NIKČEVIĆ: MONUMENT TO THE OCCUPIER FERDINAND - A SIGN OF IDENTITY CONFUSION

SARAJEVO, February 26 /SRNA/ - Historian Milan Nikčević assessed that the initiative to reinstall a monument to Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo is an indication of "identity confusion" among those advocating the concept of a unitary BiH.

"If it is true, and it appears to be, that in Sarajevo they are once again erecting a monument to an occupier, and at the initiative of those who allegedly stand for the 'state of BiH,' we can only conclude that the so-called 'state-builders,' in their identity wandering, have finally 'hit the mark' in deciding whom to erect a monument to, because the person they are honoring and the policy he belonged to are in fact the ideological creators of the quasi-nation and quasi-state that they are now imposing on everyone," Nikčević told SRNA.

Nikčević added that "it is fair to say that, since in the local milieu they did not properly embrace King of the Serbs and Bosnia Tvrtko, nor Gavrilo Princip, they should try with the one whom the freedom fighters of 'Young Bosnia' disliked and killed."

He recalled that the monument to Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was removed after the First World War and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1919.

"The occupation passed, but the mentality in Sarajevo's fog seems it never will," Nikčević emphasized.

He believes the idea should be supported, "because everyone should preserve their own heritage, and this also shows whose ancestors were on the winning side and whose were on the losing side."

The Sarajevo City Council today adopted an initiative to restore the monument to Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie near the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo.

The initiative was proposed by the caucus of the Party for BiH.

The monument to Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie was removed from the Latin Bridge site and destroyed after the end of the First World War and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.