Exhibition on turbulent Serbia-Austria relations opens

BELGRADE - An exhibition entitled Notes on Turbulent Relations has been opened at the Kneginja Ljubica Museum in Belgrade, focusing on the relations between Serbia and Austria between 1836 and 1914.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic opened the exhibition by sting that the relations with Austria were now good and stable after a turbulent history.

"The turbulent period in the relations between the two centuries culminated after the assassination in Sarajevo. Besides the well known tragic epilogue, it also created the majority of negative stereotypes concerning the Serbs in the Austrian public, and traces of them can still be felt, unfortunately," Dacic remarked.

One hundred years after reaching the lowest point in their relations, Austria today is helping Serbia join the EU and its investors are the biggest in Serbia, he stressed.

Austrian Ambassador Johannes Eigner said he did not find it easy to speak in Belgrade in 2014, 100 years from the day his distant predecessor delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, which was the penultimate step towards World War One.

Reality looks different nowadays, and the relations between the two countries prove that something can indeed be learned from history, Eigner stated.

Officials of the diplomatic corps, head of tthe Modern History Institute Momcilo Popovic and a number of Serbian historians attended the opening ceremony.

Photo Tanjug, S.Radovanovic