Sarajevo’s
commemoration of the centennial of the assassination was definitely strange,
reflecting ambivalence toward the event and the desires of many different groups.
Here are a lot of photos that I took and some commentary.
It’s
important to note that the 20th century was a “century of wars” for
Sarajevo: three major, devastating conflicts, of which World War I was merely
the first. Everywhere one sees signs of these wars: World War I from 1914 to 1918,
World War II from 1941 (when Germany invaded Yugoslavia) to 1945, and “the last
war” from 1992 to 1995. No wonder the theme for the commemoration was “a
century of peace after a century of wars.”
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Scheduled
for the June 28, 2014 were some peace exhibits, an exhibit of the
assassination, the opening of the often-closed museum at the assassination site,
a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, and a youth peace concert beginning 11:45
PM. However, other unofficial or spontaneous events abounded and I attempted (in
my amateur way) to photograph them all.
Before
getting started, here’s a look at the city of Sarajevo. From one of the surrounding hillsides, you can
see that Sarajevo is in a narrow valley.
Its religious diversity is evident (Note the mosques, churches, synagogue…) as is its recent war (graveyard with tombstones bearing death dates between 1992 and
1995).
The Miljacka River runs along one end of it with main roads on each side
of its banks.
Franz Ferdinand’s parade route took him along the road (right) from the then new City Hall
to the place of his death on “the street corner
that started the 20th century.”
The bridge at that fateful
intersection, then called the Latin Bridge (in German), was later renamed
Princip’s Bridge, and more recently has reverted to the Latin Bridge (in
Bosnian).
So what happened on the centennial? Officially, there were
some exhibits:
(1) an outdoor, one-day-only exhibit of the Sarajevo
assassination, put on by Bosnia-Herzegovina’s National Archives
(2) an outdoor, long-term (month-long?) exhibit of peace cartoons from
various countries
Note: These are LARGE - at least a yard high (I'm not good at calculating size!) - and printed on some translucent, waterproof material (which is why you can see nearby buildings showing through the cartoons).
At the assassination site itself, the only officially scheduled event seemed to be the opening of the museum (which is often closed).
Other groups all had their own agenda. Bosnian Serbs, of course,
opposed the Bosnian Federation’s commemoration (since none of the groups in
Bosnia can agree on anything, even
something that happened a century ago). They held their own event in their own
territory, complete with a statue of Gavrilo Princip. Other groups just kept
showing up at the assassination site. There were these people – though I’m not
sure what they were demonstrating about or what their flag represented.
Then, some others showed up with a peace banner/wreath.
Austrians came too
as did people leaving a commemoration of
the “central European monarchy” in the Bosnian language.
Altogether
the street corner memorial ended up looking like this:
And just
to make everything even more strange, a car modeled on the archduke’s kept
showing up, and people kept posing on it.
By early evening, activity intensified.
A concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was held in the old City Hall (destroyed
in the last war and very recently renovated). Only foreign dignitaries were in
attendance inside the hall, and security was tight.
The
road on that bank of the river was completely blocked off, but on the other
side, people gathered before a large screen set up so that they could hear (and see) the concert.
Protestors gathered as well, lining up just along the opposite bank of the
river, expressing their interpretations of the meaning of the commemoration in
light of modern developments. Wearing Gavrilo Princip masks (!), they held up signs,
presumably for the benefit of the arriving officials. After the dignitaries disappeared in the building, they continued their protest at the assassination site.
(Note: It was hard
to get pictures because of the crowd/location.)
Some of the young people were protesting the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, proclaiming the actions of those entities a new occupation and calling for a modern-day Gavrilo Princip to save them from foreign exploitation. Others were rambling expressions of Bosnian Serb nationalism. It was a mixed bag of dissatisfaction and protest.
Finally, the concert began with an
odd selection: the German (not Austrian or Bosnian) national anthem: “Deutschland
über alles.” I still haven’t figured out the reason for the song choice.
The day ended with some kind of an international youth concert for peace
on the Latin Bridge (formerly the Princip Bridge), just across from the assassination
site. For some reason, the event started at 11:45 pm, too late for some of us
jetlagged foreigners, so this picture only shows the preparations for the concert.
