The Serbian daily, Novosti, reports that an initiative by the Government of Serbia will see a monument to Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassin – Gavrilo Princip – erected in Kalemegdan Park, Belgrade, for the Centenary.
The monument will be revealed sometime before June 2014, with an identical statue also being built in eastern Sarajevo. This is in an effort to “rectify the injustice towards Princip”, who has never had a monument dedicated to him.
Historian Mile Bjelajac states that: “Serbia is home of Serbian people despite of where they were born – Princip was a freedom fighter and he deserves a place here”.
Bjelajac states that the monument is not intended to be provocative to Europe, which, as a ” cradle of old values”, “needs to understand the motives of [Princip’s] actions” as a “freedom fighter”.
Source: Novosti website
Date of article publication: 22/01/2014
Images courtesy of Wikipedia
Translated by: Tanja Bonny, Centenary News
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News