How many truths are there? Reconciliation and agonistic dialogue in the former Yugoslavia

Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

“…Truth-telling ▪ Mutually exclusive public 'truths' about the past is often considered to be a key hindrance to reconciliation Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Subotic, 2015;Kurze & Vukusic, 2013).…”

“…Public 'truths' about the past in the Western Balkans are mutually exclusive and contradictory, influenced by nationalist discourses of political actors, with each side trying to impose its own version of the past as the legitimate one (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Subotic, 2015;Kurze & Vukusic, 2013). While this is considered to be a key hindrance to reconciliation, there is limited research on the impact of such contradictory narratives (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020).…”

“…A key challenge in the Western Balkans is how to encourage reconciliation if the process presumes one shared truth, while in reality there are a significant number of different and opposing interpretations of truths. In addition, there is often an unwillingness to accept any truth that contradicts their own (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020). Unofficial truth-telling initiatives have allowed for the co-existence of different interpretations of truths, whereby each side has their own interpretation of truth, but remains open to acknowledge and accept alternative truths that come from the other side (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020).…”

“…In North Macedonia, prior to the conflict in 2001, students from both ethnicities studied in the same school shifts and sometimes the same classroom (see Bloodworth, 2020). Segregated schools and educational policies, created throughout the region during and since the wars, isolate students from one another, physically and through different curriculum and history textbook (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Osler & Pandur, 2019). In Serbia, only three classes are dedicated to the topic of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, and textbooks are required to cover the topic in less than 5000 words, effectively constraining critical history teaching (Geis et al, 2019).…”

“…The way in which the 'truth' is curated in history education solidifies ethnic division, with onesided narratives that focus on victimisation of one's group and 'enemy images' of the 'other', rendering invisible any suffering of the other side (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Oberpfalzerová et al 2019;Osler & Pandur, 2019;Meernik et al, 2016;Subotic, 2015). Students do not learn about shared experiences of the wars, which perpetuates views that one's group identity is entirely separate from that of others (Bloodworth, 2020;Todorov, 2016).…”