Terrorists are Other People: Contested Memory of the 1914 Sarajevo Assassination

Abstract

This article analyzes the contested remembrance of the assassination of Habsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian radical Gavrilo Princip in 1914 in Sarajevo. I place the politics of the assassination centennial commemoration in the context of Serbian and Bosnian contemporary anxieties about their respective ontological insecurities. In Serbia, these anxieties centre on Serbia's fear of losing its international reputation as a state that was seen as historically generous and self‐sacrificing and a victim of historical injustice at the hands of great powers. In Bosnia, anxieties revolve around its persistently unresolved international status, failure to create any cohesive post‐war Bosnian identity, and deep internal ethnic divisions. The article explores ways in which the memory of the 1914 assassination is utilized for contemporary memory‐building purposes in both Serbia and Bosnia, as part of a larger narrative of state‐building, in which both states see themselves as “indispensable nations” that cracked open the historical arc of the twentieth century. The article demonstrates the profound anxiety historical commemorations provoke in internationally insecure states and illustrates ways in which states can respond.