Bosnian Town Research Articles

Spatial turn in the prose opus of Amir Brka - mnemotopes of the town of Tesanj

So far, recent literary criticism has paid attention exclusively to the poetry of Amir Brka. This work deals with prose creation, with constant emphasis on the compatibility of poetry and prose, and then prose and opinion journalism, for which the city of Tesanj is the motif backbone. The methodology of the work is based on mnemonics, under the hypothesis that Amir Brka, through a polyvalent opus, deconstructing the “dejected” space of the Bosnian town, reconstructed the timeless and all-spatial mnemotope of the city. In this way, Brka symbolically made a spatial turn in Bosnian literature, especially through the works Monograph of the City, Black Notebook and the book Jerej, which are, each in its own way, a fight against wrong ideologies and inputs that the text and book based on truth are the only credible mnemotopes.

Vlasenica od 1991. do 2013. godine: Promjene u etničkoj strukturi stanovništva pod utjecajem rata protiv Republike Bosne i Hercegovine

Before the aggression, Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats, Yugoslavs and Others lived together in Vlasenica. According to the 1991 census, there were 33,942 inhabitants in Vlasenica: 18,727 Bosniaks (55.17%), 14,359 Serbs (42.30%), 39 Croats (0.11%), 340 Yugoslavs (1.00%) and 477 Others (1.24%). At the same time, in the town of Vlasenica lived 7,909 inhabitants: 4,800 Bosniaks (60.69%), 2,743 Serbs (34.68), 26 Croats (0.33%), 242 Yugoslavs (3.06%) and 98 Others. 1.24%). The population of the Municipality lived in the town of Vlasenica and 90 other settlements. Vlasenica, as a strategically important city in the plans and goals of the aggressors, has been the target of attacks since 1991. Aggression and war crimes against Bosniaks were planned, prepared and organized against this Bosnian town. Camps for Bosniaks were organized in Vlasenica, civilians were killed and then “buried” in mass graves, mass and systematic rapes and other forms of sexual violence were committed, the Bosniak elite was targeted and persecuted, civilians were expelled and deported en masse, and cultural goods and property and demolished religious buildings. After the war, he began returning to Vlasenica. However, this area has long been an area of precarious living for Bosniak returnees. Thus, on July 11, 2001, a 16-year-old girl, Meliha Durić, was killed in Vlasenica. This crime has not been solved. In the Bosnian entity of RS, the Bosnian language is denied. Teaching in the Bosnian language is prohibited, and the language is called the non-existent Bosniak language. This discriminates against students who want their language to be called Bosnian. The situation with employment in public administration is not good. Returnees are mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, but there is a problem with the placement of surplus products. In 2013, a census was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the first census after the war and aggression. In the municipality of Vlasenica, a significant part of which belonged to the municipality of Milici, there were 11,467 inhabitants: 3,763 Bosniaks, 7,589 Serbs, 31 Croats, 22 persons who did not declare their ethnicity, 15 Others, 14 without answers. The town of Vlasenica had 6,715 inhabitants, which is 1,194 fewer than in 1991. There were 967 or 3,633 fewer Bosniaks than in 1991. There were 5,679 or 2,936 more Serbs than in 1991. The municipality of Vlasenica had, in the total population, 33.82% Bosniaks, which is 21.35% less than in 1991, and 66.18% Serbs, which is 23.88% more than in 1991. In the town of Vlasenica, there were 14.40% Bosniaks and 84.50% Serbs in the total population. There were 46.29% less Bosniaks and 49.89% more Serbs. The population of Vlasenica lived in 36 settlements of the municipality, which is 55 settlements less than in 1991. The causes of such changes in the ethnic structure of the population of Vlasenica can be traced to the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic cleansing and genocide against Bosniaks. Certainly, other causes of the decrease in the number of Bosniaks in Vlasenica should not be neglected, such as the security situation, economic situation, education, road and other infrastructure, etc. The formation of the municipality of Milići significantly affected the reduction of the population of Vlasenica. Milići has 11,441 inhabitants: Serbs 7,180 or 62.76%, Bosniaks 4,199 or 36.70% of the total population. The population of Milić lives in 51 settlements.

Granice i spone: Mali Zvornik i Sakar u tokovima deosmanizacije Balkana XIX i XX stoljeća

Knowledge of world / European history is important for a more complete understanding of complex processes, for comparisons and placing national and regional history in a broader context that provides more meaningful answers. What determines the course of history is sometimes “a series of smaller events in the midst of the context of big ideas”. The borders of the region are determined by geographical, cultural and geopolitical characteristics, as well as the political interests of those builders whose interpretation has dominance. In expanding or narrowing the territory of the Balkans, politics was usually more decisive than geography. Historical events in that area should be presented from the positions of all its peoples, including Muslim communities. Their narratives also form a legitimate part of the picture of that past. Muslims were not the “favorites” of multiple Balkan historiographies that minimized and marginalized their component, functioning as factors shaping their own national and political ideologies. Historiography does not only deal with the reconstruction of the past, but, with all the difficulties and pitfalls, it also interprets it. A fragmentary study of the destinies of Muslim communities hinders the identification of the broader processes and common denominators of their parcelized history. The processes of de-Ottomanization and Balkanization also led to their particular consciousness within the newly formed, post-Ottoman states. Their historical experience is largely not “condensed, preserved, and generationally transmitted”. The attitude that Muslims are “foreigners” in Europe is part of the mentality and process known as the “Eastern Question”. Minds are not too prone to change. Calling all Muslims “Turks” is not the result of ignorance, but of a concrete attitude. It was not until the Berlin Congress of 1878 that the question of their protection became somewhat relevant. The system of such protection was inadequate, without supervisory mechanisms to control the implementation of commitments. Major political changes most often brought about religious and ethnic changes and displacements in the Balkans. In the study of the decades-long process of formation of the Serbian state in the 19th century in the area of the Smederevo Sandzak and the emigration of Muslims from it, special attention is paid to the fate of two small settlements (Mali Zvornik and Sakar) on the right bank of the Drina. After the surrender of the towns to the Serbs in 1862, only Mali Zvornik and Sakar remained in the hands of the Muslims. The origin of the settlement of Mali Zvornik is connected to the existence of the Zvornik fortress and the town of Zvornik on the left bank of the Drina, which was first mentioned in 1412. Mali Zvornik grew on the right bank of the Drina as part of the town of Zvornik. In the first half of the 18th century, travel writers mention that Mala or Mahala of the Bosnian town of Zvornik, whose inhabitants were called Maholjani, was located there. South of Mali Zvornik lies village of Sakar. In the 19th century, in Mali Zvornik and Sakar, on the border with the Smederevo Sandzak, Muslims made up the majority of the population. As only the Drina separated them from the settlements of Divič and Tabaci on its other side, the inhabitants of these settlements were firmly connected by kinship, friendship and marriage, and they were economically oriented towards each other. The Principality of Serbia was persistent in its demands to get Mali Zvornik and Sakar, having in mind their geostrategic position. By the decision of the Berlin Congress in 1878, they became part of Serbia. Until 1912, these were the only settlements in it with a majority Muslim population. They lost that majority over time. What is conditionally called “local” history, in addition to great narratives, indicates, confirmed by various experiences, the multidimensionality of the past, its features and specifics in a particular area.

Masters of Life and Death: Paramilitary Violence in Two Bosnian Towns

The Journal of Perpetrator Research (JPR) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal committed to promoting the scholarly study of perpetrators and perpetration of political and mass violence, terrorism, and genocide. One of the journal’s aims is to engage critically with the very concepts of “perpetrator” and “perpetration”.JPR fosters scholarly discussions about perpetrators and perpetration across the broader continuum of political and mass violence without confining its attention to any particular geographical region or historical period. The journal's mission is to provide a forum for scholarship taking place across a broad range of fields including history, criminology, law, forensics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, political science, memory studies, cultural studies, literary studies, film and media studies, museum studies, and education. JPR was created with the explicit aim of providing an inter- and cross-disciplinary space for the study of perpetrators and perpetration, including critical reflections on theories, methods, and approaches beyond, and between, and across disciplinary boundaries. JPR not only addresses past and present issues related to perpetrators and perpetration. Fundamental questions informing the journal include, for example, questions of terminology, motivation, ideology, agency, processes and dynamics, as well as questions of prevention: Who or what is a perpetrator? How is such a label applied and by whom? How do such labels evolve? What drives people to participate in mass violence and how do their crimes unfold? What measures can be taken to identify potential perpetrators before they act, and prevent them from committing crimes? What can be done to rehabilitate perpetrators after the fact?Another set of questions informing JPR pertains to the status and significance of the perpetrator as a discursive formation in legal, political, historical, philosophical, and cultural settings. How do societies come to terms with acts of perpetration and with the perpetrators themselves? What role does the figure of the perpetrator play in the popular imagination for different audiences? How do representations of perpetrators change over time and across geographical and cultural boundaries, as well as across different media, genres, and traditions? Finally, JPR is also interested in exploring questions of theory and method. What are the ethical and moral implications of studying perpetrators? How do ethical considerations influence the methodological and theoretical criteria of the inquiry? How does one address the inherent ambiguity, limitations, and contentiousness of labels such as “perpetrator,” and the strategic and political implications of their application in different contexts internationally?We seek innovative work on any aspect of the study of perpetrators and perpetration, both broader theoretical and methodological interventions into the field and work centering on more specific case studies and examples. Because of the journal’s interdisciplinary and global scope, all contributions should be written with an interdisciplinary and international readership in mind.We also invite proposals for special issues or special sections clustered around a particular topic or theme. If you would like to propose a special issue or section, please contact one of the editors.

An Erased Memorial, a Rape Motel, and a Nationalist Disneyland: Bosnian Genocide Denial and the Fight for Memory in a Bosnian Town

An Erased Memorial, a Rape Motel, and a Nationalist Disneyland: Bosnian Genocide Denial and the Fight for Memory in a Bosnian Town

When the “People” Leave: On the Limits of Nationalist (Bio)Politics in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina

AbstractThis article examines the social and political effects produced by the most recent wave of emigration in postwar Bosnia, widely understood to be the result of continued political instability and economic decline that followed the 1992–95 war. Drawing on ethnographic research in a deindustrialized Bosnian town and analysis of popular discourses seeking to make sense of this new wave of departures, I show how the phenomenon of postwar exit impacts those staying behind and inspires new forms of reflection that link past histories of violence to more recent forms of dispossession. The emergence of such forms of historical consciousness reveals that postwar migration is haunted both by the memory of wartime expulsions and ethnic cleansing, as well as by the often-unacknowledged violence of postwar economic restructuring glossed as the postsocialist transition. In asking what happens to nationalist regimes, as well as scholarship on nationalist politics, when the “people” leave, I demonstrate the need to analyze the ongoing out-migration both in terms of Bosnia’s historical specificity and global political-economic dynamics. In so doing, I show how absences created by these departures create new vantage points that bring to light and expose unsettling political configurations left behind by the Bosnian war.

The Bosnian Pyramid Phenomenon

The Bosnian town of Visoko has in recent years become a New Age pilgrimage site. Several formations in the landscape have been branded as ancient pyramids and tunnels. These purported monuments from bygone times are administrated by a private foundation led by the Bosnian American entrepreneur Semir Osmanagić. His claim is that the structures at Visoko were built tens of thousands of years ago by an advanced civilization that mastered a technology that enabled the concentration of healing energies. This controversial assertion is supported by invoking the supposed scientific proofs for the existence of these energies and by prominently displaying various legitimizing visual and material props. The prospect of coming into contact with the mysterious powers emanating from the site attracts numerous visitors and has led to the commodification of the pyramid and tunnel complex.

The Balkans in the Cold War. by Svetozar Rajak et al., eds., London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 372 pp. €106.99.

<i>The Balkans in the Cold War</i>. by Svetozar Rajak et al., eds., London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 372 pp. €106.99.

The Small-Town Globalism of Ivo Andrić

Abstract This study situates the works of Ivo Andrić at the intersection of world literature and postcolonial studies. It argues that, rather than being opposed as two mutually exclusive critical paradigms, the two need to be tactfully combined in order to account for the artist’s treatment of the prolonged subjugation undergone by the former Ottoman province of Bosnia. Two contradictory trends are observed. Andrić represents Bosnian small towns as places of symbolic resistance and perseverance. His local themes and language undermine the hegemonic presence of the empire, and invite a reading through a postcolonial lens. At the same time, a strong cosmopolitan current runs through the same narratives, and shows a paradoxical urge of the artist to extend his local setting into the global and intercultural spheres. Andrić stages the world as a multifarious and enigmatic whole – a viewpoint that embraces world literature as its aesthetic and political shrine.

‘Sistem te laže!’: the anti‐ruling class mobilisation of high school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina

AbstractThis article presents the case of a high school student‐led protest movement in the Bosnian towns of Jajce and Travnik. Over the course of 2016 and 2017, the students developed opposition to a plan for an ethnically segregated high school in Jajce. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnicity is strongly politicised and limits the political activities of citizens to what is prescribed by the elites of their respective ethnic groups. In particular, Bosnian youth is often named as part of an apathetic ‘lost generation’ whose voices are smothered by this ethno‐political framework. I argue that the political agency of ordinary young Bosnians should not be neglected, since the formulations of their relationship with the state form meaningful political activities. The student protests in Jajce and Travnik are telling examples of their political agency. In an analysis of the protest movement's actions, I show that the students adopt a narrative that opposes the ruling political class and their prevalence of personal interests over the future of younger generations.

Violence as a generative force: identity, nationalism, and memory in a Balkan community, by Max Bergholz, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2016, 464 pp., $35.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-15-017-0492-5

Max Bergholz opens his book with missing information about the 1941 massacre of civilians in the Bosnian town of Kulen Vakuf in the documents produced by the Yugoslav authorities that investigated ...

The influence of German settlers on the formation and development of an industrial town in Habsburg Bosnia: Teslić (1878-1918)

This paper studies the formation and development of the Bosnian town of Teslic from the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 to the end of the First World War in 1918. The goal is to emphasize the significant characteristics of the town's development: the spread of capitalism; economic modernization; the arrival of a non-Slavic, predominantly German population; and the town as the leader of industrialization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The industrial origin of Teslic and its structure demonstrate Austria-Hungary's need to economically integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into its state area. The aim of this paper is to show to what extent the dynamics of industrial development influenced the town's formation and to see how the colonist population, which was mostly of German origin, influenced the industrial development and social life of the town.

Postal censorship of Bosnian public health institutions during the Second World War: The Independent State of Croatia versus Dr. Stanko Sielski.

The newly available, but still limited data, which we present indicates efforts to censor Dr. Stanko Sielski's postal communications towards the War's end. The censors targeted specifically Dr. Stanko Sielski's correspondences with the Jewish physicians he was protecting. This material highlights the many challenges his public health service experienced during the time of armed conflict.

Peacebuilding in Practice: Local Experience in Two Bosnian Towns. By Adam Moore. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013. xii, 225 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Maps. $45.95, hard bound.

Peacebuilding in Practice: Local Experience in Two Bosnian Towns. By Adam Moore. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013. xii, 225 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Maps. $45.95, hard bound.

"Where were they until now?" Aging, Care and Abandonment in a Bosnian Town

This article delves into Bosnia-Herzegovina, and especially into the town of Bihac, to ethnographically examine the changing nature of the state and family, as visible through practices of elder care. I use my ethnographic data gathered at a nursing home Vitalis in Bihac, and especially the predicament of an elderly Bosnian woman whom I call Zemka, to argue that both the state and family in postwar and postsocialist Bosnia-Herzegovina materialize as semi-absent. In the process of unpacking these multiple semi-absences, I reveal the lived effects of changing postwar and postsocialist state, and altering kinship relations as they affect ordinary people.

Review of Adam Moor's Peacebuilding in practice: local experience in two Bosnian towns

Armed conflict in Yugoslavia gave birth to six nations with different identities and economic outlooks. It is now divided along ethnic lines and includes six republics – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia – and Kosovo with supervised independence. The conflicts that arose through this division of nations still exist in different forms; one religious, and the other, nationalism. There have been many attempts to analyse peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts and practices in different conflict-hit countries. Studies of peacebuilding have received particular attention in security and peace studies around the world. The emergence of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the unique case studies for peace and security researchers and many scholars have highlighted the country’s dangerous conflict. Adam Moore’s book was published in 2013 by Cornell University Press, Ithaca, US. The book was funded in project form by several international organisations and institutes of peace such as the Council of European Union Studies, International Research and Exchanges Board and The United States Institute of Peace. The book contains an interesting case study of two Bosnian towns, Brcko and Mostar. The examples of these towns have been used in a comparative analysis to improve understanding of the differences in peacebuilding practices between local political parties and institutions, and local and international ones.

Challenges of Postconflict Coexistence: Narrating Truth and Justice in a Bosnian Town

This article sets out to deepen our understanding of how people make everyday strategies for living together after mass atrocities and what role transitional justice may play for these strategies. Based on a study in the small town of Foča in Bosnia‐Herzegovina, the analysis unpacks the encounter between three clusters of narratives that make competing moral claims and offer different ways of ordering the past, present, and future: the “institutional” narrative formed globally at various institutions of transitional justice and here represented in the local by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY); the collective narratives of ethnonationalism constructed by entrepreneurs in politics and media and fed into daily discourses; and individual narratives “in the margins” that refuse collective categorizations. The article argues that the ICTY narrative, based on individual justice and factual truth, was, contrary to its aims, used to enforce exclusionist and collective claims. At the same time, less dominant narratives embraced the ICTY narrative, which suggests that the tribunal may potentially play a constructive role as an “archive for the future.”

Supporting the Caliph's Project: Bosnian Muslims and the Hejaz Railway

This article will analyse Bosnian Muslims response and contribution to the construction of the Hejaz Railway. Based on primary sources during the 1900–1908 period, the article will argue that Bosnian Muslims actively followed news about the progress of the railway and financially contributed to its construction. Bosnian Muslim contribution took the form of establishing committees for the collection of voluntary donations in a number of Bosnian towns in 1905 and 1906. The active involvement of Bosnian Muslims in the construction of the Hejaz Railway shows that the spiritual bonds between Bosnian Muslims living in Austria-Hungary and their Caliph in Istanbul were not completely severed by the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia in 1878. Following a brief survey of Bosnian Muslim history within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the article describes the Hejaz Railway project and surveys the Bosnian Muslim contribution to the project.

Scaling Humanitarianism: Humanitarian Actions in a Bosnian Town

ABSTRACTThrough an ethnographic focus on humanitarne akcije in Bosnia and Herzegovina – a local form of raising monetary donations to people who need medical treatments abroad – this paper explores humanitarianism and its understandings of life. Ethnographically tracking the course of a humanitarna akcija organised in one Bosnian town, this paper makes two related points. First, it ethnographically demonstrates that lives of the ‘helpers’ and ‘helped’ in humanitarne akcije were understood as immersed in the intense talk and gossip of the town and as exposed to the sociopolitical environment troubled in the same way. Comparing this understanding of life with the international humanitarianism, this paper suggests that the notion of ‘bare life’ in international humanitarian projects in emergencies may be the product of the separation of infrastructures, which enable and manage lives of the ‘savers’ and ‘saved’. Second, those who needed help through humanitarne akcije strongly criticised the lack of organised health care and social security in Bosnia and Herzegovina that pushed them to initiate humanitarne akcije. They criticised less how other people perceived them (the terms of their sociocultural recognition) and more the shrinking public health-care insurance, unavailability of medical treatments, unequal allocation of medicines, tissues and organs, and so forth (the unjust redistribution of resources). Their dissatisfactions imply that humanitarianism as an industry of aid can be criticised for failing to intervene in the global regimes of unequal redistribution of resources in a transformative way.

Peacebuilding in practice: local experience in two Bosnian towns

Peacebuilding in practice: local experience in two Bosnian towns