Emir Galijašević: Countering nationalist narratives in the Western Balkan region

Emir Galijašević, political activist, city of Tešanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A short interview with the Balkan Forum. His views on countering nationalist narratives in the Western Balkan region: "Yes, thank you once again for the invitation, so you gave an introduction to the issue of young people and that one narrative that has been present for more than somewhat twenty years, especially among young people within the former Yugoslavia.

Today we are in Cetinje at this year's REACT camp, this is my first time to participate in the REACT camp, and I think this is a real example of, how to say, go through these unwanted processes in our community, enable young people to get to know each other better, to get an education, to socialize and to get to know new cultures, new customs, new languages and to establish friendships above all.

The biggest problem, in general, is that this narrative is repeated in our social lives in the countries of the former Yugoslavia twenty-five to thirty years after the end of the war, and the question arises as to why political leaders use this rhetoric that was present, unfortunately, in the 1990s, on basis of which, they still manage to gain power today, that is, to win elections.

The result is very short - unfortunately it is because we still live in a sphere of political illiteracy, we live in a sphere where people do not go beyond the comfort zone and I consider it a key problem of all we have today. Others do not get to know each other differently, young people do not socialize enough and do not acquire any new education about how people or their peers live in other countries, in other landscapes and how they, so to speak, interpret different things.

Only by socializing with each other, by participating in like this year's REACT camp, I think that it is the best mechanism to overcome these divisions and that if God allows tomorrow, together with future generations to inhabit these areas we can, say, make a better future.

Because if we do not tackle the problems, I am afraid, unfortunately, that this space will become empty because economic issues know no gender, no religion, no state, no borders and this will become an empty space."