What characterizes the crisis in teaching of history in all Balkan countries?
DUBRAVKA STOJANOVIC: The first project initiated by the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation from Thessaloniki, in now distant 1999, produced a comparative analysis of all history textbooks used in the Balkans. We focused on the then most controversial events from our common history and analyzed how they were presented in history textbooks of all “interested” countries. For me, as a historian, that was an incredible experience. We realized that interpretation of the same historical events differed so much from one country to another that, if we were to set up a competition, it would be unlikely that pupils could recognize that the textbooks were actually describing the same events. Therefore, not only do we know very little about each other, but the little we do know is almost always exactly the opposite of what is thought on the other side. Then, naturally, in case of conflicts, that history, spiced up by passion becomes perfect fodder for hatred and justification for everything. A
