7 hours agoAlbanian flag focused on protest against Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)Hundreds of citizens have gathered tonight in Normmalm Square in Stockholm to protest the 2019 Nobel Prize ceremony, where the award for literature went to controversial Austrian writer Peter Handke, reports Anadolu Agency (AA). Most of those assembled were citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including members of the renowned Bosnian Association “Mothers and [...]
Most of those assembled were citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including members of the renowned Bosnian Association “Srebrenica mothers”, but what drew attention was also Albania's flag, which did not lack among Bosnian flags.
The protest initiative, Teufika Shabanovic, who is originally from Srebrenica, confirmed that several hundred people have already gathered in protests.
They rewarded the man who denied genocide and war crimes committed on Bosnia and Herzegovina's territory in the 1990s. We stand on the side of truth and justice”, Shabanovic said.
The Nobel Prize ceremony is held under the shadow of criticism because of this year's literature-sharing decision on Handke, an Austrian writer who denies genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Srebrenica. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature despite his open support for Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 at the International Court in Hag while being tried for war crimes and genocide.
Handke claimed Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo had killed themselves, adding that he never believed Serbs had committed genocide in Srebrenica.
Several countries boycotted the award-sharing ceremony. Kosovo envoys Albania, Turkey, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sweden did not attend the ceremony.
Austrian writer Handke was born in 1942 in the village of Griffin in the Carten region in southern Austria. By 1961 he studied law at the University of Graz. But he stopped studying several years later when he published the novel, “Die hornissen”, in 1966.
Handke's selection as Nobel Literature Prize laureate for 2019 triggered reactions in the region and beyond.
Handke, who was a great fan of Milosevic, in a script published during the war in Kosovo, had written “if you support Serbs, stand up”.
The Austrian author had stressed that he never believes Serbs committed genocide in Srebrenica.
He had also visited Millosevitch prison and had made efforts to testify in his behalf.
Handke had also attended Milosevic's funeral in 2006, where the speech indicated that “here for Yugoslavia, Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic”.
