Srebrenici počinili Vojska i MUP RS (War victims told Dodik: UN and EU confirmed that the genocide in Srebrenica was committed by the RS Army and MUP) Retrieved https://avaz.ba/vijesti/bih/475315/zrtve-rata-porucile-dodiku-un-i-eu-potvrdili-su-da-su-genocid-u-srebrenici-pocinili-vojska-imup- rs. Accessed: 10.05.2022.
  • Esterajher, Josip (2013). Velikosrpska ideologija u suvremenom srbijanskom društvu, nacrt za daljnja istraživanja (Greater Serbian ideology in contemporary Serbian society, a blueprint for further research). Zagreb: Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar Library Collections.
  • Gagnon, Valère Philip (2004). The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Hadzic, Faruk (2020). “The politicization of religion and the sacralized Balkan nations regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 40(7): 105-132.
  • Hadzic, Faruk (2021). “Agnosticism and atheism as amoralism and anti-ideological sociopolitical paradigm in the Balkans, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 41(2): 68-85.
  • Hadzic, Faruk (2021a). “Post-genocidal Balkans peace: Morality, memory and oblivion”. Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies, 4(7): 89-112.
  • Hadzic, Faruk (2022). “Educational segregation and discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina and critical peace: transgression of ethnic-ideological utilization of youth”. Psychology Research on Education and Social Sciences, 3(2): 25-40.
  • Halimovic, Dzenana (2017). Slobodna Europa, “Zarije Seizović: ‘Tri istine u BiH” (Zarije Seizović: ‘Three truths in BiH).
  • Hina, Ivo Lucic (2017). Velika reportaža iz srednje Bosne “Ovo je još uvijek mali dio one stare Bosne u kojoj jedni drže do drugih, ali politika i nas dijeli…” Retrieved from https://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/svijet/velika-reportaza-iz-srednje-bosne-ovo-je-jos-uvijek-mali-dio-one-stare-bosne-u-kojoj-jedni-drze-dodrugih-ali-politika-i-nas-dijeli-5881996. Accessed: 10.06.2022.
  • Ignatieff, Michael (1993). The Balkan Tragedy. New York: The New York Review of Books.
  • Ilic, Dejan (2016). “Beskompromisni patriotizam Srđe Popovića” (Srdo Popović’s uncompromising patriotism), Retrieved from https://pescanik.net/beskompromisni-patriotizam-srde-popovica/. Accessed: 12.02.2022.
  • Jukic, Jakov (1996). “Political religions and the memory of evil”. Društvena istraživanja: časopis za opća društvena pitanja, 5(3-4): 23-24.
  • Jukic-Mujkic, Elvira and Anida Sokol (2021). Mediacentar_online, Kontekst i pozadina priče ključni u medijskim izvještajima o ratnim zločinima (Mediacentar_online, The context and background of the story are key in media reports on war crimes). Retrieved from https://www.media.ba/bs/magazin-novinarstvo/kontekst-i-pozadina-price-kljucni-u-medijskim-izvjestajima-o-ratnim-zlocinima. Accessed: 12.01.2022.
  • Kaser, Karl and Joel M. Halpern (2000). “Historical myth and the invention of political folklore in contemporary Serbia”. Anthropology of East Europe Review, 16(1): 89–107.
  • Kessler, Wolfgang (1997). Jugoslawien - Der Erste Versuch (Yugoslavia - The first attempt), In: Der Balkan. Eine europäische Krisenregion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Yugoslavia - The first attempt. In: The Balkans. A European crisis region, past and present), Hrsg. von Jürgen Elvert, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • Lemarchand, Rene (2003). “Uporedjenja polja smrti: Ruanda, Kambodža i Bosna (Comparisons of the fields of death: Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia)”, editor Steven L. B. Jensen, in: Genocid: Slučajevi, Poredjenja i Savremene Rasprave (Genocide: Cases, Comparisons and Contemporary Debates). Copenhagen: Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Retrieved from http://institut-genocid.unsa.ba/userfiles/file/Genocid%20slucajevi%20Jensen.pdf. Accessed: 15.12.2021.
  • Lyotard, Jean-François (1999). Postmodern Fables Paperback. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Mahmutovic, Mirza (2013). “Medijska konstrukcija kolektivnih sjećanja: Tretman prošlosti u polju novinarstva s osvrtom na postdejtonsku BiH (Media construction of collective memories: Treatment of the past in the field of journalism with reference to post-Dayton BiH)”. Obrazovanje Odraslih: Časopis za Obrazovanje Odraslih i Kulturu, No. 2: 39-67.
  • Mann, Michael (2012). The Dark Side of Democracy, Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Markusen, Eric and Martin Mennecke (2004). “Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Human Rights Review, 5(4): 72-85. doi: 10.1007/s12142-004-1029-x.
  • Moltmann, Jurgen and Margaret Kohl (2004). In the End-The Beginning: The Life of Hope. Augsberg: Augsberg Fortress - eBooks Account.
  • Mrkic-Radevic, Branka (2021). Portal Udar, Govor mržnje, diskriminacija, uvrede: Mrzilački narativ prisutan je u BiH (Portal Udar, Hate speech, discrimination, insults: The hateful narrative is present in Bosnia and Herzegovina).
  • Mudde, Cas (2009). Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Nussbaum, Martha C. (2019). The monarchy of Fear. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Oslobodenje (2022). Milanović javno “otkrio karte” / Hrvati će ići u treći entitet, Srbi su nam saveznici - Pa šta ako je RS nastao na zločinu? (Milanović publicly “revealed the cards” / Croats will go to the third entity, Serbs are our allies - So what if the RS was founded on crime?). Retrieved from https://www.oslobodjenje.ba/vijesti/bih/milanovic-javno-otkrio-karte-hrvati-ce-ici-u-treci-entitetsrbi-su-nam-saveznici-pa-sta-ako-je-rs-nastao-na-zlocinu-756757. Accessed: 25.06.2022.
  • Pavlakovic, Vjeran (2014). “Fulfilling the Thousand-Year-Old Dream: Stretegies of Symbolic Nation-Building in Croatia”. In U Strategies of Symbolic Nation-Building in South Eastern Europe. Ur. Pal Kolstø, Farnham: Ashgate.
  • Pavlakovic, Vjeran (2020). “Memory politics in the former Yugoslavia”. Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, (18): 9-32. doi: https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2020.2.1.
  • Perica, Vjekoslav (2016). “Hrvatska Je danas najjača scena etničkog i klerikalnog nacionalizma na Balkanu (Today, Croatia is the most vital scene of ethnic and clerical nationalism in the Balkans)”. Radio gornji grad.
  • Perica, Vjekoslav (2019). Willy Brandt u balkanskom getu (Will Brandt in the Balkan ghetto). Pescanik.
  • Popov, Nebojsa (1993). Kultura sećanja: Srpski populizam, od marginalne do dominantne pojave (Culture of memory: Serbian populism, from marginal to dominant occurrence), addition, No. 135.
  • Predstavnistvo Republike srpske u Srbiji, (2021). Tribina “Republika Srpska pred novim izazovima (Conference “Republika Srpska facing new challenges”)”.
  • Prism Research (2013). Public opinion poll results, analytical report. United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Roth, Michael (2020). Pomirenje Je kamenit put (Reconciliation is a rocky path). German embassy in Sarajevo.
  • Slobodna Dalmacija (2017). Grabar Kitarović o presudi hrvatskoj šestorki: Nitko drugi, pa ni Haški sud, neće pisati našu povijest! (Grabar Kitarović on the verdict of the Croatian six: No one else, not even the Hague Court, will write our history!). Retrieved from https://slobodnadalmacija.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/grabarkitarovic-o-presudihrvatskoj-sestorki-nitko-drugi-pa-ni-haski-sud-nece-pisatinasu-povijest519541. Accessed: 20.12.2021.
  • Slobodna Europa, (2016). Potpuno suprotno o ‘Oluji’ i nakon više od dva desetljeća (Quite the opposite of ‘Storm’ and after more than two decades)”. Retrieved from https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/oluja-potpuno-suprotni-stavovi-i-poslije-21-godine/27896141.html. Accessed: 10.03.2022.
  • Smajic, Mehmed (2019). “Uljepšana slika osuđenih ubojica - Balkan i ratni zločini (Beautified image of convicted murderers - the Balkans and war crimes)”.
  • Turcalo, Sead and Hikmet Karcic (2021). Bosnian genocide denial and triumphalism: origins, impact and prevention, Sarajevo: University of Sarajevo in cooperation with Srebrenica Memorial Center. Retrieved from https://fpn.unsa.ba/b/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/BOSNIAN%20GENOCIDE%20DENIAL%20AND%20TRIUMPHALISM.pdf. Accessed: 10.06.2022.
  • Verovsek, Peter J. (2016). “Collective memory, politics, and the influence of the past: The politics of memory as a research paradigm”. Politics Groups and Identities, 4(3): 529-543. doi: doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2016.1167094.
  • Wertsch, James V. and Henry L. Roediger III (2008). “Collective memory: Conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches”. Memory, 16(3): 318-326. doi:10.1080/09658210701801434.
  • Wodak, Ruth, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl and Karin Liebhart (2009). The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press.