Comments on social networks regarding the news about the opening of the Serbian Cultural Center in Zagreb are positive, which is good to know in the expressed and unconcealed policy of repulsion towards neighbors, and the growth of right-wingers and their ambitions.
And politicians, present at opening on Thursday, they were full of nice words and optimism, so we should hope that "this is another attempt to start again", as Milorad Pupovac, president of the Serbian People's Council (SNV) and member of the Croatian Parliament, commented on their statements and the atmosphere at yesterday's ceremony .
Key word future
Marko Đurić, Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that in the coming period, Serbia and Croatia will continue to work with increased strength to resolve open issues and improve relations.
"For me, when it comes to our interstate and interethnic relations, with all respect for the past and difficult moments, the key word is future." I believe that in that future we can base ourselves on key words such as respect, which should grow into greater trust, which, I am convinced, can grow into friendship in the future. I know that these may be big words, but I am committed, and we will be committed to working on resolving all issues and improving relations," Djuric said, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia reported," said Marko Djuric.
He also emphasized that he will make additional efforts to ensure that the Croatian community in Serbia is on its own.
Photo: Novosti/Sandro LendlerMilorad Pupovac, Veran Matić and Tomislav Žigmanov
Apart from Marko Đurić, from the Serbian government, Tomislav Žigmanov, Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue and President of the Democratic Union of Croats in Vojvodina, and various other representatives of the two countries and minority communities attended the opening. Culture Minister Nikola Selaković was not at the opening, although his colleague from Zagreb, Croatian Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek, was. Milorad Pupovac, representatives of the city government, as well as the Serbian community in Croatia, was on the Croatian side.
Gathering places
Eugen Jakovčić, spokesperson of the Serbian National Council, tells "Vreme" that "Serbian centers primarily serve to gather people, motivate them to open up to the majority population, but also have a political message about state cooperation."
Mr. Jakovčić reminds that programs have been held in Preradovićeva where the Serbian Cultural Center is located for several years, and that the entire project was completed thanks to the governments of Zoran Milanović and then Andrej Plenković. He adds that they are obliged to do so by the Law on Minorities and the EU.
Apart from Zagreb, says Mr. Jakovčić, in the Republic of Croatia, "Serbian cultural centers have recently opened in Vukovar, Slavonski Brod, Udbina, Knin, Beli Manastir, Osijek and Glina. They are large and very attractive, especially the one in Glina. And everyone is doing well."
From history
While researching the history of the area where the Serbian Cultural Center is now, Nikola Bajto came up with interesting information for the Serbian National Council newsletter. We are transmitting his text in its entirety.
"The large complex with the girls' boarding school of the Zagreb charitable cooperative Srpkinja was located across the street from Privrednik's headquarters in Preradovićeva Street, on an area of 4600 square meters.
The wives of Isidor Dobrović and Vladimir Matijević, Kristina Dobrović and Paulina Matijević, founded the Zagreb Srpkinja in 1896, modeled on the women's charitable cooperatives of the same name from Vojvodina, whose goals were to provide moral, educational and material assistance to young Serbian women. Later, within the cooperative in Zagreb, a Serbian girls' boarding school was founded in Preradovićeva street 21 and 23.
During the NDH, the Srpkinja cooperative was shut down and the complex became state property.
During the war, the Ustasha authorities intended to build a city swimming pool with a sports hotel at those addresses according to the first-prized solution of the later famous socialist architect Drago Galić, but the project was not realized.
In the first post-war years, the Serbian cultural society Prosvjeta became the main beneficiary of the property of Serbian national institutions. It also took over the entire complex of the Zagreb Charitable Cooperative of Serbian Women at Preradovićeva 21 and 23.
The Prosvjetina reading room was opened there in December 1945, and soon the printing press was also started.
In 1955, the Prosvjeta printing house merged with the bookstores, and thus the Prosvjeta Publishing Company was created, owned by the Company. The company printed a large number of books in a number of libraries, partly in Cyrillic, and with its very good business, it financially supported the work of the Society.
The loss of the building at Preradovićeva 21, with an area of 1546 square meters, is related to the bad contract that Prosvjeta concluded in 1957 with the publishing company Borba, which was succeeded by the publishing house Informator, when the real estate was usurped even though it had been registered all along Education.
Prosvjeta was able to return the objects only after a long court case against the Zagreb Printing House and the company Slovo, with a final judgment from 2014.
The loss of other buildings is related to the period of the Croatian Spring, when, along with Matica Hrvatska, also Prosvjeta, which was closed down by state decision in 1980, and the buildings at Preradovićeva 23 became the property of state organizations.
Education was restored in the early 1990s and began to fight for the return of usurped and confiscated property.
After Prosvjeta again submitted a formal request in June 2015 for the donation of real estate with an area of 3066 square meters at Preradovićeva 23, the Government made a positive decision on the matter at its session on September 10 of the same year, with which the former complex of the Srpkinja cooperative in Zagreb finally returned to Serbian ownership. to the community."
The first phase
The opening of the Serbian Cultural Center in Zagreb was at the same time the opening of the "Barbarogenij Surrealizma" exhibition on the occasion of the centenary of André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, as well as the traditional "Days of Serbian Culture" event organized by SKD Prosvjet, which this year is dedicated to the great Serbian writer Dušan Kovačević.
The first phase of the Serbian Cultural Center was opened on Thursday, and the big job of building new facilities is yet to come. When all that is finished, the Serbs in Zagreb will get a truly representative space that will enable theater performances, exhibitions and various other cultural events.
By the way, at the opening, it was also said that the Memorial for the Zec family on Sljemen, where members of the Serbian family, including the girl Aleksandra Zec, were brutally murdered in Zagreb will soon be completed.
