While Ukraine stands as a witness of horrific, yet live streamed, history in the making, Sarajevo breathes history in its very flesh and blood up until today.
The choice of destination resulted from a bunch of unordered events - my most beautiful uncalculated adventure, leaving an indelible mark. Other than transparency and acknowledgment of reality, the sole thing I truly ever valued is the ability to stimulate a reflection. It comes in the form of a guidance of thought to the unforeseen dimensions. Once could find it in a book, in a movie, in a song, in a person (yet the most prove to be tiring a great deal), and, most remarkably, in a journey, which encloses all and beyond. Above all, questioning is what makes it all worth it.
In this vein, Sarajevo did - the experience of which lies in the hazard of the questions asked and the answers received in the surroundings I found myself in. The very same is also true for how we go through life. People we met on our way startled me with an amount of accumulated knowledge on world events, a sharp mind and this very basic curiosity so rare in many. I cannot help but wonder that growing up in the basement hiding from 300 average daily shell impacts at the age of 8 or witnessing your father silent for years as a traumatic response inevitably forces you to ask the question why way more times than a regular human being would. It must foster the urge to grasp history, political tensions and the very essence of human nature way beyond your regional borders.
The following narratives on Sarajevo are the resulting outcome - my mere impressions with a little bit of context from the past to make the present more comprehensible.
AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLDS
Our journey starts with Nino, our guide and the very first key to Sarajevo of today through its past. He considers himself a so-called the Other - agnostic junction of Serbian father and Bosnian Muslim mother. Nino greets us by announcing that political tensions are back in the region as Serbian nationalism is stirring up trouble, again. The path to plausible calamity opened up as a direct result of the war unleashed in Ukraine. People are doomed to grim reminiscences while watching devastated Mariupol on their TV screens. « Two days after the war started my mother prepared a small parcel containing the most essential things, including passeports, just in case. »
Next to the Sacred Heart Cathedral, where we stand, Pope John Paul II Monument unveiled in 2014, highly greeted by Bosnian Muslims, embodies a strive for peace on the torn and devastated land. Today, new graffiti started appearing on the walls of Sarajevo with this one word - mir | мир.
One could hardly find a better place to experience historical and cultural richness built through clashes and divisions - a genuine open air museum. In Sarajevo, you find yourself at the crossroads of the worlds - the one of the Ottomon Empire, of Austria-Hungary, of communism in Tito’s Yugoslavia, of the Siege in the shoes of Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and the Others. Sarajevo reveals itself as dense, complex, yet the most beautiful.
What was it like in Sarajevo during the longest military siege of modern history from 1992 to 1996? « Like gambling with your life. » As we walk the paved roads of Baščaršija, Nino adds « My mother used to wear heels even on these. She said that if she died, she preferred to die in style. »
SIGHTS
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Markale: When in Markale, the bustling market in the center of Sarajevo, look for a rose under your feet. This monument marks the single highest number of human casualties caused by mortar shells during the Siege of Sarajevo. At his time, the marketplace was roofless, yet people would still come, even if only a few could actually afford to buy food as prices were reaching new heights on a daily basis.
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Eternal Flame: Established in 1946, Eternal Flame is dedicated to a complex day - the 6th of April. On the one hand, it is the one of the liberation from the Nazi Germany in 1945, but it also marks the begining of the Siege in 1992. It is located in the famous Tito street, where an artistic installation of 11 541 empty red chairs took place in 2012 - Sarajevo Red Line.
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Papagajka: Papagajka carries the reputation of the ugliest building in Sarajevo - the claim I strongly oppose. Built for the Olympics at the initiative of Tito, it was supposed to show that communism is not all about blunt and brutal architecture, but that it can also be, well, funky. As for Tito himself, people have rather mixed feelings - some despise him and some long for the former standards of living. Also, Tito is praised for his way of dealing with the Soviet Union and his attempts to cultivate the identity of Yugoslavs all while keeping national sentiments dormant.
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Inat Kuća: Next to the Miljacka river the house of a stubborn man stands as a genuine embodiment of the Bosnian stubbornness and perseverance. As the story goes, during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy rule one man was asked to move out so that the City Hall could be constructed. The stubborn man requested his house to be removed brick by brick and rebuilt on the other bank of the river - and they did. This episode of diplomacy and dialogue symbolizes the Bosnian spirit of defiance but it emphasizes why some do not see the Austro-Hungarian occupation as an unquestionably bad thing too - these 40 years brought modernization, stability and order, some claim.
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Street Corner 43°51′28.5″N, 18°25′43.5″E: This line in history books about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie that occured in 1914 is the reason why nearly everyone has heard of Sarajevo. Sure thing, at the time borders were about to be reshaped anyways and the war was just a matter of time. Yet, this one shot of Gavrilo Princip unleashed the chain of events. From the First World War to the Second, this one shot was followed by the deaths of millions. Oddly enough, among all people involved in the planning of the assassination, a 19-year old Gavrilo was the only one to be spared the death sentence as he was considered a minor. As for Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, well, they were killed as their driver took a wrong turn, by mistake.
WAR & FALSE NARRATIVES ON CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
On a personal note, Sarajevo reinforced two very much grim, yet simple ideas, which I must have had in the back of my mind. First, the hope of never again, namely a belief that humanity can evolve from atrocities as if it was not something very intrinsic to humans, is misleading. And second, on a grand scale no war is ever fought for moral reasons.
As for the genesis of evil, it is a subject broad and complex enough on its own and shall be explored outside this piece. Nonetheless, I must admit - wars, alongside the human inflicted horrors that follow, have always intrigued me. Living in a flawless social bubble baffles me - what does being yourself even mean? And how well do you truly know your real potential self until the given conditions start to crumble? Where is the turning point for the one, with otherwise a statistically normal orbitofrontal cortex, namely an ordinary person, to become capable of acts of violence? Where is the turning point for this very same person to start ultimately taking pleasure in the acts he or she commits? This is only one part of the puzzle, the second part lying in what shall be done about it both ex-ante and post factum. As suggested by Noga Arikha, the first place to look for is in the patterns of behavior. Would you believe that, « under given circumstances, 70% of a population can take part in crimes as part of a group »?
As for wars, and most notably interventions outside your territory, leading narratives appear to almost exclusively revolve around the emotional aspect, based on human suffering and casualties. This is surely fair, and above all emotionally satisfying, yet phony. It all comes up to the national interest, whether you like it or not. Does this imply that one should remain passive? Absolutely not. Ignoring is the act of violence - says the tag on Bistrik tower next to the abandoned bobsleigh track.
Jasmila Žbanić (2020). Quo Vadis, Aida?
BBC (1995). The Death of Yugoslavia.
Noga Arikha (2018). Is neuroscience getting closer to explaining evil behaviour?
Robert D. Kaplan (1999). Why the Balkans Demand Amorality.