Memory landscapes in (post)Yugoslavia. 1. The case of Republic of Serbia
Résumé
Since the 2000s, the Republic of Serbia has been marked by a surge in revisionist memory politics. Encouraged by EU memory narratives, which equate fascism and communism, revisionist memory politics in Serbia entails a rehabilitation of the Chetnik movement. In this interview, historian Dr Jelena Đureinović debunks the myths surrounding the memory battles in the public space in Serbia and analyzes the diverging memory narratives in the country and in the wider (post)Yugoslav region. Đureinović explains how the ethnicization and revisionism of memory and history have been reflected in the newly adopted legal frameworks, judicial processes, mainstream political discourses and in the overall memory efforts of the political elites, including the Serbian Orthodox Church. While memory battles involving heterogeneous voices in Serbia remain focused on World War Two, seemingly more pertinent issues, namely, the reconciliation with the war past of the 1990s, are effectively obfuscated.