![]() These divisions are also reflected in the rival commemorations that will be held in Bosnia. For Bosnian Serbs, the murder was merely a pretext for Austria-Hungary and Germany to attack Serbia. Different interpretationīosnian Serb children are taught a different interpretation than Bosniaks and Croats, for whom Princip was a Belgrade-backed political assassin. In ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no commonly held view either about Princip or about the origins of the first world war. Now the past is being adjusted to fit whatever discourse the ruling elites in these countries want at the present moment." "That country disappeared 23 years ago and the discourse disappeared with it, because the new countries that came out of the former Yugoslavia had different perceptions of the past. "There used to be only one discourse about World War I while the country was still Yugoslavia," said Nenad Sebek, executive director of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, which has analysed school textbooks in the region. Now they all have their own versions of the truth, shaped by the more recent wars, and are passing it on to the next generation. While they were part of Yugoslavia, children in all these countries were taught the same history. Princip is portrayed in the history books of the various countries of former Yugoslavia either as a terrorist or as a rebel with a cause – refecting contemporary divisions in a region still recovering from the more recent conflicts of the 1990s. Says Petar, "I'm proud to be a Princip, but I'm also sad to be part of a forgotten history.As Balkan countries prepare to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war this summer, each is teaching its children a different interpretation of the killing that triggered the conflict. But his memory still is revered by Petar Princip, 61, the family's last direct descendant in Bosnia. ![]() No longer are bridges, army barracks and elementary schools named after Gavrilo Princip. He died of tuberculosis after only four years of a 20-year sentence. Since Princip was 19 at the time of the assassination, he could not be hanged under Austrian law. ![]() "Here are the clothes Princip wore when he was arrested," said Gec, holding up a black wool suit with tarnished metal buttons. He slowly lifted one of the lids as the hinges shrieked in protest. Inside the shuttered museum, Bajro Gec escorted me down to the basement, where two large wooden trunks sat beneath barred windows. But where was Gec? "Try the Jewish Museum," I was advised. The bulk of the collection was saved, I was told, by a courageous curator named Bajro Gec. ![]() First on their list was the old Gavrilo Princip museum. But was it possible that the history of Gavrilo Princip and the event that sparked World War I was not lost or destroyed but merely hidden away? In the summer of 1992 when Serb snipers and artillery began pounding Sarajevo, citizens attacked symbols of the former Yugoslavia. Even finding the site of the assassination was difficult. By the end of 1918, more than a generation of Europe's best lay dead in the trenches.īut who was Gavrilo Princip? I soon realized that although he was a national hero prior to Yugoslavia's early 1990s disintegration into warring factions, he was now considered a criminal terrorist by Bosnia. The assassination was one of the defining events of the 20th century, touching off World War I. ![]() Sarajevo was the place where, on June 28, 1914, a 19-year-old Serb nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand. I also knew that these ethnic passions were nothing new in the Balkans. After excruciating negotiations, Bosnia and Herzegovina had been created out of part of what had been multiethnic Yugoslavia, with now mainly Muslim Sarajevo as its principal city. I had arrived in Bosnia knowing little about Sarajevo except that it had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and had withstood a devastating 1992-95 siege involving Bosnian Serb besiegers and Bosnian Muslim defenders. ![]()
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