Srebrenica: The Result of a Chosen Trauma

Srebrenica is a genocide resulted by the awakening of “chosen traumas” of a society in indirect ways by the leader Slobodan Milosevic. In 1989, at the 600th anniversary of The Battle of Kosovo, Milosevic made a public speech in which he provoked the public by often mentioning legendary Serbian leaders, the Ottoman Empire and the battle itself. Moreover, the remains of Serbian prince Lazar’s body, a legend of the battle in 1389, were discovered exactly 600 years later and passed around in a coffin from town to town. Seeing this, the public wore their mourning clothes 600 years later and lamented. That way, a “time collapse” occured and the past trauma of the public was activated again. The tragic thing here is that; as a result of this awakening, people filled with intense rage, grudge and hatred directed these feelings towards Muslim Bosnians who represented the Ottoman Empire and wanted revenge. As we can conclude from these events, there a lot of lessons to be drawn from Srebrenica. The most important one amongst them is the necessity of creating an atmosphere to mourn for our sorrows and not turning our past traumas (and glories) into uncontrollable propaganda tools.