Bosnia Road Ways Two on the Loose TRAVEL HUMANITIES PHOTOS

Bosnia Herzegovina: Suddenly Cyrillic. Cyril, Methodius, Kliment.

2011-11-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

The Cyrillic alphabet in use in the Herzegovina part of Bosnia Herzegovina poses special problems for figuring out road signs. The map may show there is a bypass around a particular town, but which of the signs points to it. End up following the sun.

Cyrillic: What is the origin of the alphabet, the word Cyrillic. The alphabet is used to write some 50 languages, including Russian, and many in Central Asia, Eastern Europe. The name honors Saint Cyril, a missionary of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity, from Byzantium; often associated with Saint Methodius, his brother, the two traveling together into the Slavic countries. But apparently the alphabet could have been developed not by Cyril, but by a Saint Kliment of Ohred. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm.

However, this Fidanoski site states that Kliment, or Clement, was a follower of Cyril and Methodius, see their biography at http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/02/14.html and that Cyril and Methodius originated the alphabet jointly, and conducted joint translations from the Latin into Old Slavonic. See http://www.fidanoski.ca/Macedonia/Ohrid/Plaoshnik.htm. See it in written form at the Omniglot site

All three lived in the 9th Century -- Clement, or Kliment of Ohred; first Macedonian Bishop. Founded Macedonian Orthodoxy; and Cyril (a/k/a Constantine, but not the same of course as the emperor) and Methodius. See Fidanoski site. Macedonia at the time was under Bulgarian influence. The first Christian ruler there was Boris (is that Boris Goudonov? See and hear at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ2QEPcgIBI&feature=relmfu. Intent -- record the Old Slavonic Language

1708 -- Peter the Great reforms the alphabet, removing four letters

Medjugorje region. War Posters. Support. Radko Mladic. Radovan Karadzic

2011-05-27T05:45:00.007-04:00

Update May 2011 with arrest of Ratko Mladic
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Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic

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BOSNIA WAR, POSTERS OF MLADIC
FOUND IN SUPPORT.

Background to post issues: Copyright protects fair use of thumbnails, in order to promote communication by identifying a topic or subject, but in such reduced form so that the original will still be sought. Our use of thumbnails to try to identify our poster of a war "criminal" should be acceptable use, but even thumbnails are being blocked. So, you are on your own, but unfairly. The blocking hurts the originator because who will bother to follow the link? Reconsider and allow the limited use, originators.

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Ratko Mladic. Is he the subject in these Bosnian posters?
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Bosnian Serb Former General Ratko Mladic has been arrested, after 15 years in hiding. Radovan Karadzic is already on trial at The Hague. In 2008, we uploaded our photos of posters in support of Balkan Wars military figures, subjets then unidentified. We believed them to be Ratko Mladic or Radovan Karadzic. Which is which? We offer three sections here:
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I. Resemblance. Fair use thumbnail photos of both Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. We see similar features. Imagine both with caps. The thumbnails of both in the same picture may be from the same event.
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II. Posters. These were on village walls, at the Bosnia-Croatia border, on the way to Medjugorje, back road town, in support; and further thumbnails lead to our identification
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III. Context. What were the Balkan Wars, what are the main accusations as to genocide.

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I. Suggesting Resemblance: Fair use thumbnails for identification

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Our Our fair use thumbnail from July 23, 2008, is being blocked from http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1457722.ece/.
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Resemblance:
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Here, too, our fair use thumbnail is being blocked from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-serbia-russia-ratko-mladic.
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Cables from WikiLeaks suggest assistance from Russia in Mladic's concealment. This photo also appears at http://patdollard.com/2008/07/man-accused-of-slaughtering-7500-muslims-hires-god-as-lawyer/:
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II. Posters: in support of military figures.

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With the number of photos of Ratko Mladic now available, we believe that the posters we saw are both of Ratko Mladic. Earlier we had been unsure, but tilted toward Mladic identification because of shapes of noses, chins. The men do bear a resemblance in photographs.
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Our Poster 1.
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Ratko Mladic. Identification tentative, Bosnia-Croatia border.
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We believe this to be Ratko Mladic because the subject looks like: there we go again, fair use even of a thumbnail is being blocked.
Find the big one at http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-fugitives.php

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Our Poster 2. Ratko Mladic.

Ratko Mladic. Identification understood, Bosnia-Croatia border. Wording: "dom spremni i za domovinu cuvat cemo antu gotovinu"

This is a badly reworked photoshopped poster, as that saluting hand could not possibly go with that head.

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Our identification for this second poster is influenced particularly by this photograph, again blocked here although it is a fair use thumbnail from http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/mladic_ratko_cp_2494414.jpg. Chin, nose, eyes.
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For a gallery of fine photographs, 24 photos, see Ratko Mladic in Pictures, Guardian, UK at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/may/26/ratko-mladic-in-pictures?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

If you want to add my photos, will you pay me enough to finance my retirement? This blocking of thumbnails is destructive to the common good. Still, contact me if you want to use mine. My retirement will not be expensive.
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III. Context .

Genocides. Travel in the Balkans carries with it reminders of wars. We found numerous posters in support of alleged war criminals then in hiding. We travel back roads often, and found these on our way to Medugorje from Croatia. Whether they were on the Croatian side, which is also largely Serb, or the Bosnian side, also having had a large Serb population. Mladic is a Bosnian Serb.
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Local populations: From a few conversations at a pub or store, no generalizations are feasible. We did find, however, an overall positive view of both men, in areas of Serbs.
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Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested some time ago, and is on trial at The Hague, see http://www.rferl.org/content/Karadzic_Trial_Resumes_First_Witness_To_Be_Called/2010869.html; and Ratko Mladic has just been arrested.
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The crimes alleged, for example, include: Srebenica, where unarmed Bosnian Muslim men were lined up and shot, with only a few of 5,000 surviving, and additional horrors, read the New York Times International Report July 25, 2008 at A6. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jun/10/hague-bosnian-serb-srebrenica-genocide1

The most well known/ notorious of the mass murders relates to that town of Srebenica, Bosnia, in 1995. With tensions and travel warnings. and simple issues of road conditions, and on our own, we did not go there. If you look at a map, Srebenica is far east, nearly on the Serbian border. We stayed closer to the Adriatic coast, and west.

Accusations also focus on killings at Sarajevo. That also is in central Bosnia, and off-limits on our insurance as we recall. Also, no Kosovo.

Population view: Discussions in pubs where we tended to eat each evening (good food, less expensive) led us to believe that this sentiment was broadly approved: that many people believed "war criminals" from that time should not be prosecuted. The majority believed, those who were speaking English that we heard, that war is war, and the men were acting in the best interests of their side at the time, doing no worse than others in their position in other wars and even these wars. Just reporting.

We repeat the letters in an effort to get an online translation:

"dom spremni i za domovinu cuvat cemo antu gotovinu"

We see no Bosnian or Croatian to English in the online translation sites.

Mostar, En Route. The Bogomils: Roads run through them; Graveyards

2009-01-10T11:30:00.002-05:00

Sinj, Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia

Forcing Christian Doctrine "Unity" by death to dissenters

Crusades, Persecutions of "heretics"

Here: Gnostic Bogomils

Take back roads. Here, from Sinj, Croatia; to Mostar. Find roads plowing through history.

Bogomil graveyard, Bosnia
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Bosnia and the Bogomils. The Bogomils were a group of Christians persecuted by Rome as heretic, and finally destroyed, says Rome. Others say they persisted until the 20th Century, mid 19th perhaps.
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Their graveyards are often bisected by the highway. Essential beliefs: Gnostic, non-hierarachical, non-authoritative, egalitarian. This is similar, we think, to the Cathars in France who also were obliterated, and by crusades. See Bogomilia, A Site for the Unsung.
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How did it happen?
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The demise of the Bogomils took place only after crusades in Bosnia, against gnostics in Bosnia, called "heretic", heresy claims in Bosnia in order to entrench one Christian sect over another.

hundreds of years of persecution by the mainstream Christian sects,
Roman Catholic and three Eastern Orthodox crusades (1240 AD, 1246 AD and 1345-46 AD) out of Hungary, and
the Turkish (Islamic) Ottoman Empire expansion.

Gnosticism was strong, based on texts as was the Roman Church, but their interpretation did not gibe with the views of Rome. See a history of warfare including the persecutions in Bosnia, at http://zum.de/whkmla/military/balkans/milxbosnia/htm.
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The headstones show fine carvings of everyday life, and crosses. I understand there have been no significant excavations of the areas.
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Looking at those centuries, how might Western Christianity have been different if beliefs of the less centralized, less militaristic, less legalistic sects than the Roman version had been allowed to thrive. Think of the heritage of the Cathars in France, and Bogomils in the Balkans. The strength of ideas - theirs did not die easily. Everyman's overview for this complex topic: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogomils/htm. See more background at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9892/bogomils/htm; and http://www.serbianna.com/features/entry_of_slavs/bosnia.htm
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Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West in 1931, is a foundation for understanding the Balkans, see review in 2006 (this is an update) by Geoff Dyer at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/aug/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview2.

History. Bogomils: Gnostic roots, identifying old church

2009-01-07T16:44:00.002-05:00

Bogomils. Gnostics.
The Balkans as Religious Crossroads
Gnostics in historical Christianity

Bogomil church, Roadside medieval church, Bosnia

The Bogomils were a Christian sect whose beliefs ran afoul of the Roman Catholic Church. They were declared heretics, and crusades commenced against them. Any branded Gnostic appear to have met a similar fate, if not crusades killing them, then rejection and destruction of their texts, is that so?

This stretch of road from Sinj in Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia, runs through Bogomil (historical Christian) graveyards, with heavy headstones, and there are old buildings like this old church. See "The Burden of the Balkans," by M. Edith Durham, 1905. See http://www.peacelink.nu/Boker/Durham/Durham.

We understand that this abandoned church, derelict but remarkably strong construction, was Bogomil.

Durham observes that, despite their persecution, some Bogomil practices were followed in the area until some 50-60 years before her book. That would mean a community with roots to the original Bogomils, through the mid-19th Century. This is now a Google book also. Detailed history, including Montenegro. Start with its Preface at Google book, Burden of the Balkans. The area has been split between Turks and their descendants, Muslim; and the Macedonians, Christian Serb and others, for centuries. Find the Illustrations list, and scroll to them.

Bogomils. Is this abandoned church near the graveyard really Bogomil? We have tried to find corroboration other than the people we spoke to there. Read Bogomil history at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9892/bhhisto. See more about gnosticism at http://www.philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/christ/early/gnost; and at http://www.halexandria.org/dward269.; more on Gnostics, at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.

Churches often doubled as places of refuge, built without vulnerable windows, to serve as defense as well, or very few windows. And there is just an arrow-slit going up the belfry. Persecution of heretics. Substitute any disfavored minority, and see the practice continue.

Bogomils in Bosnia. Are all of them gone now?
More blogs about Bosnia Road Ways.

History. Effects of Bogomil persecution - include conversion to Muslim faith

2009-01-06T17:25:00.002-05:00

Bogomil gravestone, Bosnia

Balkan wars. Ethnic cleansing. Familiar. Deep roots. Origins.

Driving from Sinj, Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia, we passed and went right through groups and groups of headstones. There are people there on this headstone, and a cross.

What happens when one group tries to stamp out another - the persecuted may turn to others for deliverance. Here, many Bogomils turned to the Turks. See M. Edith Durham in "The Burden of the Balkans," at http://www.peacelink.nu/Boker/Durham/Durham.

Bogomil beliefs: Also influenced other groups then deemed to be heretical - the Cathars and Albigenses. See http://www.bulgariaembindia.com/history.

Search for Bogomil in those larger sites.

More on unintended effects: Rebecca West, in her classic account of Yugoslavia in "Black Lamb and Gray Falcon," Viking Press 1941, at pages 300-302, writes in the Bosnia chapter that it was this Christian intolerance that forced the Bogomils into the camp of the Turks. This in turn paved the way for the Turks to succeed in their own invasion and occupy much of eastern Europe for 500 years.

The book is still in print - at 1000 pages - and here is an overview of it:
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0003/articles/west">www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0003/articles/west. See the index itself in the Black Lamb book itself. The book is also an e-book. See http://prp.contentdirections.com/mr/gale_edoc_biblio.jsp/doi=10.1223/GALFSNCFS000049

The Bogomil name. University of Wisconsin site listed at the end here notes that the name "Bogomil" comes from a monk of that name, meaning roughly "Pleasing to God." See "The Disastrous 14th Century" at http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/WestTech/x14thc. Scroll down to the section on "Militant Islamic Advances." See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03435a. Bogomils, and other heresies.

Mostar - the Turkish Quarter; Mosques

2008-12-31T20:57:00.001-05:00

The city of Mostar dates from the 15th century. See this extensive history, http://www.kakarigi.net/manu/briefhis.htm/. The town and its people -mainly from Orthodox Christian and Turkish Moslem, but also Roman Catholic Christian backgrounds (see posts on the old Bogomil heritage) - coexisted peacefully, in trade and community life, for centuries.

Mostar, Bosnia. Turkish quarter, market

Now, it is still being rebuilt after the civil war 1992-1995, See http://www.crimesofwar.org/thebook/bosnia.html/; and continues to address problems stemming from atrocities, years after the wars. See the history of Mostar at http://www.unesco.org/culture/heritage/tangible/bosnia/html_eng/monument. More detail about the conflicts and destruction of much of the city is at http://www.kakarigi.net/homeland/mostar/what_hap.

Mosque, Mostar, Bosnia

Mostar's Turkish presence is on both sides of the old river. Mosques, homes and shops. The old town area extends on both sides of the bridge. The old bridge area is a World Heritage site. See http://www/whc.unesco.org/en/list/946.

Parking is difficult because of the winding, narrow streets in the old sections. There are also reminders of the unease: police patrols, people being questioned and then going back in their shops, and UN vans with armed personnel inside, rifles partially out windows.

A comprehensive site is http://vlib.iue.it/history/europe/Bosnia/index.html

Mostar: Wars; Mostar, Old Bridge (reconstructed), a resuming life

2008-12-30T09:46:00.003-05:00

Mostar Bridge

Bridge, Mostar, Bosnia, after reconstruction
Mostar is known for its bridge over the River Neretva. See the history of Mostar at http://www.kakarigi.net/homeland/mostar. The bridge as shown here looks new, and is, but it is a reconstruction of the old medieval bridge that stood here for centuries. It symbolized unity among the different cultures residing there. It was bombarded by Croat tanks and fell in 1993, during the Balkan wars. It had stood for 429 years, constructed in 1566 by Ottomans, or orders of the Sultan to the Turkish engineer Mimar Hayruddin -- on pain of death if it fell, see http://www.technologystudent.com/struct1/arch2.htm. Seven other bridges across that vast span also fell. See Financial Times, Profile Mostar, More than Just Building Bridges, Tues. Nov.11, 2003 at 27.
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The stone used here is from the same quarry, or dredged up from the river after the war, and it was built with the same techniques as the old bridge.
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Fellows still hover around to dive off to impress the girls, as they have also for centuries. See the technologystudent site above. But now there are police discouraging the show, and a fence.
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Bosnia, and Croatia. Bombings and bullet holes still look fresh.
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In 1991, Mostar's population showed as 34% Bosnian Muslim, 33% Bosnian Croatian, and 17% Bosnian Serbian, and then others. By 2004, Croatians formed the majority. After the destruction of the bridge, divisions between the ethnic population groups increased, with duplicate hospitals, schools, public transportation, even waste disposal, see NYT Mon. March 15, 2004, at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/world/mostar-journal-an-effort-to-unify-a-bosnian-city-multiplies-frictions.html?scp=1&sq=An+Effort+to+Unify+a+Bosnian+City&st=nyt
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The bridge area displays its English reminder of the wars, reflecting keeping its message alive to foreigners, especially Lord Ashdown, former British politician and chief international official as overseer of Bosnian affairs and the UN; and the EU which Bosnia would like at some point to join. "Don't Forget." And a plaque memorial-history. Ashdown issued decrees to end the divides and rivalries, created a single municipal assembly, and redistricted so neither community could dominate the other. But can they become "Bosnian" rather than their ethnic identity.

The Old Bridge and the area surrounding is a UNESCO World Heritage site. See http://www.thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-bosnia/ and its history at http://www.nato.int/sfor/engineers/mostarbridge/introduction/introduc.htm.

Where to start for a minimal understanding of the impact of wars, religious crusades, political-cultural slaughters and periods of peace, and migrations of vastly disparate groups in the region.

Try this history of warfare site, at http://www.balkandevelopment.org/edu_bos.html The site covers other regions in the area as well.

The town dates from before the bridge, before the early 15th Century, and has long been a crossroads of culture as well as conflict, see http://www.rastko.rs/istorija/sanu/Conflict/Conflict15.htm

Mostar - Topography; Jews in Bosnia

2008-12-15T12:29:00.001-05:00

Mostar, Bosnia, mountain landscape

Ancient Mostar now stands in a bleak topography, forests long gone. See one Bosnian perspective from 1994 at http://www.bosnia.org.uk/about/bi_books/long_reviews.cfm?book=35.

There are ongoing issues of war criminality - trials of Balkan leaders still ongoing. Radovan Karadzic has just undergone his first day of trial in The Hague, this by way of update as we review posts in 2011; Ratko Mladic has just been arrested.

See http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_n18_v95/ai_17994603.

There are active signs of ongoing conflict. When we were there, there were vans of UN peacekeepers patrolling with long guns out the window; and shopkeepers being brought out for what looked like routine checks - people passing by paid no attention.

There has begun a rebuilding of the Jewish population in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Mostar. See this site for central and eastern European Jewish history: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/bosnia.

I cannot find specific reference to Bosnian Jews at the Croatian concentration camp, Jasenovac. It could be that mainly Orthodox and other groups were housed and killed there, not primarily Jews. Memorabilia on Jasenovac are housed now at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. See Jasenovac at Jasenovac post, Croatia Road Ways.

Medjugorje - Pilgrimage Site Now Discredited

2008-12-10T09:53:00.001-05:00

Medjugorje, Discredited Pilgrimage Site
The church does not endorse this area as bona-fide.

Medjugorje, Bosnia. Apparition site, alleged, Field marker.

1. Overview.

Medjugorje offers three main areas for pilgrims: the hillside, where plaques mark the sites of visions of Mary; gathering places in the town, specially built large church and meeting areas and lodgings; and the working town itself.

The enterprise is huge. There are buses and buses, much construction of hotels and rooming places, lots of families and languages, the curious, and groups, multi-country people-watching, teen-cruising, large church facilities accommodating huge numbers of people.

2. Travel.

To get there from Sinj, Croatia, drive following the well-marked route to Mostar, Bosnia; then to Medjugorje also in Bosnia. There were travel warnings elsewhere, and mountain roads, so stay with the well-traveled sites. The main issue was not violence against tourists, but car-jackings.

3. Discreditation.

Medjugorje (also known as Medjugoria) has been a prominent Roman Catholic pilgrimage site. Apparitions of Mary as claimed in the 1980's received great attention and the tourist and pilgrimage business grew.

However, in July 2006, the Catholic Bishop there asked that Medjugorje stop making claims about Mary visiting, despite the 25 years that had gone by without concern. See http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603838. It had been young people who had reported seeing apparitions of Mary in the 1980's, so the place appeals to families. See religious perspective at http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/weeping226.

This is one of the claimed apparition sites, at the beginning of a long and steep, rocky pathway linking many sites going up the mountainside. Very slippery in the rain. A long walk away from the town. Fleets of taxis take people back and forth. There is a website from before the discrediting that focused on the apparitions. See http://www.medjugorje.org/index.html?src=overture.

Medjugorja, Bosnia, pilgrims, tour worship service

4. Why this degree of success

A worthwhile topic is how those things evolve - what need is being met, what governs perception. How we interpret phenomena.

Medjugorje, Bosnia, Crucifix at pilgrim gathering site

There are circular meeting areas, with graduated seating out doors. The programs are tightly run, with exact times for testimonials, touching things claimed holy, taking pictures.

Is that a vapor trail, or a sign?

Capilyn: Capljina, Near Croatian Border. Statue - Johannes Episcopus or King Tomislav, We Presume

2008-12-06T12:03:00.003-05:00

History: Medieval Balkans

Capljina, Capilyn

Find mystery statues as a side-benefit of back roads. Ask, photograph, researc later. This stolid fellow required a car-stop, and we recorded the inscription as best we could.

King Tomislav, Capilyn, Bosnia. Capljina. King crowned 925 AD.

Capilyn, or Capljina, is a small town, on the winding road returning from Medjugorje. We stopped for a walk and postcards.
Spellings of towns and any names vary; some originated in the Cyrillic alphabet, so phonetics are further complicated in translation
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King Tomislav is a pivotal and larger-than-life figure in the history of the region.
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The inscription here says something like,
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"Joannes Episcopus
servus servorum
dei delicto
filio tomissio
regi Croratorum."
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Read the history at Croatian History, Kings of Croatian Blood at http://www.korcula.net/history/mmarelic/crohistory.htm/ He was a ruler of a large area that appears to combine, as Croatian, most all of Bosnia. He was crowned here (ruling began in 910, kingship began in 925).See Croatia Road Ways, King Tomislav. Suddenly, he disappeared. Foul play?

Recall that boundaries were fluid, and influence over groups was also affected by disputes between the Roman Christians, and the Orthodox Christians, and the local clergy who fostered use of the Slavic language in services, until stopped by Rome (see Bishop Gregory of Nin, Croatia also at that Croatia King Tomislav site)

Gregory brought his own downfall by refusing to use Latin; Tomislav helped engineer his downfall by promoting the Roman interests in a Latin-only liturgy.It was an era of politics and skulduggery, as well as faith.

This looks like the painting of King Tomislav at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomislav.

The "filio tomissio" could refer to Tomislav, see http://www.hercegbosna.org/engleski/early. Tomislav is listed in our old Baedeker's Yugoslavia (Jarrold&Sons, Ltd., Norwich, New Britain 1987-89 at page 21).

Impact: In summary: Year 925, "Tomislav assumes the style of king, after incorporating Pannonian Croatia in his principality during the struggle against the Hungarians."

Perhaps the "servant of the servants of God" reference is to Bishop John, as there is also use of that phrase about servants meaning a Pope, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_%28full%29 and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13737a.htm
If so, that could be the Byzantine Pope John 640-642 AD who sent missionaries and founded a new and huge archdiocese including Bosnia and most of Croatia. More on Pope John at http://www.studiacroatica.com/libros/bosnia/bh60200.

Pannonian Croats.

Tomislav incorporating the Pannonian Croats must mean Croats from from the old Roman province of Pannonia, that looks like the Zagreb-Osijek area bordering on Hungary? See http://www.experts.about.com/e/p/pa/Pannonia. There is a map there. If so, that was a huge accomplishment. A great expansion of territory.

Another King Thomas

There was another King Thomas, 15th Century King Thomas in Bosnia, who converted to Christianity and opposed people like the Bogomils, "heretics," see other posts here about them, and failed to subdue them. See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03435a. See the heretics and King section.

The dates don't match for John and the son of Thomas. Still working on it. Spellings are always hard to track precisely between languages and alphabets.

Srebenica - Travel Warnings For Us. War Crimes Reminder Now.

2008-08-08T18:21:00.007-04:00

Wars, Refugees, Emigrants

Salute to new starts

Bosnian immigrant, Frieda

First, meet Frieda, from Bosnia, a cashier at our splendidly efficient, and increasingly "green", supermarket. This is the American Family-Owned Big Y (excellent supermarket chain in the northeast), that also employs our son Daniel as a bagger, Dan of our famous Car-Dan Tour Company.

Frieda's ties to Bosnia remain close. She returns every few years when she can, and we keep in close touch with how her family is doing. We did not visit her family, because of travel warnings when we were there. See FN 1

Radovan Karadzik. New York Times, 7/25/2008 at A6. This leader of Bosnian Serbs has been captured in connection with the massacre at Srebenica, Bosnia - the "worst massacre since World War II."

By way of update (2011) his trial has just begun at The Hague.

The headline: "Serb Leader's Capture Brings Little Solace at Site of Killings in Bosnia." Read also the Opinion page at NYT July 27, 2008: "Genocide's Epic Hero." The subheading reads, "How One Man's Poetial Delusions Made Bosnia Suffer." Because these things have not happened to mainstream us, we may disregard it around the world. That is a deadly mistake.

Travel warnings.

Any trip to the Balkans: travel choices to be weighed with options if something goes wrong.

We, as a tour group of mother and son on the loose, chose a tried-and-true-route in Bosnia, to Mostar, essentially, and Medjugorje out of curiosity for hearing of it, not commitment to its premise of miracles. There were travel warnings of car-jackings, bad roads, who would know where we were. So we stayed, responsibly we believe, in an overall safe area. We did not stay on the main roads, however, because those get dull, but we stayed in an overall "safe" area, near the coast.

We still heard talk of war crimes, accusations against alleged war criminals. We knew of Srebenica. But look at a map. It is northeast from Montenegro, as we drove down the coast, near the Serbian border.

In Croatia, where the discussion continued, the general view among Serbs and Croats, Orthodox or Roman, was this: war is war and people who pull the stops to get their objectives accomplished, in the context of war, are different from others in different positions. That was the view.

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FN 1 Immigration. Frieda is a poster person for hard work, no self-pity. And, at your supermarket, engage the cashier in a conversation. Say welcome, or good job. Frieda is not from Srebenica, but from a town more toward the north, near the Croatian border there.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: History, Divisions

2008-02-18T01:18:00.011-05:00

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Herzegovina had been a Turkish province. The history of this Balkan area is closely tied with the 15th-16th Century Ottoman invasions, and which areas were overcome and the populations converted, becoming Muslim. The form of Muslim religion was moderate and flexible, as were the Orthodox Christians (Eastern Orthodox) of Bosnia and Croatia areas. In our time, that has changed.

Herzegovina was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1878 through the First World War at 1914. See http://dictionary.infoplease.com/herzegovina. As an Austrian duchy, "Herzeg" means "Duke" in Serbian. The -ov and -ina mean "country," http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Herzegovina

We shorten it to Bosnia because our trip focused not on the Cyrillic alphabet area of Herzegovina, and we passed through it only on the way back from Montenegro. The Cyrillic alphabet is daunting, and there are no double language indications. Follow the sun, don't try to read the signs. The area of Herzegovina, as the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina, has a long history of wide swings in rulers, differing ethnic origins.

It has been the target for the aggressive nationalism of other countries - Serbia most recently - and religious conflict: Christian , sometimes Roman Catholic against Eastern Orthodox; sometimes Christian more broadly vs. Bosniak Muslim, also very broadly.

Here is an excellent photo gallery - most that we did not see because there were travel warnings in spring 2006. Mostly for the danger of unexploded ordnance, so stay on main roads; and carjackings, not personal attacks, but not worth any risk. Visit this site anyway: http://www.pbase.com/bauer/bosnia.

The Bauer site. With the wars, we tend to forget the beauty. If your school history did not dwell upon Balkan events, see this site for a plausible outline: http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_bosnia.html. Its title is "Peace Pledge Union Information - Genocide".

This outline clarifies the area's regional issues, and also some similar issues involved in current news.

Kosovo and Bosnian events. Current news may well affect Bosnia, especially the new independence of its neighbor, Kosovo, a province of Serbia with a Muslim majority. See discussion at World Wars 1&2, Other Battles. An overview of the role of cultural memory in shaping current events, and its importance, is at Europe Road Ways Themes, Cultural Memory, Kosovo I, Cultural Narrative; and at Europe Road Ways Themes, Cultural Memory, Kosovo II, Battle of Kosovo, Current History. Efforts of an outsider to understand.

The Peace Pledge site is detailed, but we worked out this overall basic chronology from it. As we find other sites, we will include them. These are from Peace Pledge. Bosnia history:

1400's-1878 - Part of Ottoman Empire, Muslim, Turkish origin

1878-end of World War I - Part of Austro-Hungarian Empire

End of World War I-1992 - Part of Yugoslavia, that nation ruled by Tito until Tito's death in 1980, and until 1980 comprised of Croatia, Serbia and its province of Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia. The government was located in Belgrade, Serbia.

Here are the groups that call Bosnia their historical homeland, says the site, as of 1980 - 1.3 million Bosnian Serbs who are also Orthodox Christian, 700,000 Roman Catholic Christians, 1 million "Bosniaks" who are Sunni Muslim. The Bosniak capital is Sarajevo.

In 1987, Serbia's nationalism reemerged with its leader, Slobodan Milosovic, and Milosovic became also effective leader of Yugoslovia at that time as well (?). He encouraged Serb nationalism in Serbia and any region where they were in substantial numbers.

In 1990, elections were won by nationalists in Slovenia and Croatia, and Slovenia.

1991 - independence declared by Slovenia (peaceful); Croatia (fighting for about a year - Serbia wanted to retain Serb communities in Croatia) and Macedonia (not sure). Those countries were recognized internationally.

1993 - Serbians set up Republika Srpska (the town of Srebenica is there) in the east in Bosnia, under Radovan Karadzic (update: his trial for war crimes is now, in 2011, underway in The Hage). The Bosnian Serb army, under Ratko Mladic (just arrested in 2011), controlled about 3/4 of the country. Bosnian Croats had been pushed out mostly. Some had remained until 1994, trying to hold on to Croatian ethnic areas in Bosnia.

Then followed unsuccessful UN mediations, setting up "safe" areas for Muslims, against Serb attacks, ethnic cleansing used as the term for killing or pushing out Muslims, instead of "genocide" that would have required other interventions, and please go now to the entire site for details. Mass killings, deportations, mass graves. Srebenica virtually emptied? Some 20,000 missing, says the site, DNA helping identify from the mass graves.

1995 - Peace talks at Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton Accords. Then NATO forces of differing kinds went in. Serbs populate Srebenica themselves, in homes that had been Muslim. And many were Serbs that had been pushed out of other areas by Muslims and Croats, for example, from Sarajevo, and the site says many had no other place to go - but the Serb activities in Bosnia caused huge population shifts, an "internal displacement" instability that the people have not recovered from yet.

1996 - Elections. A 3-person presidency established.

Go to the site for the account of the trial of Milosevic for war crimes, at The Hague. The UN acknowledged, says the site, its ineffective response - read the statements, etc.

Watch to see if the Kosovo independence issues ripen and affect other countries, particularly concern for the new Serbian minority in Kosovo in light of overall Serbian persecution in the recent past as to Albanian Muslims in places where Serbians were or had sought to be the majority. See issues related to the reliability and completeness of the news we get, at Hello, Fodder: News Disinformation. Dig for more than the spin you may find. Is policy being sold to you, or are you getting facts. Just check.

The Ottoman Empire and Bosnia

2008-01-23T16:38:00.006-05:00

Mostar, Bosnia, Bridge from Turkish Quarter

Background. Think back on the shaping of Western culture, largely by its avoidance of Islam.

And that was only a matter of chance location.

Those in the path of the Ottomans, or the original followers of Mohammed, were shaped by a different culture. Absorbed it.

Venice: Feared the Ottomans, hired others in the Balkans to fend them off, they did so, and were shunted aside. Others in Europe let the Balkans cope with invasions by the Turks, while continuing its profitable trade routes, own territorial expansions, perhaps paying tribute only. This is not a value judgment on competing cultures. It is a request to consider the consequence of this burden of constant warfare on the Balkans, based on its location, in the path of the expanding Ottoman Empire. See http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h13zt.htm.

The centuries of fighting and then rule by Ottomans, affected a large area of the old Yugoslavia in particular. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro (then part of Serbia), Serbia, majority Eastern Orthodox; then Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia becoming home to many Muslim settlers, ethnic Albanians, following the victories of the Ottomans. These were not forced conversions - at the time there was not religious hatreds between the groups, more cultural antipathies of victor and vanquished.

Croatia and Slovenia were not part of the Ottoman Empire, and developed in different ways - Roman Catholic, not Orthodox Christian or Muslim largely. So the antipathy there became Roman Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox, as I understand it.

Cultural Narratives. Any culture defines itself by narrative - what do the people believe about themselves, how they evolved. What work is left undone for next generations. See Europe Road Ways Themes: Kosovo I; Europe Road Ways Themes: Kosovo II. Here, the Turkish quarter in Mostar, and the old Mostar Bridge.

The topic narrows to this: How do all of us shape our responses to other populations, through the narratives we absorb. Who promotes what narrative, and who gains. Do some researching yourself. How does Kosovo impact on Bosnia, next door.

1. Kosovo's Cultural Narrative. Battle of Kosovo, Serbia. Kosovo has been (is) a province of Serbia, and at its core. In 1389, one particular battle at Kosovo, Serb against Turk, Christian against Muslim, resulted in Muslim victory, resounding Orthodox Christian defeat.

There emerged an epic interpretation of Christian loss, that ignited a nationalistic and religious fervor against the Turk that underlies much conflict in that area today. Kosovo.* Update 2/17/08 -Kosovo declaring independence. See discussion at World Wars I and 2 and Other Battles, Kosovo. Read how events at that time are interpreted in religious terms, parallels to martyrdom, and even Christ's death, and who came later in the form of a Mary, if you want to understand. Look up the "Maid of Kosovo." Search for the Kosovo Epic Poems, that took the place of "fact" in the population's consciousness, where there were few fact documented. Ripe for legend.

2. The Muslim view. To that deeply emotional view by the Christians, and to understand the depth of the issues, read now about the Muslim perspective, and their account of how they were treated under the Christians. See http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/islamintheworld/id23.htm. At the time, this battle was not considered pivotal - the Ottomans would have won the area anyway - this was a mere ripple.

3. The Muslim advance continued after Kosovo. By 1492, the year that the Muslims were expelled from Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to the Muslims. See "A Survey of the Indigenous Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina," by Saffet Abid, at http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/islamintheworld/id23.htm. But that site also says that the Bogomils, see posts here about this historical Christian sect that was so persecuted by the Roman Church as heretic, gradually converted to Islam - no reference to that in earlier sites, that simply say they ceased to be.

Compare this to Western treatment of conquered people: The transition under the Muslims was peaceful in that conversions were not forced - populations were not slaughtered, see posts on "dhimmi" status at Europe Road Ways, Themes: Kosovo I and II.

5. How Later Genocides Emerge. With the Ottomans expelled by mid-19th Century, the ethnic Albanian Muslims remained. Memories of past Orthodox Christian Martyrdom persisted, followed by perceived wrongs suffered by Serbians in losing their lands; and those who are left (the ethnic Albanians) not being the "victors" but only the followers, leads to instability, views of deep unfairness. If the Ottomans are out, then the Serbians should have back their lands, went the thinking. So, genocide, ethnic cleansing, complete the process of returning Serbia's lands to Serbians.

Bosnia: Integral to the issue. Many ethnic Albanians settled there as well, as did Serbians. Bosnia itself had once been "Serbian" land - look up maps at the time just prior to WWI. Large areas look within Serbia's purview. So Serbian nationalism spread into Bosnia.

No answers here, but an interest in the merciful instead of the retaliatory, and concerned that our narratives bar looking at actuality. What enables stability among people. What does not. Who learned that first.

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*Apparently, the facts of the actual battle on the Field of Kosovo in 1389 are foggy, few contemporaneous records. But we have an epic cycle of poetry about it, the martyrdoms of the Serbian Christians under Prince Lazar, the assassination of Sultan Murad I in his tent the night before battle, by a Serb, the Maid of Kosovo tending to the wounded. That is what is "remembered" - the filled-in later interpretation, cropping, the spin, the legend, and it shapes people more than actual history.

Zlata Filipovic - a child's war diary 1991, Bosnia (Sarajevo)

2007-02-13T13:42:00.002-05:00

Zlata Filipovic was 11 when her world began to fall apart. She wrote a journal from Sarajevo, as had Anne Frank about Amsterdam during WWII (see Netherlands Road Ways). More on Zlata at mv.com/Writers-Corner/EVENTS/zlata. She had moved from Bosnia, and was in Paris by 1995. This is a chat session, with schoolchildren. You can also look her up in Wikipedia, search for her name there. Her family survived.

Teen diaries - more are surfacing, especially with video clips and YouTube.

Lebanon. An article in the New York Times, by Tom Zeller, Jr., on July 24, 2006, lists others especially in Lebanon. These include a girl who videotaped her escape down the stairs to a shelter during bombing. Her name is Galya Daube.

Beirut. Then there is Finkployd at BloggingBeirut.com. How else to even try to empathize with the war experience of these young people, in order to help us make our decisions here. What to oppose, and why, or support regardless. Personal moral decisions all. We are our government.

Israel. Also see Yuval Kantor, older at 23, but with a 12 year old brother, Eyal, online about Haifa, then under siege by Hezhollah, says the article. See (hear) the fake explosion at snipurl.com/Kantor.

Balkan Food, Seasonings. "Fant," "Vegeta," and recipes

2006-12-02T11:41:00.004-05:00

Try seasonings often used in Balkan cooking. Example: Vegeta, and Fant. These are common seasonings. Check ajvar, a red pepper puree, now in nice glass jars. See them (we get no kickbacks but use a local Balkan specialty shop) at http://www.balkanbuy.com/shop/index.php?action=category&id=bestsellers

Fant: This comes in envelopes. So does Vegeta. Use your envelopes of Fant, and the foil bags of Vegeta, for cevapcici -- the Croatian word for the ground meat dish, like a ground beef or mix, seasoned and packed like a sausage, or put on a spit, and the rest.

Look in your local large supermarket, in the international section. There is msg in the Vegeta, so read the labels.

Look up recipes at http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/index.php?search=bosnia+herzegovina&fulltext=0.

Ajvar - a pureed roasted red pepper dish, long cooked. Relish. On every plate. Excellent. See its preparation on a video, see Croatia Road Ways.

Links, posts, archives

2006-12-01T16:53:00.003-05:00

Site references are now by direct link. There appears to be no copyright issue any longer. If anyone objects, notify us and we will delete the direct link.

Posts are in the order of arrival to departure - not necessarily in the order of actual posting. So do read the archives - they complete the journey. Then we update as events suggest.

Technorati Profile

Itinerary After The Fact

2006-12-01T11:26:00.002-05:00

Because of travel warnings, we limited ourselves to the small corner from Split, Croatia; north and east past the old Bogomil burial sites (an early Christian branch, later decimated by those who had other beliefs) to Mostar, where the fine old bridge that was bombed during the 1990's war, is now rebuilt and using the same kind of stone and techiques as in the middle ages; then south to Medjugorje, a pilgrimage site where we were curious and did spend the night - it has since been discredited by the Roman Catholic Church; then southeast to Capilyn, and then Dubrovnik, Croatia.