The Persistence of National Victimhood: Bosniak Post-War Memory Politics of the Srebrenica Mass Killings
The Persistence of National Victimhood: Bosniak Post-War Memory Politics of the Srebrenica Mass Killings

Summary/Abstract: This article reveals the origins of the radicalisation of memory politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the year 2010. It shows that the radicalisation in the public sphere of Bosnia and Herzegovina was eventually possible due to the long-term persistence of the nationalist commemorative strategy, rooted in the dialectic mechanism of consolidating and antagonising relevant reference groups, and responsible for structuring the national memories of the last war according to an exclusivist martyrological model. Based on the example of Bosniak post-war memory politics regarding the Srebrenica mass killings, the study describes a more universal political mechanism, one characteristic also of the post-war Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat nationalist factions.

• Details
• Contents