The Balkan Perspectives Podcast forumZFD Western Balkan Program

In this episode, we spoke with H.E David Geer, EU Ambassador to North Macedonia. We spoke about dealing with the past and reconciliation process in the country, as well as education and the needed social condition to improve and progress. 

The anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo, April 5th, awakens memories among all generations of Sarajevo citizens. April is an opportunity for reflection, remembrance, and thinking about the values upon which human rights rest. The Memory Module is a cultural project that began in 1996, aimed at preserving the memory of Bosnia and Herzegovina's painful past through the prism of artistic expression.

In the 99th episode of the Liceulice FM show, which was realized in cooperation with forumZFD, we will talk with Dragan Popović, a historian, about how we remember the nineties today and what the important, neuralgic points of that decade mean to us today, which to a good extent still it shapes our political, social and every other reality.

The current edition of the Balkan Perspectives podcast by forumZFD in Kosovo delves into memorialization policies, homogeneous perspectives of the war, and dealing with the past in Kosovo. In this episode, journalist Serbeze Haxhiaj discusses these topics with Alban Bokshi, a political scientist, civil society activist, and researcher focusing on narratives of dealing with the past. Bokshi elaborates on the political landscape of memorialization and commemoration in Kosovo, shaped significantly by the war and the idealization of heroism as the ultimate truth. He dives into the contentious debate surrounding a "regime of truth" that dictates which narratives are accepted or suppressed stories that are celebrated and remembered versus those that are silenced or forgotten.
Bokshi's contribution enriches the discussion on the dominant narrative that has long prioritized a singular heroic perspective, highlighting the pressing need for diversity and pluralism in historical representation.
 

Within the framework of the 23rd edition of Balkan Perspectives Latif Mustafa is interviewing Shkëlzen Maliqi about art, culture, and dealing with the past. In the 1990s, when Kosovo society started to organize its life in parallel way, just as it was organized like that in many social spheres, it was likewise unavoidable for art and culture to be thus organized within their realm. The interview puts a critical eye on several events from the 1980s, 1990s to date with some perspectives, either historical, critical, or paradigmatic.

In this episode of the Balkan.Perspectives podcast in Serbia, Bojan Marjanovic, editor of Liceulice speaks with Milena Kvapil, a director and creative director from Belgrade with over twenty years of work experience in media and advertising industry, about the regional cooperation and coproduction regarding the TV series in the past twenty years. Milena’s area of expertise is soft power and influence of culture, showbiz and arts to geopolitical topics.