Croatian-Serbian relations: Refugees, returnees and ideology as factors of identity building – Golubić 2019

The Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation from Novi Sad and the Association for History, Cooperation and Reconciliation from Obrovac organized the twelfth scientific conference on "Serbian-Croatian relations". The meeting was held from 22. August to 25 August 2019 in Golubić (Croatia).

"Croatian-Serbian relations; refugees, returnees and ideology as factors of identity building"

In the period from 22.08. until 25.08.2019. in Golubić (Obrovac) the twelfth international scientific meeting and meeting of politicians from Serbia and Croatia was held. This year’s meeting was called “Croatian-Serbian relations; refugee, returnees and ideology as factors of identity building”.

The meeting “Serbian-Croatian relations” was attended by scientists, representatives of the non-governmental sector and political representatives of parties and movements that advocate the ideas of tolerance and cooperation in the region.

The organizers of the meeting are the Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation from Novi Sad and the Association for History, Cooperation and Reconciliation from Obrovac.

At the gathering, they insisted on a decisive opposition to the dominant narratives, political myths and chauvinism-tinged memory culture. It was concluded that these are disruptive factors in the process of regional reconciliation policy .

The importance of work on improving the position of the Serbian minority in Croatia and the Croatian minority in Serbia was highlighted. Also, the position and attitudes towards refugees in the last year were analysed.

It was analyzed to what extent refugees, returnees and national minorities are abused by certain politicians when it comes to peaceful coexistence and solving political crises in the region.

As a positive example of improving the position of returnees as well as potential solutions for the population remaining in rural areas of Croatia, the works of distinguished professors dealing with rural tourism and agro-economics were presented to a wider audience.

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