on memory politics and memory activism in Serbia, initiate hashtag memory activism campaigns, and
as related to the memories of the 1990s, I have those who participate in them.
observed an increase inthe use of hashtags on
In what follows I introduce the analysis of two
social media platforms by local memory activists of a number of hashtags I am currently studying.
addressing the contested pasts in the successor The first is related to mnemonic battles in the post-
states of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the Yugoslav space: #NisuNašiHeroji (#NotOurHeroes);
appearance of online commemorations. These online the second is the #MyNakbaStory hashtag, related
activities almost always supplement rather than to the memory of 1948 in the ongoing Israeli-
replace onsite activism and onsite commemorations. Palestinian conflict. Among various questions, I
Employed as a strategy of peace activism,
explore the genealogies of each hashtag, its initiators
memory activism is discussed here as activism and users, its significance to the study of online
oriented towards the past, a knowledge-based commemorations and local or regional dynamics of
project promoting consciousness-raising and memory politics.
political change, undertaken outside the channels
of the state (Gutman, 2017). Memory activism can
appear in times of an ongoing conflict, as well as
in its aftermath. As I show in my discussion below,
through cases of both post-conflict dynamics
#NisuNašiHeroji (#NotOurHeroes):
Generational Mnemonic Claims, Online
Memory Activism, and the Post-Yugoslav
space as a Region of Memory
of memory politics (as in the case of Serbia and
the post-Yugoslav successor states) and ongoing With the closure of the International Criminal
conflict (as in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict), Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in late
memory activists utilise hashtags to engage with 2017, across the successor states of the former
forbidden ideas and commemorations, with disputed Yugoslavia, ICTY convicts who completed their
or silenced memories and terminologies, and sentences (or following early release) began to return
with topics from concealed pasts. I define hashtag home, where they were and still are often received
memory activism as the online commemoration of as heroes. In Serbia, as well as in Croatia, Bosnia-
a contested past on social media, which entails the Herzegovina, and Kosovo, prominent convicts
use of hashtags as a mnemonic practice; Hashtag reclaimed roles in public life. This was when the
memory activism can be employed as a mnemonic young generation of memory activists from Serbia
tactic which enables the creation of alternative began to engage with these returning convicts,
platforms for remembrance, with the aim of sharing attempting to obstruct their public appearances
and disseminating alternative knowledge about a and protesting at their rehabilitation and return to
contested past among societies in and after conflict public life (Fridman, 2018). Among other actions,
(Fridman, 2019). The hashtag as a mnemonic they began using a hashtag to accompany with their
practice is thus being appropriated by activists as social media appearance and memory activism:
part of their memory work and advocacy campaigns. #NisuNašiHeroji (#NotOurHeroes). The activists,
The choice of the hashtag’s language is interesting members of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights
as well. It may indicate the target population for the (YIHR), used the hashtag as they positioned
action itself, as well as the identities of those who themselves through the choice of the word Our/Naši,
1
In a counter-demonstration in Zagreb against the erection of the Tudjman monument on the 19th anniversary of his death on December 10, 2018, activists of
the Zagreb YIHR office (joined by a number of other groups from Croatia) held up a sign with the hashtag #NisuNašiHeroji. See http://hr.n1info.com/Vijesti/
a354523/U-Zagrebu-prosvjed-protiv-postavljanja-kipa-FranjiTudjmanu.html?fbclid=IwAR1jcCsrejc2KE1YzU8ZzG1mI1ylJTgzRhAm2LVTFFWDzOpuklW6kp2B0MA
and https://balkaninsight.com/2018/12/10/the-greatest-monument-of-former-croatian-president-unveiled-in-zagreb-12-10-2018/ (accessed on June 10, 2019).
2
See the YIHR Kosovo and Serbia joint statement http://www.yihr.rs/bhs/ratnim-zlocincima-nije-mesto-u-vladi-kosova/, where they condemn and protest the
appointment of Sylejman Selimi as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj. In July 2019, Haradinaj resigned from office on being sum-
moned to the Special Tribunal in The Hague for questioning.
68
Observing Memories
ISSUE 3