Balkan nationalists have profited from the EU

Filip AVRAMOVIĆ

Habija, 48, a refugee from Syria, is among many of his fellow countrymen travel-ling through Belgrade on his way towards

the EU. Like many refugees in the Ser-bian capital, he has come to Miksalište, a downtown help centre. Refugees usu-ally do not stay long in Belgrade. They are just here to recuperate before con-tinuing their journey.

Habija is the most talkative member of the group and is comfortable chat-ting to anyone willing to listen. Despite the smile on his face, though, he said that he went through a lot of trouble to get to Serbia.

“I lost my wife in Aleppo [in Syria]. I had to come here with my three sons. It was a difficult journey, but I am happy we are finally here,” he said.

“We were beaten up and maltreat-ed every step along the way until we entered Serbia. We feel safe and happy that we are finally here,” he added.

Germany is the goal, as it is for many others, he went on. “I don’t know what to expect when we leave Belgrade but we must continue,” he observed.

Many refugees take the same jour-ney, not knowing what to expect. All agree that Serbia is hospitable but that Germany is their goal.

Zaid, 31, fled Syria with his wife, baby and brother. He is one of the few who can speak English easily. He was reluc-tant to have a photograph taken but agreed to speak about his journey.

“I am happy we are finally here in Belgrade. We came yesterday and this is the best place we have been to since leaving Syria,” he said.

+381 11 4030 306 [email protected]

BELGRADE INSIGHT IS PUBLISHED BY

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supp

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d nu

mer

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Ser

bian

ele

ctio

ns

rate

our

selv

es a

s pu

ndits

whe

n it

com

es t

o pr

edic

ting

elec

tion

re-

sults

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t-el

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n m

oves

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e fe

el i

n-th

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ecau

se

our

expe

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ele

ctio

ns in

Ser

-bi

a ha

s sh

own

us th

at (a

.) no

sin

gle

part

y or

coa

litio

n w

ill ev

er g

ain

the

maj

ority

requ

ired

to fo

rm a

gov

ern-

men

t, an

d (b

.) po

litic

al n

egot

iatio

ns

will

neve

r be

quic

kly

conc

lude

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en

whe

n th

e D

emoc

rats

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hiev

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heir

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risin

g re

sult

at

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onth

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ral

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tion,

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kly

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me

clea

r th

at t

he r

e-su

lt w

as a

ctua

lly m

ore-

or-le

ss t

he

sam

e as

eve

ry o

ther

ele

ctio

n re

sult

in S

erbi

a, i.

e. in

conc

lusi

ve.

This

is li

kely

to c

ontin

ue a

s lo

ng

as

Ser

bia’

s po

litic

ians

fo

rm

new

po

litic

al

part

ies

ever

y tim

e th

ey

disa

gree

with

the

ir cu

rren

t pa

rty

lead

er (t

here

are

cur

rent

ly 3

42 re

g-is

tere

d po

litic

al p

artie

s in

Ser

bia)

. D

raw

n-ou

t neg

otia

tions

are

als

o th

e no

rm.

One

B

elgr

ade-

base

d A

mba

ssad

or r

ecen

tly t

old

me

he

was

als

o al

arm

ed b

y th

e di

stin

ct

lack

of

ur

genc

y am

ong

Ser

bian

po

litic

ians

. “T

he

coun

try

is

at

a st

ands

till

and

I do

n’t

unde

rsta

nd

thei

r lo

gic.

If

they

are

so

eage

r to

pr

ogre

ss t

owar

ds t

he E

U a

nd e

n-co

urag

e in

vest

ors,

how

com

e th

ey

go h

ome

at 5

pm s

harp

and

don

’t w

ork

wee

kend

s?”

Sur

ely

the

situ

atio

n is

ur

gent

en

ough

to w

arra

nt a

littl

e ov

ertim

e.

Cost

s M

ount

ing

Econo

mis

ts a

re w

arni

ng th

at p

ro-

long

ed un

certa

inty

over

Ser

bia’

s fu

ture

cou

ld sc

are

off i

nves

tors

, lea

d to

hig

her

infla

tion

and

jeop

ardi

se

pros

perit

y fo

r yea

rs to

com

e.“T

his y

ear h

as b

een

lost

, fro

m th

e st

andp

oint

of e

cono

mic

pol

icy,

” say

s St

ojan

Sta

men

kovi

c of

the

Econ

om-

ics I

nstit

ute

in B

elgr

ade.

Foot

ball

Rebe

llion

Whi

le th

e foo

tbal

l wor

ld w

atch

-es

eve

nts

unfo

ld a

t the

Eur

o-pe

an C

ham

pion

ship

s in

Aus

tria

and

Switz

erla

nd, B

osni

a is

exp

erie

ncin

g a

socc

er re

belli

on, l

ed b

y fa

ns, p

lay-

ers a

nd fo

rmer

star

s who

are e

nrag

ed

by w

hat t

hey

see

as c

orru

pt le

ader

s of

the

coun

try’s

foot

ball

asso

ciat

ion

lead

ers.

By

Rad

e M

aroe

vic

in B

elgr

ade

Tense

neg

otia

tions

on

a new

gov

-er

nmen

t hav

e di

vide

d th

e ra

nks

of t

he S

ocia

list

Party

, w

hich

hol

ds

the

bala

nce

of p

ower

bet

wee

n th

e m

ain

bloc

s an

d ha

s ye

t to

anno

unce

w

hich

side

they

will

supp

ort.

“It

look

s as

if

the

Soci

alist

s w

ill

mov

e to

war

ds a

gov

ernm

ent l

ed b

y th

e D

emoc

rats,

” po

litic

al a

naly

st M

i-la

n N

ikol

ic, o

f the

inde

pend

ent C

en-

tre o

f Pol

icy

Stud

ies,

said

. “Bu

t suc

h a

mov

e m

ight

pro

voke

dee

per

divi

-sio

ns a

nd e

ven

split

the

party

.”Si

mul

tane

ous

nego

tiatio

ns

held

w

ith th

e pr

o-Eu

rope

an a

nd n

atio

nal-

ist b

locs

hav

e dr

awn

atte

ntio

n to

a

deep

rift

insid

e th

e So

cial

ists.

This

divi

des

“old

-tim

ers”

lo

yal

to S

erbi

a’s

late

pre

siden

t, Sl

obod

an

Milo

sevi

c, a

nd r

efor

mist

s w

ho w

ant

the

party

to b

ecom

e a

mod

ern

Euro

-pe

an so

cial

dem

ocra

t org

anisa

tion.

Afte

r ei

ght

year

s of

sta

gnat

ion,

th

e So

cial

ists r

etur

ned

to c

entre

stag

e af

ter

win

ning

20

of th

e 25

0 se

ats

in

parli

amen

t in

the

May

11

elec

tions

.W

ith th

e pro

-Eur

opea

n an

d na

tion-

alist

blo

cs a

lmos

t ev

enly

mat

ched

, th

e So

cial

ists

now

hav

e th

e fin

al s

ay

on th

e fa

te o

f the

cou

ntry

.N

ikol

ic b

elie

ves t

he S

ocia

lists,

led

by I

vica

Dac

ic,

will

com

e ov

er t

o Ta

dic,

if o

nly

out o

f a p

ragm

atic

de-

sire

to e

nsur

e th

eir p

oliti

cal s

urvi

val.

“The

gro

up o

f yo

unge

r So

cial

ists

gath

ered

aro

und

Dac

ic s

eem

s to

be

in th

e m

ajor

ity”,

Nik

olic

said

, add

ing

that

thes

e ref

orm

ists b

elie

ve th

e par

ty

face

s ext

inct

ion

unle

ss it

cha

nges

. H

owev

er,

a str

ong

curre

nt a

lso

flow

s in

the

opp

osite

dire

ctio

n, l

ed

by p

arty

vet

eran

s en

rage

d by

the

pr

ospe

ct o

f a d

eal w

ith T

adic

.M

ihaj

lo M

arko

vic,

a f

ound

er o

f th

e pa

rty, r

ecen

tly w

arne

d of

a c

risis

if D

acic

opt

s fo

r th

e pr

o-Eu

rope

an

bloc

, aba

ndon

ing

the S

ocia

lists’

“nat

-ur

al”

ideo

logi

cal p

artn

ers.

Mar

kovi

c, a

pro

min

ent

supp

orte

r of

Milo

sevi

c du

ring

the

1990

s, is

seen

as

repr

esen

tativ

e of

the

“ol

d-tim

ers”

in th

e pa

rty w

ho w

ant t

o sta

y tru

e to

the

form

er r

egim

e’s

polic

ies,

even

thou

gh th

ese

alm

ost r

uine

d th

e So

cial

ists f

or g

ood.

So

me

youn

ger

Soci

alist

offi

cial

s ha

ve v

oice

d fru

strat

ion

over

the

con-

tinui

ng i

mpa

sse

with

in t

heir

own

party

ove

r whi

ch w

ay to

turn

. “T

he s

ituat

ion

in th

e pa

rty s

eem

s ex

trem

ely

com

plic

ated

, as

we

try

to c

onvi

nce

the

few

rem

aini

ng l

ag-

gard

s th

at w

e ne

ed t

o m

ove

out

of

Milo

sevi

c’s

shad

ow,”

one

Soc

ialis

t Pa

rty o

ffici

al c

ompl

aine

d.“D

acic

will

eve

ntua

lly s

ide

with

Ta

dic

in a

bid

to g

uide

his

party

into

th

e Eu

rope

an m

ains

tream

, but

muc

h of

the

mem

bers

hip

and

man

y of

fi-ci

als m

ay o

ppos

e th

at m

ove.

” N

ikol

ic a

gree

d: “

The

ques

tion

is w

ill th

e pa

rty s

plit

or w

ill th

e ‘o

ld-

timer

s’ ba

ck d

own,

” he

not

ed.

Fear

ing

they

mig

ht n

ot c

ross

the

5-

per-c

ent

thre

shol

d to

ent

er p

arlia

-m

ent,

the

Soci

alist

s te

amed

up

with

th

e Ass

ocia

tion

of P

ensio

ners

and

the

Uni

ted

Serb

ia P

arty

, led

by

busin

ess-

man

Dra

gan

Mar

kovi

c “P

alm

a”.

Pens

ione

rs le

ader

, Jov

an K

rkob

a-bi

c, P

alm

a an

d D

acic

are

all

push

ing

for a

dea

l with

the

Dem

ocra

ts.

The

repo

rted

pric

e is

the

post

of

depu

ty P

M, w

ith a

brie

f in

char

ge o

f se

curit

y fo

r the

Soc

ialis

t lea

der.

In a

dditi

on, t

he S

ocia

lists

are

bar-

gain

ing

for

othe

r m

inist

ries,

incl

ud-

ing

capi

tal i

nves

tmen

ts, K

osov

o an

d ed

ucat

ion,

Bel

grad

e m

edia

repo

rted.

Tadi

c ha

s de

nied

tal

k of

hor

se-

tradi

ng w

ith th

e So

cial

ists,

mai

ntai

n-in

g th

at m

inist

ries

wou

ld g

o on

ly to

th

ose

com

mitt

ed to

wor

king

for

the

gove

rnm

ent’s

“str

ateg

ic g

oal”

.A

t the

sam

e tim

e, D

acic

seem

s re-

luct

ant

to c

all

off

nego

tiatio

ns w

ith

the

natio

nalis

ts.“I

f w

e do

n’t

reac

h an

agr

eem

ent

with

the

DSS

and

Rad

ical

s, th

e pa

r-ty

lea

ders

hip

will

dec

ide

on f

utur

e ste

ps”,

Dac

ic a

nnou

nced

, fo

llow

ing

the fi

rst s

essio

n of

coun

try’s

new

par

-lia

men

t on

Wed

nesd

ay.

Sour

ce: B

alka

n In

sight

(www

.bal

kani

nsig

ht.c

om)

Bus

ines

s Ins

ight

Nei

ghbo

urho

od M

atte

rs

Soci

alis

t lea

der I

vica

Dac

ic re

mai

ns th

e Se

rbia

n ki

ngm

aker

page

5pa

ge 1

0

TH

IS IS

SU

E O

FB

elg

rad

e In

sig

htIS

SU

PP

OR

TE

D B

Y:

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Continued on page 3 Continued on page 8

Syrian kids at a Belgrade park. Photo by Filip Avramović/BIRN

Balkannationalists have profited from the EU

For many refugees, Belgrade is the first hospitable place they have seen since leaving home – and volunteers are trying to ease their time here.

Refugees draw breath in Belgrade

Zagreb professor Dejan Jović says EU membership - or the prospect of joining - has paradoxically strengthened the hand of nationalists in the Balkans.

BITEF lineup would

make late founder

‘proud’0

Sven MILEKIĆ

Nationalism remains a pow-erful force in the Western Balkans, especially be-tween those countries that were involved in armed

conflicts in the 1990s.The 20th anniversaries of Croatia’s mili-

tary operation “Oluja” [“Storm”], and of the massacre in Srebrenica in Bosnia have both inflamed national tensions across Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.

Zagreb University professor Dejan Jović told BIRN that nationalism in both the former Yugoslavia and in the whole of Europe has also to be seen as a reaction towards both successes and failures on the part of the EU.

“The more integration we have, the more opposition towards integration we have,” he said.

“The idea that integration will destroy nationalism is an illusion. The more glo-balization we have, the more nationalism we have. One causes the other, in sense of action and reaction,” he added.

Another factor is the rise of national-ism outside Europe, which then becomes an alternative magnet to countries out-side the EU.

Nationalism in Russia and Turkey has emerged “as a role model” to states that are not in the EU and have little chance of rapid entry.

“In the majority of these states, an idea has emerged that one strong party should rule and that its main purpose should be destroying any serious opposition. This is present in Macedonia with [Prime Min-ister Nikola] Gruevski and in the case of [Prime Minister Aleksandar] Vučić in Serbia, where there is no effective opposi-tion,” he said.

Ajvar fan has dream for

‘Serbia’s caviar’

Page 6

Tracing WWI’s fallen from Holland to

Serbia

Page 5

Issue No. 190 Friday, September 11 - Thursday, September 24, 2015

“We were treated like animals before we got to Serbia. Now, my baby can eat and sleep in peace,” he added.

“I want to go to Germany. I don’t know what will happen when we leave Bel-grade but I will find out. Germany is the only place I want to go to,” he continued.

Refugees arrive in Belgrade every day. Their first stop is usually the parks near the bus station. Tents have been set up there for weeks now. The worry

felt by the refugees is obvious, as their fate remains unclear.

A smell of urine and sweat surrounds the parks where they are camping. Frustration and uncertainty are visible on their faces after spending so many nights out in the open. Many lost eve-rything they had when they fled their homeland.

Instead of finding shelter, many are forced to sleep on the ground under the

open sky. Some are frustrated and hos-tile towards cameras.

Miksalište is located in an alley near the parks where refugees camp. It offers comfort to the incomers. Volunteers gather supplies of food and clothing and provide fun activities for the chil-dren.

2 3BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, September 11 - Thursday, September 24, 2015 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, September 11 - Thursday, September 24, 2015

SERBIA SERBIA

PRESS REVIEW

CITY GUIDETourist Organisation of Belgrade

Knez Mihailova 5, +381 (11) 2635 622Central Train Station, +381 (11) 3612 732Nikola Tesla Airport, +381 (11) 2097 828

Belgrade Port, Karađorđeva

Hotel MoskvaTerazije 20, +381 11 3642 000

Hotel Excelsior Kneza Miloša 5, +381 11 3231 381

Supermarket concept storeVišnjićeva 10, +381 11 2910 942

Hotel Townhouse 27Maršala Birjuzova 56, +381 11 2022 900

Booking Rooms HostelKralja Petra 30, +381 63 29 39 39

www.bookingrooms.rs

APROPOBookstore and tearoom

Cara Lazara 10+381 11 2625839

At the Belgrade Airport

Hudson news odlasci / departuresHudson news dolasci / arrivals

Hudson news čekiranje / check inHudson news transit zona / transit

Order online:

www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/belgrade-city-guide

Available at:

FREE PULL OUT MAP OF BELGRADEFREE SIM CARDTOP SIGHTSEEING LOCATIONS

PUBLIC TRANSPORT MAPGUIDED TOURS THROUGH BELGRADEWIDE SELECTION OF CLUBS, HOTELS,

RESTAURANTS, SHOPS AND ENTERTAINMENT VALUE

Nenad Popović, one of the organizers at Miksalište, told BIRN that donations and new volunteers are always welcome.

“We are happy to have received so many donations from all over the re-gion. People from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and all across Serbia have donated food, clothing and hygienic supplies. That is fantastic but we always need more,” Popović said.

The Info Centre for refugees helps them with translations and finding accommodation for people who are handicapped or in a bad medical state, he added.

“There is no way that those people can survive out in the open. We need help from more institutions,” Popović continued.

Recently, Telekom Serbia, state owned telecommunication compa-ny, donated a solar-powered mobile phone charger, which means a lot for those who have lost track of their families and relatives on their perilous journey.

Volunteers at Miksalište meanwhile do their best. They sort out clothes and shoes, hand out food and hygienic sup-plies and play with children to keep them occupied.

Popović said the refugee children “need some fun time. They have been through much pain lately. We are trying to make it easier for them by drawing with them, playing games and doing puzzles. We have organized a cartoon projection and are planning more simi-lar activities”.

Refugees smile as they leave with bags of food and supplies. Most say that they have not had a decent meal in days.

Arwan, 33, from Jordan, came to Ser-bia on vacation but has been helping the refugees from the moment he ar-rived. “I wanted to come here as a tour-ist but I ended up working,” he said.

“I do humanitarian work so this is nothing new to me. I have savings, which I will use to stay here for as long as possible,” he added.

He heard about the refugee crisis in the Serbian capital at the airport.

“I rushed from the airport, checked into a motel and came to visit these parks immediately,” he recalled.

“This is my life calling, so I have no problem working for free,” he chuckled, leaving to help out a family of three.

Continued from page 1

Zaid, 31, fled Syria with his wife, baby and brother. Photo by Filip Avramović/BIRN

Austrian professor Florian Bieber has started up a funding campaign via the gofundme.com website to temporarily house refu-gees in Belgrade.

The campaign aims to help the most vulnerable families spend at least two nights at a hotel with access to showers so they can regain their strength before they continue on their way to Hungary.

The campaign started on September 8th and raised around €1,800 in one day alone.

FUNDRAISING FOR REFUGEES

VEČERNJE NOVOSTI, September 10th

NIS (Oil Industry) has been ranked the best Serbian company on consulting firm Deloitte’s annual ‘Top 500 Companies in Central Europe’ list. The report says that Serbian companies made 3.5 per cent less profit than in 2013. NIS has a total income of €2.19 billion euros, which is 4.4 per cent less than in 2013. Besides NIS, Serbian firms Telekom Srbija, Srbijagas and Merkator also make the top 500. DANAS, September 10th

President Tomislav Nikolić supports the latest four agreements made in Brussels by Serbia and Kosovo. After Nikolić's silence in the media and his office's response that "even silence is an attitude", he has stated that he supports Serbia's path to the EU and the steps taken in negotiations with Kosovo.Serbia and Kosovo on August 25th signed four agreements - about telecommunications, energy, the Union of Serbian Municipalities and removing the ‘Park of Peace’ from the bridge which divides the Kosovo stown of Mitrovica into Serbian and Albanian parts.

KURIR, September 10th

Nikola Miroti, a member of the Spanish basketball team who is originally from Montenegro, has apologised for tearing up the Serbian national flag on September 8th, angry after his team lost an important game to Italy.Miroti’s actions fuelled a debate in Serbia about whether the player did this as an act of revenge because Serbian fans had insulted him during the game with Spain.The European Basketball Association has not issued an official statement and is currently investigating. Experts say that Miroti could face a suspension from Eurobasket following his outburst.

POLITIKA, September 10th

Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s Prime Minister and leader of the Progressive Party, and Ivica Dačić, leader of the Socialist Party and Foreign Minister, have agreed that the chances of having early parliamentary elections at the start of 2016 are slim. Socialist Party members believe that the current ruling coalition between them and the Progressive party will survive despite incriminating videos of Dacic meeting an alleged drug gangster. However, on the same day, Večernje novosti published a story saying that most of the Progressives’ senior officials support the idea of calling early parliamentary elections.

BIRN has not verified the reports and cannot vouch for their ac-curacy.

PRESS REVIEW

Igor JOVANOVIĆ

Videos possibly leaked by the police of Foreign Min-ister Ivica Dačić meeting an alleged gangster have prompted fresh calls for

oversight of the security sector to be im-proved.

Control over the police and security services must be enhanced to avoid mis-use by these institutions, MP say.

Momir Stojanović, chair of the Ser-bian parliament’s committee for security services control, this week called for his committee to gain broader oversight over top police departments.

Stojanović said that two police depart-ments, the Criminal Police Department, UKP, and Department for the fight against organized crime, SBPOK, were not under effective parliamentary control as no sin-gle committee had clear monitoring pow-ers over them.

Serbia has three intelligence services, the Serbian Information Agency, BIA, and the two military intelligence agencies.

But the two police departments that Stojanović mentioned, UKP and SBPOK, also use surveillance methods in their investigations.

The intelligence agencies are over-seen by parliament’s committee for the security services, but Stojanović, a senior official of a ruling Progressive Party and a former head of the Military Security Agency, said his committee has to obtain control over the police as well.

However, Interior Minister Nebojša Stefanović has denied claims that the po-lice are not monitored effectively, saying that all secret measures undertaken by the police were approved by the courts.

“The prosecutor's office runs police investigations and for all actions under-taken we take orders from the court,” Stefanović, also a senior Progressive of-ficial, said in Belgrade.

Predrag Petrović, from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, an NGO, told BIRN that control over the two police departments needed to be more “precisely defined.”

“We need to increase civil control over the two police departments. Now, neither the committee for security services nor the committee for defence and interior can control them properly,” Petrović said.

He added that the whole security sec-tor requires legal improvement, starting from the top institution, the Council for National Security.

“Governments in Serbia, the current and the previous ones, behave very irre-sponsibly towards the security system,” Petrović said.

He said that the leak of the video show-ing Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić meetings with Rodoljub Radulović, an alleged drug gangster, clearly showed the security sec-tor needs more effective control.

The journalists’ network for investigat-ing crime and corruption, KRIK, last week released videos which they said showed Dačić meeting drug gangster Rodoljub Radulović in 2009, while Dačić was the Interior Minister.

Petrović told BIRN that the police had a history of leaking investigations. “Vari-ous information about investigations was previously leaked by the police as well. Even Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić once said he was tapped by the po-lice. But those affairs were never investi-gated,” he said.

In November 2012, Vučić, then Deputy Prime Minister, said his phone and that of President’s Tomislav Nikolić had been tapped by the police. The results of the investigation into the claim were never released.

Zlatko Nikolić, a Belgrade crimi-nologist, told BIRN that recents events showed that the security sector was out of control.

“The videos of Dačić should not have reached the public. Responsible people should be sanctioned. There is still a lot of room for improving the work of the po-lice and security services,” Nikolić said.

Zoran Dragišić, a professor at the Bel-grade Faculty of Security Studies, also believes the security sector should be improved.

“However, this should not be done through media debate but through state institutions. Stojanović and Stefanović are members of the same party. They have the mechanisms to change the things and should not debate this through the media,” Dragišić said.

Tighter control urged over Serbia’s security sector

The leak of videos showing Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić meeting an alleged gangster prompts calls for stricter oversight of the police and the security services.

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojša Stefanović. Photo by Beta

Governments in Serbia, the current and the previous ones, behave very irresponsibly towards the security system"

Predrag Petrović,the Belgrade Center for Security Policy

Refugees draw breath in Belgrade


BELGRADEBELGRADE BELGRADE

Film on plight of Kosovo Serbs bids for Oscar

American travel company promotes Belgrade

Tracing WWI’s fallen from Holland to Serbia

‘Enclave,’ a drama that follows the lives of Serbs who continued to live in Kosovo after the war, has been chosen as the Serbian candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Oscars.

A team from Expedia, the US-based online travel agency, is visiting Serbia this month to prepare a tourist guide to Belgrade and other major destinations.

After documenting around 100 Serbian soldiers who died in the Netherlands during World War I, Dutchman Fabian Vendrig has taken on another challenge - finding their families.

Ivana NIKOLIĆ

Goran Radovanović, the di-rector of ‘Enclave’, which focuses on the plight of a lonely Serb child in Kosovo,

told BIRN that it was important that the film had been suggested for an Oscar because it puts the neglected theme of Kosovo’s Serbs in the spot-light.

“I am dealing with this issue due to the enormous national significance it

Ivana NIKOLIĆ

The Tourism Organisation of Serbia said Expedia’s team will be filming in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Fruška Gora from Septem-

ber 11th-13th and will publish the videos as well as tourist quides to Serbia on the travel company’s website.

“It is certain that Serbia will have a great chance to reach new tourists and become a place to visit on Expedia visi-tors’ itineraries,” Sandra Vlatković from the Tourism Organisation of Serbia told BIRN.

“Photos and videos on such a globally well-known and highly-visited website will help,” she said.

Vlatković also said that the fact that

Ivana NIKOLIĆ

When he first saw a monument to Ser-bian soldiers in the Dutch village of Garderen, Fabian

Vendrig was intrigued, and out of sheer curiosity, started researching who they were and why they died there.

“We did research in the Dutch mu-nicipalities’ archives and provincial archives, and through the Serbian embassy [in the Netherlands] we got access to the Yugoslav and Serbian ar-chives,” explained Vendrig, who works in an IT company and began the re-search as a hobby with his Serbian wife Tanja and a Duch friend John Stienen.

In order not to make any mistakes about the soldiers’ identities, Vend-rig and his little team compared the Dutch and the Yugoslav documents. As a result, they got the names of all the Serbian soldiers who died in the Netherlands during and after WWI - a total of 92 people.

Initially they were buried in several cemeteries in the Netherlands, Ven-drig said. “They were later exhumed

has. This is a very contemporary topic and not just a local one. It is about the conflict between Islam and Christian-ity,” Radovanović said.

The film takes the audience back to 2004 in the aftermath of ethnically-charged unrest across Kosovo that left 19 people dead and caused many Serbs to flee.

It follows 10-year-old Nenad, who lives in a small Serb enclave with his father and grandfather. The only oth-er remaining Serbs are an Orthodox

Lonely Planet, one of the world’s most prominent tourist guides, put Serbia in seventh place on a list of the most desir-able destinations to visit made Belgrade and the rest of the country more popular and brought it to the attention of other media outlets.

Expedia has more than 200,000 web pages on 150 sites in 70 countries, while its content is translated into 35 languages.

Serbia’s statistical office has said that in the first seven months of 2015, the num-ber of tourists visiting the country rose by 13 per cent compared to the same pe-riod last year.

Its data showed that foreign guests mostly chose Belgrade as their destina-tion, while domestic tourists preferred mountain resorts and spas.

priest and a teacher. Nenad is the only Serb pupil in a school and he is taken there every day in a military vehicle by NATO’s KFOR troops.

As there are no other Serb children in the enclave, his only friend is his sick grandfather, who eventually dies. The only other boys around are Kosovo Alba-nians, like 13-year-old Bashkim, who lost his father in the war and hates the Serbs.

Kosovo Serb enclaves are generally small, isolated settlements which face se-rious problems with unemployment and poor living conditions.

Radovanović says there is a general feeling of helplessness in Serbia itself to-wards Serbs still living in Kosovo, but he hopes that the film will bring more atten-tion to their situation.

“Thanks to the film, Kosovo Serbs again feel like they are in focus. I am glad that we are presenting this topic,” the director said.

“Everything now depends on the re-sources we will be given [by the Serbian authorities] to use for lobbying and pre-senting the film,” Radovanović added.

Marko Đurić, the director of the Ser-bian government’s office for Kosovo, has praised the film.

"I hope that ‘Enclave’ will be shortlisted for an Oscar in its category and that this artistic description of the problems that the Serbian people face in Kosovo and Metohija will reach the widest audience and revive interest in the fate of Serbs in our southern province on an internation-al level,” Đurić said.

The 88th annual Academy Awards, bet-ter known as the Oscars, are set to be pre-sented in February next year.

and we found in the Yugoslav archives that they were transported to Jin-drichovice [the Serbian mausoleum in the Czech Republic].”

The information obtained so far has been published on a website called www.secanje.nl in Dutch, Serbian and English.

“That is very important because this is our shared history,” Vendrig ex-plained.

The Netherlands was a neutral state in WWI and any escaped pris-oners of war or refugees who man-aged to get to the country were given shelter. In 1917, Germany and Britain also signed an agreement to intern

17,000 prisoners of war on Dutch territory.

When the war finally ended, ac-cording to news-paper articles from 1919, a total of 222,347 prisoners had ar-rived from German detention camps, and 4,316 of them were Serbs.

Eighty-seven of the Serbian prisoners died during an outbreak of Spanish flu in January 1919, while the other five died beforehand of various other causes.

However, digging up the past in or-der to find the deceased soldiers’ fami-lies was not easy.

Vendrig, his wife Tanja and his other colleague decided they had to go to the soldiers’ homeland if they wanted to know the full picture.

“The plan is to take a car and travel around Serbia looking for World War I monuments. If there still is a WWI monument, then we can look if there is a name on it. It can give us a hint ac-tually,” Vendrig said optimistically.

“It was a big puzzle. We wanted to know if we could find descendants. And we found four families; we want to find more,” he added.

One of the four families they managed to find is that of soldier Miloš Gavrović, in the village of Miločaj close to Kraljevo in central Serbia.

Gavrović was actually from the same village as Tanja, which made it easier to get in contact with his de-scendants.

“My father-in-law went to ask one of the villagers about the soldier. The man said it was his uncle but was sure he had died in Germany, not in the Netherlands,” Vendrig re-called.

Later on they paid him a visit, hand-ed over photos, documents and the death certificate. “He is very grateful because now he knows the fate of his uncle,” Vendrig said.

Some people in Serbia have heard of what Vendrig calls his shared his-tory project, although it is little known in his home country.

“In the Netherlands it doesn’t get lot of attention,” he said. “But in Ser-

bia, when we find one family, it is already a big success. It is not about us, it is about them, the fallen soldiers.”

Apart from keeping the memo-ries of those soldiers alive, Vendrig explained that he also has another motive for devoting his free time to finding the families of the Serbian victims of WWI.

“We should not in the Nether-lands only focus on the 1990s [wars that Serbia was involved in], but also take a more broad perspec-tive,” he said.

“I want to show that Serbia is not only about the 1990s, and that there are more good than bad sides.”

Photo: Facebook

Foreign guests mostly choose Belgrade as their destination in Serbia during the first seven months of 2015. Vlada Marinković/Wikimedia Commons

Vendrig and his team have been tracing fallen soldiers for three years now. Photo by Ivana Nikolić/BIRN

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But in Serbia, when we find one family, it is already a big success. It is not about us, it is about them, the fallen soldiers.”

Fabian Vendrig

‘Enclave’ follows the life of ten-year-old Nenad.


BUSINESSBELGRADE

Hilton Hotel construction set to begin

The Serbian capital is expected to get a five-star Hilton Hotel in the coming years. According to media reports, it will be located close to Slavija Square, on the corner of Kralja Milana and Kralja Milutina Street, and will have more than 250 rooms as well as a summer theatre, two restaurants, a bar and a congress hall. The construction cost has been estimated at around €35-40 million. Work on building the hotel was due to start back in 2009 and to be finished within three years, but the project was suspended.

City transport service gets Mercedes buses

By the end of October, Belgrade’s public transport company GSP will get 30 new Mercedes buses, Belgrade mayor Siniša Mali told media. The first ten buses will be delivered to GSP by September 21st, while the rest of the vehicles will arrive in October. According to Mali, all the buses will have CCTV, air conditioning and free wi-fi. “We plan [to purchase] 80 such buses in 2016, so that in the next four years we are able to change GSP’s vehicle fleet,” Mali said.

Argentinian tango fest in Republic Square

‘Tango Fiesta’, a night of Argentinian tango, will take place on Friday, September 11th on Belgrade’s Republic Square. According to the organisers, Institute Tango Natural and Argentina’s embassy in Belgrade, there will be programmes aimed both at experienced tango dancers as well as at the novices. The beginners’ tango lesson will run from 7.30-8.30pm, and afterwards there will be a concert by the Tanguango orchestra until midnight. All the programmes are free of charge. In case it rains, the Fiesta will be held the following Friday.

Bel

grad

e in

bri

ef

Saša Stamenković has big ambitions for this much-loved side dish made from peppers.

Filip AVRAMOVIĆ

Made from peppers, Aj-var is one of the best-known traditional side dishes in Serbia.

Every household has its own recipe, its own way of mak-ing it and its own secret ingredients. Everyone also boasts that their ajvar is better than all the rest.

Ajvar fan Saša Stamenković once in-vited his friends over to try “the best aj-var” that exists. One of them challenged him to an ajvar competition, to deter-mine whose really was the best.

Several years on, Stamenković used that idea to start an event called “Step up to the jar”, because ajvar is stored in jars.

The event travels in convoy from one town to another, holding local ajvar-making competitions. Winners of the competitions compete in the grand fi-nale to determine who makes the best ajvar in Serbia.

“Everyone thinks they make the best ajvar. My idea was to stop the quarrels and have a team of judges determine whose ajvar can claim to be the best in Serbia,” Stamenković said.

The word “ajvar” originates from the Turkish word “havijar” which means “caviar”.

Stamenković wants to make ajvar Serbia’s true caviar and believes that this goal is achievable.

“Ajvar is a world-class side dish. You can eat it with anything. Ajvar is really

the caviar of Serbia because of its taste, tradition and influence,” Stamenković said, adding that the dish could poten-tially fetch high prices and become a recognizable brand.

He aims to brand the name “ajvar” in future and so protect its origin.

“Our goal is to make ajvar a brand in the next few years. This dish could be-come recognizable all over the globe because while I have visited many countries, I have never seen food like ajvar on the shelves,” Stamenković added.

It is still difficult to see how this plan to market ajvar worldwide might be done in practice, however.

No movement in that direction has

yet been made, but Stamenković be-lieves that supporting local producers will make it more possible.

“We want to help the winners of our competition to produce bigger ca-pacities and reach different markets,” Stamenković said.

“Every year, another person will get the chance to produce on a mass scale, which can only result in more variety of good ajvar,” he added.

Today, people in Serbia often pro-duce and sell this dish unofficially, tak-ing orders from people they know and selling it without paying any taxes.

With proper branding, ajvar would get more standardized facilities and a more recognized place in the market.

The main idea of the festival is to en-able the winners to sell their ajvar in sponsoring stores and markets.

“We are currently negotiating with one of this year’s sponsors, Roda. They will probably enable this year’s winners to produce and sell ajvar to more peo-ple,” Stamenković added.

Some steps towards branding and standardizing the production of ajvar has already been made. The town of Leskovac has declared ajvar a dish orig-inating only from that southern region.

“The market is huge and potential is great. We want to legalize and maxi-mize the production of ajvar and help producers place it on every market they can,” Stamenković concluded.

‘Step up to the Jar’ has attracted lots of attention across Serbia.Savić argues the agony of the troubled companies in restructuring started in the1990s.

Photo: FacebookPhoto by Media Centre Belgrade

Ajvar fan has dream for ‘Serbia’s caviar’

FAP PRIBOJ

The interest of the Finnish company SISU in a strategic partnership with the former Yugoslavia automotive giant, FAP Priboj, provided hope for the around 1,100 workers that they would keep their jobs.

On May 30th, 2014, the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SISU providing that the partner used part of the FAP property to start produc-tion of new trucks and spare parts. A start to production that would employ at least 600 workers was expected in September 2014, but contracts have not been signed.

On January 25th, Vučić said he expected the first truck to be produced by the end of the year.

The delay has encouraged speculation that the Finns have given up on the part-nership, while the names of other potential partners are being mentioned.

Defence Minister Bratislav Gašić on Sep-tember 3rd announced an intention to inten-sify talks with the Czech company Tatra, while President Tomislav Nikolić, during his visit to China, urged Shaanxi Automobiles to invest in FAP.

Without a strong partner to start the pro-duction, FAP seems without a future. Its rev-enues in 2013 dropped to 547 million dinars [€4.7 million] more than 50 per cent than

Katarina MARKOVIĆStevan VELJOVIĆ

The visit of the IMF mission in late August confirmed that reforms in Serbia have taken a good path, produc-ing unexpected results.

The mission led by James Roaf ac-knowledged that the reforms so far are delivering results, and it revised its 2015 GDP forecast from -0.5 per cent to posi-tive growth of 0.5 per cent.

“On the back of strong policies, Ser-bia has returned to positive economic growth, employment is rising and un-employment falling, the IMF said.

“The fiscal performance of Serbia in the first half of 2015 was strong. The general government deficit remained considerably lower than projected,” the press release of September 1st added.

The mission expects growth to ac-celerate over the medium term, de-pending on continued sound macro-economic policies and more structural reforms.

“However, the authorities should strengthen the implementation of re-forms of state- or socially-owned enter-prises, including through privatization, restructuring, or bankruptcy,” the IMF advised.

Under the law on privatization, adopted in May, the end of 2015 is the deadline for privatizing 526 companies in the portfolio of the Government Pri-vatization Agency.

However, for 17 companies of “strate-gic importance”, this deadline has been postponed to June 1st, 2016.

These companies together employ around 22,000 workers and their many problems include large accumulated debts, lack of markets and old technol-ogy.Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić has called these companies “the biggest problem in Serbia.

“This is not restructuring of any kind, those companies are bankrupt. They are our biggest problem, bigger than the absence of efficient administration,” Vučić said on August 24th.

In many of these companies the ac-cumulated losses exceed the capital of the companies, meaning they have no value at all.

With little chance of privatization, continuing operations only means more cost for the government, poten-tially undermining the results of fiscal consolidation.

THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT COMPANIES NEEDING RESTRUCTURING-

the year before, and its losses exceed its capital by 203 million dinars [€1.7 million).

RESAVICA

With more than 4,100 employees in nine mines, located mostly in underdeveloped municipalities, this public enterprise for un-derground coal exploitation presents both an economic and social challenge.

In 2013, it operated at a loss of 447.8 mil-lion dinars [€3.7 million]. This is almost four times lower than in 2012, but it was never-theless far from a satisfactory result, con-sidering that losses exceed capital by 8.9 billion dinars [€74.1 million].

Long-term underinvestment, obsolete equipment and low productivity are some of the main problems that the government has tried to tackle by adopting a consolida-

tion plan in 2013. However, the intention to invest in mines

with potential, open new mines and con-nect them with new thermal power plants relies on finding strategic partners, which the government has been unable to do.

Union demands that Resavica be reinte-grated into EPS, after 23 years of operating as independent public company, have been rejected.

Media reports say the IMF wants the company removed from the state budget and the government and the company have only until next May to find a solution and avoid bankruptcy.

Closing some pits seems inevitable.

Hopes for survival are tied mainly to finding a company ready to invest in the mines with more of a perspective and new deposits of coal.

RTB BOR

In three of the last four years for which the financial results are available, from 2010 to 2013, RTB Bor, a mining and smelting company and the only producer of copper in Serbia, has ended the business year in profit.

The group employs around 5,000 people divided into four companies – two copper mines in Bor and Majdanpek in eastern Serbia, the Copper Smelter Refinery and the parent company.

The biggest burden on the company are old debts of about €700 million.

The general manager of the group, Blagoje Spaskovski, said in April that after a pre-prepared plan of restructur-ing the firm will become a state-owned company.

He added that old creditors would get

more money with this plan than in case of bankruptcy.

The construction for €250 million of a smelter and sulfuric acid plant was com-pleted in December 2014, which will cut pol-lution in the area and allow production and processing at a lower cost.

The potential of RTB Bor is widely recog-nized and has attracted interest even from financial giants like Goldman Sachs. Still,

any decision on its future must include a solution for its debts.

HIP PETROHEMIJA

HIP Petrohemija, a chemical company, recorded a net loss of 11.83 billion dinars [€98 million euros] in 2013 but remained one of the Serbia’s top exporters.

The company’s main partner is NIS, the daughter company of Russia’s Gazprom.

In October 2014, Foreign Minister Ivica Dačic said on a visit to Moscow that Serbia could repay its debt to Gazprom for earlier supplies of gas by transferring its stake in HIP Petrohemija.

However, none of this has happened and recently the company stated that it will con-duct negotiations with the companies Taif and Net Oil, noting that no key parameters regarding the sale have been agreed.

Unsold state firms slow Serbia's progressThe IMF has praised Serbia's fiscal reforms – but a clutch of unsold state behemoths remains an obstacle for the reform plans.

SOLUTION NOT IMMEDIATE

The agony of the troubled 17 com-panies in restructuring started in the 1990s when, during sanctions, they received money to cover salaries, Lju-bodrag Savić, professor of economics in Belgrade, said.

“Later, when they entered restruc-turing, they stopped paying their dues to the state, banks and suppliers. The restructuring status guaranteed that no one could file a lawsuit against them,” he added.

The protection was a long-term disservice to these companies. To-day, they have little or no perspective because resolving their fate has only been delayed for years.

“Of all 17 enterprises, only PKB, the agribusiness, has a perspective be-cause it has customers, resources and a market for their products, while the others have outdated technology and lost their ties with suppliers and cus-tomers,” he explained.

Savić said he expected the govern-ment to extend the deadline because it has no solution for many of the com-panies, naming HIP Petrohemija, MSK Kikinda and Azotara Pančevo as par-ticularly complicated cases.

“HIP Petrohemija, for example, cur-rently has no losses in its operations… but it has aggregated huge losses in previous years, which have not been reduced,” Savić noted.

He believes that, despite their prob-lems, large public enterprises such as the power utility EPS and Srbijagas are in a better position compared to com-panies in restructuring.

“EPS is a company with great poten-tial, but for many years it served the political parties for training up their cadre. If it had been managed wisely, it could be the best company in Serbia,” Savić said.


OUT AND ABOUTREGION

Filip AVRAMOVIĆ

One of the oldest cities in Albania, Durres lies around 33 km west of the capital, on the Adriatic coast. Founded by Greek

colonists, conquered by Illyrians, then the Romans and finally by the Otto-man Turks, Durres was influenced by all of them. The city and its culture have been transformed numerous times as it changed ownership.

At the same time, Durres has always managed to retain its own authentic spirit. Today, the city is a vibrant mix-ture of ancient buildings, a modern port, tourist resorts and street fairs.

When I was setting off to Durres, I wasn’t expecting to finish the trip with such mixed feelings. But Durres has some way to go before it can claim to rival the more developed resorts of the Adriatic.

Walking along the street, while the smell from the sewers might have be-come an everyday thing for locals, as a foreigner you can’t help noticing it.

The sidewalks are also crowded with street sellers, mostly selling Albanian flags, symbols and pictures of Albanian heroes. Every now and then you pass a carrousel or a shooting range, nothing unusual for Durres.

Albanian rock and folk music blares on every corner, in every coffee shop, and everything looks like a party for the locals.

Food is sold literally in front of al-most every shop, ranging from fresh pies, or “Byrek”, to chickens roasted on stakes. The local people in Durres are hospitable and friendly to tourists. If they recognize your native language, they will immediately try to speak it in order to strike up a conversation.

In a bar, you won’t even finish your drink before the waiter is right next to you, ready to pour you another one.

Italian cuisine is a feature of the res-taurants, unsurprisingly, with Italy just over the other side of the water. Albani-ans don’t hesitate to mix classic Italian fare with home-made dishes of goats cheese and seafood.

One advantage of a trip to Durres is that many things are cheap, including

food and drink. Ten euros is worth are around 1,400 Leks, and for that money, you can feel like a god in Durres if you invest it wisely and avoid sometimes overpriced souvenirs.

Another advantage of a seaside town is that you can also hang out on the nearby beach. Even if you go alone, meeting new people there won’t be a problem. Most of them will welcome you with open arms, especially if you bring some euros to share a drink.

The beaches are full of parasols and sunbeds. Traders are always offering snacks, wandering along the beach, yelling “Byrek!”Although the beaches

are sandy and pretty, it can take you up to five minutes of walking into the sea until you reach the deeper area that is suitable for swimming.

While sunbathing on the beach, or swimming in the sea, you need to keep an eye on your things, however. Locals warn that thieves are active in the area and in no small number. Night bathing is not advised for the same reason. You can also get stung in the water at night, which is when many jellyfish come near the shore, so you might want to find a pool until daytime comes.

Nightlife options in Durres are some-what limited. There aren’t many inter-

national music venues, playing music from around the world. All that can be heard is Albanian folk. That’s not a problem on the first nights, however, when the excitement of being here and probably a few drinks will help you cope with lyrics that you can’t under-stand.

You can always buy a few drinks in a club or bar and then head back to the beach, not to swim but to stroll.

You will be surprised at the number people you will see just taking a stroll in the middle of the night, the waves from the Adriatic roaring all around them.

Albania’s second city, a mix of ancient buildings, Roman ruins and modern port, is lively and friendly – but it’s not for everyone.

EU MEMBERSHIP HELPS CROATIA FLEX ITS MUSCLES

Western Balkans states now in the EU, like Croatia and Slovenia, have meanwhile decided to reassert their sovereignty, which was nominal until their entrance to the EU.

In Croatia, he said, “important deci-sions on key and controversial issues that could divide the public were left to others, such as the UN… or The Hague Tribunal or Brussels,” he explained.

Because of this, tough decisions could be taken to fulfil the require-ments for joining the EU.

Nationalists in Croatia advocated Croatia’s EU membership, well aware that things would then change once Croatia joined the EU and turned “from an object to a subject in the policy-mak-ing process.

“This is a motive for Vučić in Serbia as well: ‘We’ll enter the EU and then we’ll see what will do,’” Jović said.

Politicians like Vučić have “concrete examples of the efficacy of such ac-tions”, proving that nationalist policies can be pursued within the EU, he add-ed.

“Greece successfully uses its veto in relation towards Macedonia [joining the EU and NATO] just because it is an EU member,” he continued. “If it wasn’t a member, it wouldn’t be able to do this.”

Croatia, meanwhile, is doing the same, tying to “enter Balkans from Brussels” and “using the EU to reach its bilateral goals with neighbouring coun-tries”.

This instrumentalization of the EU can be seen in some of the declarations passed in the European Parliament last year, he maintained.

“It is for these reasons that all nation-alists in these countries are pro-EU.”

According to Jović, therefore, both getting closer to the EU creates na-tionalism, as does a country failing to achieve the goal.

Jović also says the EU is meanwhile

wrong to give these would-be members “new conditions all the time in a situa-tion in which it’s harder and harder to fulfil them”.

“This thus pushes them in a sort of schizophrenic situation of internal in-stability between the elite which is pro-European and the public which is not,” he added.

“It’s a situation in which both sides can easily become nationalistic,” he opined.

UKRAINE PUTS BALKANS BACK IN FOCUS

Jović adds that the conflict that start-ed in Ukraine in 2014 presents a warn-ing to the EU that further enlargement towards the east and Russia is risky or impossible.

Germany’s recent positive state-ments towards the Balkan states have to be seen in that context as “an attempt to consolidate the European territory.

“The focus has moved a little. Before the Ukrainian crisis, it was less likely that the EU would again become inter-ested in the Balkans. Now, no other op-tions are left,” he said.

Jović recalled that further enlarge-ment depends on the will of each of 28 member states and their bilateral issues with potential candidate states and their internal political situations as well.

The potentially long wait before Ser-bia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Her-zegovina can join the EU also leaves Croatia as the only EU state in the West-ern Balkans. As the EU wants a strong border, Croatia will see its role in the EU as the EU’s external guardian.

“In Croatia, people on the national-ist right look forward to this [idea of a] a stronger wall around Croatia, espe-cially in relation towards Bosnia and Serbia,” he explained, adding that these political options do not welcome the level of communication that currently exists between these states.

NEW TEAM IN ZAGREB MAY BE TOUGH ON SERBIA

Regarding the troubled relations be-tween Croatia and Serbia, Jović says that Croatia can be expected to slow Serbia’s EU path, especially if the oppo-sition centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, wins the upcoming elec-tions later this year.

A HDZ-led government may insist on resolution of certain issues left over from the wars of the 1990s and thus stall Serbia’s EU accession.

These topics will surely emerge in the upcoming election campaign, he

predicts, since the right sees Croatia as “solely a victim and the victor of the war of the 1990s”.

On the other hand, the Croatian left “has decided to play on its opponent’s field”, rarely questioning Croatia’s na-tionalistic myths.

“By not offering an alternative dis-course, they actually prevent free-dom in Croatia because freedom is a choice between two or more op-tions,“ he said.

“We have an alternative discourse but only outside the political field,” he continued, especially present in rela-tion towards Serbia.

Regarding the refugee crisis that has hit Macedonia and Serbia, he said that Serbia is now meanwhile “presenting itself as a victim that is sacrificing itself for others and for the EU.

“Serbia is using the migrant crisis to change its image, which has been a very big problem for Serbia... in the last 25 years. Serbia is intentionally show-ing that it has understanding for for-eigners, for people of another faith, for people that suffer,” he said, adding that Serbia is trying to identify with them partly to relativize the legacy from the 1990s. “Image is very important in poli-tics,” he concluded.

Jović argues that Croatia can be expected to slow Serbia’s EU progress.

The beaches are full of traders offering snacks, clothes and swimming equipment.

Photo courtesy of Dejan Jović

Photo by Steffen Emrich/Flickr

Balkan nationalists have profited from the EU

Continued from page 1

Durres, ancient city with a modern air

DURRES FORT

Another place to visit is the fort, a symbol of Durres, which is on the hill of the old town from where you can admire the view of the port and the sur-rounding beaches. The castle was built in the 5th century AD by the Byzantine Emper-or Anastasius I who came from Durres. Anastasius made the city one of the best-fortified cities on the Adriatic. Once a site of important battles, the castle is now a popular tourist attraction.

GREAT MOSQUE OF DURRES

The Grand Mosque of Durres was built in 1931 un-der the reign of King Zogu, Albania’s only monarch. On the day it opened, it be-came the largest mosque in Albania. It was closed in 1967 under the commu-nist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha and the minaret was torn down. Most other old mosques from the Ot-toman era were destroyed at the same time.

DURRESAMPHITHEATER

The Durres Amphitheater is a large Roman amphitheater dat-ing back from the 2nd century AD and the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan. It is located in the very heart of the city and has only been partly excavated. The Durres Amphitheatre is one of the largest in the Balkans and once had a capacity to host of 20,000 people. It was discovered in the late 1900s and since has become a popular tourist attraction. The amphitheater is a World Heritage candidate.


ARTS

Jovan Ćirilov, the late artistic director of Bitef. Photo by Beta

David GALIĆ

BITEF festival selector Anja Suša paid hom-age to the festival’s late founder, Jovan Ćirilov, telling an official press

conference in Belgrade: “With his passing, one phase of BITEF’s history and of theatre life in Serbia and the entire region ends”.

She went on to assure that this year’s programme would have made Ćirilov proud, adding also that despite finan-

Free screenings of Spanish movies Continuing its programme of featuring movies from different countries every month, in September KC Grad is focusing on contemporary Spanish films. The venue will be showing one movie every Sunday night in September and as always, entrance completely free. Among the movies that will be screened are David Trueba’s ‘Con Los Ojos Cerrados’ and ‘Una Pistola En Cada Mano’, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s drama ‘Stockholm’. Queer Salon tackles stereotypes Queer Salon is an art project that takes place every year during Pride Week in Bel-grade, with this year’s exhibi-tion opening on September 14th. This year it’s dedicated to identifying stereotypes related not only to gay people, but minorities in gen-eral, especially in a typically patriarchal culture such as Serbia’s. The exhibition will be staged at KC Grad and runs until September 20th. Southeast Europe captured in images Artists showing at an ex-hibition entitled ‘Southeast Europe: Recorded Memories’ use photographs and video art to explore moments in time and places of note throughout the region. The exhibition is at the Museum of Yugoslav History and is open until September 20th. Festival showcases Swiss music The Swiss Music Festival will be held from September 14th to September 20th not only in Belgrade, but also in five other Serbian cit-ies. The festival will include concerts and workshops, with a diverse spectrum of music from traditional jazz to avant-garde music. One of the highlights of the festival will be internationally renowned composer and singer Elina Duni performing with her quartet for the first time in Belgrade. Albrecht Dürer prints on display Prints by Albrecht Dürer, the German Renaissance-era painter and printmaker, are now on display at the Belgrade Museum. Along with Dürer’s pieces, the exhibition will also feature some of the work of his contemporar-ies. The exhibition at Konak Knjeginje Ljubice in Košutnjak will run until October.

Spanish photographer snaps London sights Spanish by origin, David Pujado is a photographer who spends a lot of time photo-graphing people and places from the former Yugoslavia. His latest exhibition, entitled ‘Once’, opens on September 22nd and runs until October. This time however, his photo-graphs were taken outside the region - at places like the Tate Modern Gallery and National Portrait Gallery in London.

Art

s in

bri

ef

This year’s 49th Belgrade International Theatre Festival will be the first without founder and artistic director Jovan Ćirilov who died last autumn.

cial shortcomings, the programme would be as strong as ever.

The main programme consists of 10 theatre performances from Serbia and the Balkans, Germany, France, Germa-ny and Russia.

BITEF has always been dedicated to showing theatregoers the best in contemporary performances, inviting a mix of both large and smaller inde-pendent theatre troupes from around the world.

The festival continues to have two separate programme lines for interna-tional and local performances.

Last year, the festival added a third line, focusing on new trends in thea-tre. This year, the focus will be political theatre.

The festival starts on September 17th at the National Theatre with a Ger-man production, “Murmel, Murmel,” written by Dieter Roth. Another Ger-man play slated for this year’s BITEF, is Yael Ronen’s “Common Ground.”

Rounding out the international se-lection is “Dead Souls”, by Russian play-wright Kirill Serebrennikov, which will be closing the festival at the Terazije Theatre on September 24th.

Some of the most interesting region-al offerings are co-productions, one of which is between Dutch and Serbian authors, “The Discreet Charm of Marx-ism”. Another former Yugoslav effort “Komplex Ristić,” is the joint production

of a team of Serbs, Croats, Slovenians and Macedonians.

BITEF always has a supporting pro-gramme as well, and this year is no exception. While BITEF on Film and BITEF Polyphony are still the big-gest parts of this “supplemental” pro-gramme, another piece has been added this year – BITEF Zone.

While little information has been re-leased about Zone, it will be a type of outdoor event held outside the square named after BITEF co-founder Mira Trailović.

BITEF on Film will be held at the Yu-goslav Film Archive and will feature three documentaries about plays that have been important in the history of the festival, “Einstein on the Beach,” “The Rite of Spring and Cafe Mueller” and “Consumed.”

BITEF Polyphony is all about theatre for young people and by young people. There will be 12 international plays this year as part of Polyphony, along with several workshops on various social topics.

Tickets have been on sale since the beginning of the month and organ-izers say they are going fast for all events. They can be purchased at the Terazije Theatre box office from eight to €17 .

For an in-depth look at the pro-gramme, visit the festival’s official web-site: festival.bitef.rs.

BITEF lineup would

make late founder ‘proud’

Opera, Ballet and Classical

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 13th

Vojvodina Chamber Orchestra, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 11:00am

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14th

Petrovic-Pejic Duo, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Trg Republike 5, 8:00pmMaja Mijatovic – soprano, Milica Tanaskovic – piano, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Trg Republike 5, 9:00pm

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16th

Tijana Blagojevic-Casarsa, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 6:00pm

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18th

Jovana Topalov – harpsichord, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Bulevar Zorana Djindjica 179, 8:00pm

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19th

Wandel Trio, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 8:00pm


Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta, conductor, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studenski Trg 5, 8:00pm

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21st

Nikola Semić – violin, Aleksandra Dragosavac – piano, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Trg Republike 5, 8pmStephanie Park – violin, Ivana Vukosavljev – piano, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Trg Republike 5, 9pm

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd

Sofija Radić – piano, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 6pmThe RTS Orchestra, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 8pm

Exhibitions and Events


Festival of British Food and Beer – Great British Weekend New Edition, Mikser House, Karađorđeva 46, from 5pmExhibition: Jasmina Cibic, Salon of the Museum of Modern Art, Pariska 14, 7pm


Exhibition: Europe, Southeast – Archived Memories, Museum of Yugoslav History, Botićeva 6, 1pmFilm: WR – Mysteries of Organism, Yugoslav Film Archive, Kosovska 10, 6pm


Film: Women’s Orchestra, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 179, 8pm


Monday Delicatessen: Sound Development City, Grad Cultural Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4, 7pmExhibition: Vida Stanisavac Vujčić, SULUJ Gallery, Terazije 26, 7pmQueer Salon, Grad Cultural Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4, 8pm


Exhibition: Students of Art of the State University in Novi Pazar, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 179, 6pmMovie premiere: Everest, Cineplexx, Ušće Shopping Mall, Bulevar Nikole Tesle 4, 8pm

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 17th

Exhibition: Climate at a 360 degree angle, French Cultural Centre, Knez Mihailova 31, 6pmBITEF opening: Murmel Murmel, The National Theatre, Francuska 1, 8pm


Exhibition: Europe, Southeast – Archived Memories, Museum of Yugoslav History, Botićeva 6, 1pm


20 Years of Kvadrat Film School, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 179, 6pm

ONCE KOVAČ, ALWAYS KOVAČONCE ”KAFANA”, ALWAYS ”KAFANA”

RESTURANT KOVAČ modern ethno restaurant

Bulevar Oslobodjenja 221, Tel: 011 2462 343www.restorankovac.com

AmBar surfs the wave of modern Balkan cuisine

The location is fab, the design is spot on and the contemporary Balkan menu is exciting - even if not everything lives up to expectations.

Duda & Vlada

AmBar, an addition to the famous “Beton hala” stretch of restaurants in the Port of Belgrade, of-fers a modern interpre-

tation of Serbian and Balkan cuisine. Recently, we have witnessed more

than a fair share of venues with a similar concept. It is too early to call it a trend but we do hope to see it grow into one – especially if the trend is to cross borders.

Serbian and Balkan food has always been the favourite of both Belgraders and of visitors to the city. Yet, places offering a different take on traditional cuisine are few and far between. The

years in which we were waiting for that to change have finally produced a trend… of a kind.

The location and interior of the venue are spot-on. Inside, a modern and clean industrial look in gray-scale palette is enriched with warm natural wood details reminiscent of a barn (“ambar” in Serbian), original textiles with Serbian traditional motifs and symbolic graphic murals. The details are just enough to make the space more comfortable while keeping it airy and architecturally clean.

In these perfect surroundings, we started with homemade bread straight from the oven and some famous Serbi-an kajmak with a twist - hazelnuts and boletus mushrooms blended inside. Flavoured kajmak… now that is the re-interpretation we were talking about. Add some refreshing rakija lemonade and a beautiful view of the river in the afternoon sun and we could not have wished for a better start.

We actually asked for more, but our other pick from the Kajmak bar menu, with wild strawberries infusion, could not compare to the first. Not every-thing is perfect, it seems.

The menu is not too long. The accent is on meat dishes, as expected, but veg-etarian and seafood dishes are present and interesting. Following the south-ern Balkan tradition, the portions are small, meant to be ordered aplenty and shared.

When you talk of modern Serbian cuisine, grilled prune and prosciutto rolls have established themselves as a standard. In amBar, they were served with almond sauce but failed to meet expectations – they were a bit dry and pale, or, as someone said, “burnt”.

Grilled green asparagus in Velouté sauce, with crispy prosciutto and quail egg was a success. It came served the fashionable way, in a small frying pan. The Velouté sauce went well with the tender, young asparagus and the per-fectly fried quail egg was the cherry on the top of this small and simple but well-balanced and memorable dish.

For the main courses, we chose three serious traditional dishes, ones that fast food outlets make perfectly, so you have to excel even to keep up

to the par. Ćevapi, grilled sausages and drpana prasetina (hand-pulled pork, known in the Balkans as well as the Caribbean). Unfortunately, this ap-proach did not bear fruit and we were left wondering if we should have taken it the other way around. The Ćevapi, and sausages turned to be simply sub-standard. The baked pork came placed on a bed of mashed potatoes and topped with red cabbage salad, everything together forming a colour-ful cone in the plate. However, the eye-catching serving did no good to the dish. The meat and skin, supposed to be crispy, got soaked in the mash… a mish-mash we did not fully appreci-ate.

Our last resort was ledene kocke (literally “ice cubes”), a sweet that our generation grew up with. Imagine the famous After Eight thin chocolate mints thick enough to be produced in cubes and the ledene kocke made by the Croatian company Kraš are something like that. The cake with the same name is a simple, every day cake consisting of a chocolate sponge cake base topped with thick, white custard with a hint of mint and a dark chocolate glazing, cut in large cubes – an easy family dessert every mother used to make in the 1970s and 1980s. Ambar’s version left us disappointed - the texture, the taste… everything about it was wrong.

AmBar is a beautifully designed place on a perfect spot with a great concept and good service. We could revisit it anytime to enjoy the view, the cocktails and the atmosphere. But, when it comes to rediscovering Bal-kan cuisine, our expectations are sky-high. Before bringing in the new twists, food should match, if not top, that served in a Belgrade kafana. As far as we have seen, this is yet to be achieved in amBar…

Worth mentioning is that this is not the first amBar. The original actually opened on Capitol Hill, a fancy Balkan restaurant in Washington. Both the concept and the food itself therefore are “a translation of a translation” and a bit hard to grasp. Still, the idea is defi-nitely praiseworthy.

amBarAddress: Karađorđeva 2-4,

(Beton hala)Phone: +381 11 328 66 37

Price Guide: 1500-1900 dinars per person for three courses without

drinks [around €12-€15]

Basic Info

Overall

Wine selection

Wine service

Wine pricing

Wine and food pairing

Rating

Good

Very Good

Good

€19 - €180

Good

Pavle GOLICIN

Although amBar is yet another restaurant lo-cated in a row on the Sava

river waterfront stretch, it promotes itself somewhat different from the others as a place where you can taste modern interpretation of Balkan cuisine. Thus, you can expect to find there both tourists and Belgraders chill-ing on a lazy summer day.

A nice selection of cock-tails as well as of more than 40 local rakijas, from plum to raspberry fruit brandies, immediately caught my eye.

The first impression of wine list is also good, as it includes around 70 labels, covering a wide range of grape varieties. The list is divided into Balkan (in fact, ex-Yu plus a few Bulgarian wines) and World sections, organized from the least to the most expensive wines in each category.

However, amBar does not have a local house wine that would be expected for this kind of restaurant that promotes local cuisine. Also, wine list does not cover low range of wines, typical for Balkan kafanas, which shows what kind of custom-ers the restaurant is actually targeting.

Approximately 20 wines are available by the glass, but the selection of grape varieties might be wider in order to find the good match for the food you order.

The service in amBar is good. The young staff does its best, but lacks the so-phisticated touch and skills to accommodate to each visitor and its preferences. Again, as in many restau-rants, a glass of wine that I took was not poured in front of me, but at the bar!

All in all, amBar is the restaurant that every capital city needs. It offers interna-tional interpretation of local cuisine – whatever it means (sic) – but still needs time to develop in order to see if it will attract true Belgraders.

~ ~ ~

Win

e C

orn

erAmBarIt always begins with a simple question: ‘Can you bring me the wine list’? Everything else that follows is a complex matter, and cannot be measured only by how much is left in the bottle after dinner.

DINING OUT


ON THE SPOTWHAT’S ON

T R A T T O R I AP I Z Z E R I A

Nebojsina 8011/3863-999

[email protected]

CLUBBING AND LIVE MUSICFRIDAY SEPTEMBER 11th

• Tijana T All Night Long, 20/44 boat on Sava, 11pm

• Mile Voli Disco Party, Grad Cultural Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4, 11pm

• House Night, Industrija Bar, Karađorđeva 23, 10pm

• RnB Night – Pure Cream, Club 94, boat on Sava, 11pm

• Time Machine, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• Friday Beeeat, Hot Mess boat on Sava, 11pm

• Dj Goran Starčević and DJ Ike, Terassa, Kalemegdan Fortress, 11pm

• Retro House Party, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Can’t Stop the Rock, KST, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• Wolfram, Milan Mladenović Plateau, 8pm

• Neša Jovanović and Jovana Pajić, Bard boat on Sava river, 11pm


• Bizarre Groove: Boža Podunavac, Mirko Lazarević, Mancha, Mark Panić, Neutron, Schlitz, Barutana, Kalemegdan Fortress, 11pm

• Deliriant, Sava Center Summer Stage, Milentija Popovića 9, 11pm

• Diabolic, Fiyasco, Andaloop, Soul Print Recordings, Grad Cultural Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4, 11pm

• DJ Mirko and DJ Meex, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• DJ Prema, Industrija Bar, Karađorđeva 23, 10pm

• Somebody Call the Doctor, Club 94, boat on Sava, 11pm

• House Party, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Ex Yu Eighties, KST, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• Marko Žujović and Katarina Gardijan, River boat on Sava, 11pm

• Maja Louis Acoustic Trio, Tag boat on Sava, 11pm


• Nineties Night, Club 94, boat on Sava, 11pm

• Sunday Beat Deep House Tech House, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Žile Hram and Jelena Jovanović, Bard boat on Sava river, 11pm

• Marko Bulat and Teodora Toković, Kafana Uzbuna boat on Sava, 11pm

• Nesa Acoustic Band, Konoba Akustik, Cara Dušana 13, 10pm


• ‘90s Night, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Tri za Gros, Konoba Akustik, Cara Dušana 13, 11pm

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15th

• Girls Gonna Get Wild, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Milena Ćeranić, River, boat on Sava, 11pm


• Techno Yes Techno, 2044 boat on Sava, 11pm

• Shake That Thing, KST, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• DJ Gru and DJ Playa, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Naš Način, Konoba Akustik, Cara Dušana 13, 11pm

• Aćim i Violina, Kafana Jazbina, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 89, 11pm

• Libertas, Kafana Tajna, Ruzveltova 13, 10pm


• DJ Nikola and DJ Yabba, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• Wake Up DJs, Drugstore Play boat on Sava, 11pm

• ‘60s and ‘70s Rock, KST, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• Ensh, Das Rage, WDWRM, Grad Cultural Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4, 9pm

• Marina Visković, River boat on Sava, 11pm

• Nesa Acoustic Band, Konoba Akustik, Cara Dušana 13, 11pm

• Charter Band, Kafana Tajna, Ruzveltova 13, 10pm


• Pgrade w/Loco Dice, Magacin

Depo, Travnička 3, 11pm• Aristotech #2 w/ Rick

Sanders, Luka Vuković and Ivan Radojević, Svemirska

Kafana boat on Sava, 11pm

• Big Salsa Party, Mikser

House, Karađorđeva 46,

10pm

• Time Machine, Freestyler

boat on Sava, 11pm

• DJ Ike, Industrija Bar,

Karađorđeva 23, 10pm

• Pure Cream, Club 94, boat on

Sava, 11pm

• Retro House Party, Mr Stefan

Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Can’t Stop The Rock, KST,

Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73,

10pm

• Hertzinger, Grad Cultural

Centre, Braće Krsmanović 4,

8pm

• Stoned Jesus, Greenleaf,

Božidarac, Radoslava Grujića

3, 9pm• Neša Jovanović and Jovana

Pajić, Bard boat on Sava river,

11pm


• All Stars Party: Bass Maze, As Smooth As, Samo Ljubav, Banda Panda, Kristijan Molnar, Grad Cultural Centre,

Braće Krsmanović 4, 10pm

• Schwabe All Night Long,

20/44 boat on Sava, 11pm

• House Party, Mr Stefan

Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Somebody Call the Doctor,

Club 94, boat on Sava, 11pm

• Eighties, KST, Bulevar Kralja

Aleksandra 73, 10pm• Elina Duni Quartet, Duo

Andreas Schaerrer/Christy

Doran, Dom Omladine,

Makedonska 22, 8pm

• Raskid 13, Milan Mladenović

Square, 8pm• Texas Flood Tribute to Jimi

Hendrix, Mikser House,

Karađorđeva 46, 9pm• Marko Zujovic and Katarina

Gardijan, River boat on Sava,

11pm

• Maja Louis Acoustic Trio,

Tag boat on Sava, 11pm


• Sunday Beat Deep House Tech House, Mr Stefan Braun,

Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Vvhile, Bag of Dicks, Dom

Omladine, Makedonska 22,

9pm

• Superior Band, Još Ovu Noć,

Vojislava Ilića 86, 10pm

• Aćim i Violina, Kafana

Jazbina, Bulevar Kralja

Aleksandra 89, 11pm

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21st

• ‘90s Night, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• ‘90s Night, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• Tri za Groš, Konoba Akustik, Cara Dušana 13, 11pm

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 22nd

• Girls Gonna Get Wild, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Libertas, Kafana Tajna, Ruzveltova 13, 10pm


• Techno Yes Techno, 2044 boat on Sava, 11pm

• Dj Nikola and DJ Yabba, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• Dj Gru and DJ Playa, Mr. Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Ti, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 179, 9pm


• Retro House Party, Mr Stefan Braun, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

• Time Machine, Freestyler boat on Sava, 11pm

• DJ Ike, Industrija Bar, Karađorđeva 23, 11pm

• Pure Cream, Club 94, boat on Sava, 11pm

• Club 2000, KST, Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• Belgrade Sax Festival: Belgrade Philharmonic Big Chamber Orchestra play Aleksandar Sedlar and Ivan Brkljačić, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski Trg 5, 8pm

• Dhafer Youssef, The National Theatre, Francuska 1, 8pm

KOLARACPROGRAMME

Marie Viard, cello

Shih-YuTang, piano

Production: Music Centre

Programme: Haydn, Brahms,

Shostakovich

Admission free

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th

Concert Hall, 11am

Small School of Bonton

How To Listen To The Saxophone

Host: Miloš Milovanović


Ticket price: 100 dinars

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th

Concert Hall, 11am

Cycle: Kolarac Podium of Chamber

Music

Chamber Orchestra of Vojvodina

Artistic leader Sreten Jović

Irena Josifoska, cello


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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th

Concert Hall, 8pm

Wandel Trio

Milena Wilke, violin

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Whether you came on business or for private reasons, don’t forget that you’re in the fastest-living city in the region –

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Montenegrin pop singer rocks Belgrade

Mural tribute to Serbian actor in US

Nike marathon attracts Serbian celebrities

Medal-winning swimmer gets engaged

Vlado Georgijev, one of the most famous musicians in the Balkans, once again delighted his Bel-

grade fans with a packed concert at Bašta kod Juge bar on Septem-ber 7th, singing for more than two hours. Georgijev, who was raised in the Montenegrin coastal town of Herceg Novi, is a regular performer in Belgrade.

A photo of a mural depict-ing Dragan Jovanović, a prominent Serbian actor, sparked much discus-

sion on social networks after Bel-grade artist Andrej Josifovski, who painted it, put it on Instagram. The mural is on the wall of a building in San Diego, California. Josifovski was inspired by Jovanović’s role in the sitcom ’Moj Rođak sa Sela’ (’My Relative from the Village’) and also put one of the actor’s quotes from the sitcom next to the mural.

We Run Belgrade 2015, the fourth annual marathon organised by

Nike Serbia on September 6th, attracted more than 8,000 par-ticipants, including athlete Emir Bekrić, who opened it. According to media reports, many celebri-ties including actress Tamara Dragičević were involved in pro-moting the event at Ušće, where the race started.

Swimmer Velimir Stjepanović, who was born in the US but chose to represent Serbia instead,

got engaged to his South African girlfriend Jessica on September 8th, making it public by posting a photo on Twitter. Twenty-two-year-old Stjepanovic is the best Serbian swimmer and 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle winner at the European Aquatics Championships in 2014.

Georgijev.

Mural in San Diego.

Stjepanović with his fiancee.

Actress Tamara Dragičević.

Photo: Facebook

Photo: Instagram

Photo: Twitter

Photo: Instagram


GOING OUT SPORT

Whitesnake revisit purple roots

Legendary hard rockers Whitesnake are returning to Belgrade on No-vember 22nd with a tribute to the past glories of singer and group lead-er David Coverdale. Coverdale got his big break singing in Ritchie Blackmore’s legend-ary Deep Purple, then formed Whitesnake after leaving the band, although his music continued to be rooted in the blues-inspired me-

lodic hard rock that he helped create with Deep Purple back in the 1970s. His current tour is promoting ‘The Purple Album’, which has some recreations of old Deep Pur-ple classics on it. The concert will be held at Hala Pionir.

Ukrainian doom-rockers light up Vračar

Fans of hazy Black Sabbath-inspired gloom should head over to Božidarac on September 18th to join Ukrainian’s Stoned Jesus and Swedish band Greenleaf in celebrating loud, slow-motion riffs and, obviously, their love for marijuana. Tickets will be 15 euros at the door.

Machine head play thrash marathon

Thrash metal greats Machine Head are doing a special tour this year, playing two-and-a-half-hour-long gigs compris-ing songs spanning their entire career, with no support act. They play at Dom Omladine in Belgrade on September 21st.

Loco Dice headlines upgrade party

One of the bigger names in contem-porary electronic dance music, Loco Dice will be bringing his hard-driving sound to the Upgrade Party at Depo on September 18th. The German DJ is on tour promoting his latest album ‘Under-ground Sound Suicide’, which contains his huge single ‘Get Comfy’ featuring British rapper Giggs. Tickets are on sale for five euros.

Bosnian pop hero returns to Belgrade

Legendary Bosnian pop singer Dino Merlin is finally coming back to Belgrade on October 24th. The last time he sung in Serbia’s capital was in November 2011, when he played three nights at the Belgrade Arena to a total of 60,000 fans. This concert is scheduled for the Arena once again, and tickets are already on sale for between 15 and 30 euros.

Argentine prog rockers offer human touch

Playing for the first time in Europe, five-piece progressive rock band Fughu come all the way from Buenos Aires. Their most recent releases were a brace of concept albums, issued simultane-ously: ‘Human – The Tales’ and ‘Human – The Facts’. Their show is on Septem-ber 20th at Danguba.

Saxperience fest honks back

After its successful launch last year, the Belgrade Saxperience festi-val - an international music festival dedicated to the saxophone - is back for four days from September 24th to 27th.Once again, the festival will promote saxophone-based music in Serbia in a bid to motivate more composers to write for the instrument. Through a series of concerts and workshops, the festival also gives local saxophon-

ists and enthusiasts to link up with top players from around the world. Classical and jazz works will be showcased, and there will be an outdoor daytime sax concert for children.Tickets are already on sale with the most expensive costing around six euros. Visit the official site for more details: belgradesaxperience.com

Photo: Facebook

Modern, chic but ‘fancy’, no wonder this striking, all-white riverside club keeps going from strength to strength.

David GALIĆ

Splavs are the calling card of Belgrade nightlife over the summer but few offer anything that new to people seeking fun on the river. It has

become increasingly hard to distinguish between these riverside clubs. Many of them have seemed to morph into one collective club, imitating what works for one another in an effort to attract the most patrons, summer after summer.

But if we were to pick one that stands out, it would have to be Lasta. The one important thing about Lasta that puts it on the map, literally, is the location. While over 90 per cent of the most pop-ular splavs are across the bridge on the New Belgrade side of the river, Lasta is on the opposite shore.

This means that you don’t have to cross the river to get to it, which is great if you are in the city centre already. It also means it is almost the only splav of its level located on that side of the bridges.

It isn’t all that easy to get to, however. There is no bus there unless you want to take one to the Belgrade Fair, which gets you close. But that’s also the case with most splavs on the other side, so it isn’t a big issue. Most such river clubs require a bit of a walk or a short taxi ride to get to.

Sure, the location is a big part of Las-ta’s success and popularity but it isn’t the only thing. There are similar boats in the vicinity but Lasta plainly out-classes most clubs of its type on both sides of the river.

While the design of the more promi-nent and expensive splavs tends to go - pardon the pun - overboard in terms of décor, Lasta stays modern and chic while falling into what Serbians call the “fancy” style of establishment, meaning a place that caters to the better-dressed and thicker-walleted clientele.

The boat is all white, which makes it stand out like a beacon on the bank, especially when all the lights are on. All beautifully designed, of course, from interior to exterior, another distinctive trait of Lasta is the all-white “plant life” all around the club. Fake summery shrubbery and trees like palm trees and other tropical plants are strewn about the entire club.

This couples with a lot of disco balls strung above the heads of patrons. While this combination of white tropi-cal plants and disco lights might sound somewhat crazy when described in words, it actually works well seen in real life.

The musical programme of Lasta is not that exciting to your state-of-the-art clubber but lives up to its intentions. It does not play Serbian folk/dance mu-

sic, like most other top-tier splavs, but, like others in the upper echelon, sticks to house music. Sometimes you might visit Lasta when they are deviating with some commercial r’n’b or hip-hop but for the most part, the music is house.

As you’ve probably garnered from the description so far, this isn’t a “shorts and “tank top” place. If you’re a gentleman, do not try getting in wear-ing sneakers and cargo shorts and

ladies should not show up in jeans either.

Lasta has become massively popu-lar over the last year, so, despite its 500-person capacity, phone in for a res-ervation if you want to avoid waiting in line on Fridays and Saturdays.

Lasta provides a respite from the kitsch and overt gaudiness of most similar establishments and you’ll see a more diverse crowd here than you would at other high-priced splavs. The

fact that both regular Joe clubbers and television and sport celebrities go to Lasta is exactly why it has become the place to be on the river this year - and it will probably stay that way for many years to come.

Lasta

Address: Hercegovačka bb, Savamalski kej

Contact: +381 69 83 00 777

Filip AVRAMOVIĆ

Vlada Đurović, a former basketball player and current basketball coach, said Serbia’s team had high hopes at

the European Basketball Champion-ship but will also need some luck.

“Serbia has a strong team, but the absence of Boban Marjanović can be felt. He is a huge person and can be re-ally frightening for opposing players. I don’t have to mention his defensive skills,” Đurović told BIRN.

He added that Serbia also has a coach, Aleksandar Đorđević, “who was a great player and is a good moti-vator. He aims high and really fills the team with confidence.”

“Serbia has the ability to play com-petitive basketball, but they will need a bit of luck if they are to repeat the suc-cess from last year’s World Champion-ship,” Đurović added.

Serbia started the Championship with high hopes and solid perfor-mances and currently tops Group B with two wins.

It managed to outshine former bronze medalists Spain with a deci-sive win of 10 points.

Đurović meanwhile says while Cro-atia “has the best team from former Yugoslavia”, it lacks a leader.

“Croatia doesn’t have that match-deciding man, the team’s backbone and leader. If it goes well for them, they are satisfied. If things start going the wrong direction, nobody can change that, turn the game around,” Đurović said.

He added that “if Slovenia had [Goran] Dragić, it would mean a world of difference. Their injuries have got the best of them”.

Turning to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Đurović stated that injuries had hin-dered their chances.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t a complete team. They had many trou-bles with injuries and it’s a shame. If they had a complete roster, the team would have performed much better,” he said.

Yugoslavia once dominated world and European basketball taking 17 medals at the European basketball championships, eight of them gold.

As an independent nations, Serbia has won one silver medal and Croatia two bronze medals at the European basketball championships.

Macedonia recorded its greatest success at Eurobasket 2011, finishing fourth, while Bosnia and Herzegovina finished eighth at Eurobasket in 1993.

Slovenia’s best result was fourth place at Eurobasket 2009.

Eurobasket 2015 is under way and five former Yugoslav republics are among the participants– Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia.

Filip AVRAMOVIĆ

Some Inter fans have nicknamed their favorite club ‘Interić’ as a joke, but it reflects the fact that the club has become home to

many players from ex-Yugoslav coun-tries.

The characteristic Yugoslav last name ending with ‘ić’ could be found on many Inter jerseys over the years, and the trend of signing players from this re-gion has not stopped yet.

The Italian football club did not be-tray its tradition this season either, with three new players from the region in the

team – Adem Ljajić, Stevan Jovetić and Ivan Perišić.

Inter has hosted as many as 13 play-ers from the former Yugoslavia over the past decade.

In the season 2005-2006, Inter was home to two of the most famous Serbian players.

Siniša Mihajlović commanded the defence, while Dejan ‘Il Drago’ Stanković bombarded goalkeepers with shots from remarkable distances and split opposi-tion defences with his accurate passes.

The two players remained at the club until the end of their careers, accom-panied by Slovenian goalkeepers Vid Belec and Samir Handanović, Croatian striker Marko Livaja, Macedonian wing-er Goran Pandev and others.

Goran Pandev and Dejan Stanković won the Champions League with Inter in 2010, and Siniša Mihajlović was the assistant manager at the time.

Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozović joined Inter last season and is still in the club’s first-team plans.

But the Croatian wonderkid mid-fielder Mateo Kovačević departed Inter for Real Madrid and while his transfer stirred up outrage among the fans, it made room for some new names from the former Yugoslavia.

Serbian striker Adem Ljajić, Montene-grin striker Stevan Jovetić and Croatian winger Ivan Perišić have all signed for ‘Interić’ for this season.

Many believe that Serie A’s ex-Yugo-slav colony could go far and become the Italian and European champions again.

Inter has also been home to Serbia’s Zdravko Kuzmanović and Nemanja Vidić, who has not been registered to play this season because of a bad injury, as well as Alen Stevanović and Rene Krhin.

Inter Milan becomes ex-Yugoslav football havenOver the past ten years, Milan football club Internazionale has become a home for many players from former Yugoslav republics, even earning the nickname ‘Interić’.

Ex-Yugoslav republics dominate Eurobasket

Aleksandar Đorđević, the Serbian coach. Photo by Beta

Photo by BetaStevan Jovetić.

Lasta, a splav with a difference

16 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, September 11 - Thursday, September 24, 2015

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