![\"Latin_Bridge_2013\"](\"http:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Latin_Bridge_2013-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bosnian teaching reflects ethnic splits<\/p>\n
In ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no commonly held view either about Princip or about the origins of World War I.<\/p>\n
Bosnian Serb children are taught a different interpretation of history to Bosniaks and Croats. For the Bosniaks and Croats, Princip was a Belgrade-backed political assassin. For Bosnian Serbs, the murder served only as a pretext for Austria-Hungary and German to commit military aggression against Serbia.<\/p>\n
These divisions are also reflected in the rival commemorations of the upcoming centenary that will be held in Bosnia.<\/p>\n
The Latin Bridge in Sarajevo where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. Photo: Wikicommons.
\nA series of events will be held in Sarajevo, including exhibitions, concerts and a meeting of young peace activists from around the world.<\/p>\n
However, Bosnian Serbs will hold their own events in the eastern town of Visegrad, programmed by film director Emir Kusturica, while a statue of Princip is due to be installed in Serb-run East Sarajevo.<\/p>\n
In mainly Bosniak areas, like Sarajevo, the Bihac region in the northwest and the central Zenica-Doboj area, school textbooks highlight Princip\u2019s links to Serbia.<\/p>\n
The Sarajevo textbook says that Princip\u2019s group, Young Bosnia, was \u201csupported by secret organisations from Serbia\u201d, while the Bihac textbook states more directly that the plotters were \u201csupported by Serbia\u201d. The Zenica textbook describes Young Bosnia as a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The history book used by Bosnian Croat pupils also describes Young Bosnia as a \u201cterrorist\u201d group.<\/p>\n
But in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity, Young Bosnia is simply described as an \u201corganisation\u201d and textbooks stress that Austria-Hungary \u201cused\u201d Franz Ferdinand\u2019s assassination \u201cto blame Serbia\u201d and declare war on the country.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, this description of the outbreak of the conflict is similar to the one contained in textbooks used in Serbia itself.<\/p>\n
Zeljko Vujadinovic, a history professor from Banja Luka in Republika Srpska, said that in Bosnia, \u201cwhat we are looking at is the current political mind-set transferred to the past\u201d.<\/p>\n
Suggestions that Young Bosnia was a \u201cpre-World War I Al-Qaida\u201d were a result of the 1990s conflict, he insisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe characterisation of Young Bosnia and Princip as terrorists is an attempt to place the blame for huge worldwide events on \u2018Serbian territorial expansion policies\u2019, which is evidently flawed,\u201d Vujadinovic said.<\/p>\n
Sarajevo history professor Zijad Sehic agreed that the past had been redrawn in the aftermath of the 1992-95 conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
It was only since the collapse of Yugoslavia that Princip was now described as a Serbian nationalist rather than as a fighter for Yugoslav unity, he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that there is no more Yugoslavia, his actions are being viewed more narrowly and he has been reborn as a Serbian hero,\u201d Sehic said.\/balkaninsight\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bosnian teaching reflects ethnic splits In ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no commonly held view either about Princip or about the origins of World War I. Bosnian Serb children are taught a different interpretation of history to Bosniaks and Croats. For the Bosniaks and Croats, Princip was a Belgrade-backed political assassin. For Bosnian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19,30],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-19","category-30","tag-world-war-i-history-divides-balkan-schoolchildren"],"views":820,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}