On Friday 2 and Saturday 3 June 2017, the two-day event regarding the “The Unknown Balkans” took place at The Hub Events.

Attendees were able to discuss with more than 25 speakers (academics, diplomats, journalists and politicians) coming from EU countries and also the Western Balkans, on issues related to the region of Southeast Europe, with particular emphasis on Kosovo, FYROM and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides the conference panels, there were two short films and photo exhibitions as well, with pictures from the 3 countries.

Thanos Veremis, Vice President of ELIAMEP, Luan Shllaku, Executive Director of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, and Ioannis Armakolas, Assistant Professor at the University of Macedonia, Research Fellow Stavros Kostopoulos & Head of the Southeast Europe Program at ELIAMEP started the event with the introductory remarks.

The first day of the conference, Friday 2 June included panels for the “Skopje 2014” program in FYROM,  the possibilities of an exit from the political crisis in FYROM, on issues of democracy & the new authoritarianism in the Balkans and finally on the overall strategy of the European Union regarding the Balkan region. Among the speakers and coordinators on the first day of the event were Dimitris Kourkoulas, Dusan Reljic, Tobias Flessenkemper, Maria – Eleni Koppa, Dane Taleski, Zoran Ilievski, Alexandros Mallias, Tasos Teloglou, Patrik Svensson, Yannis Papageorgiou and others.

On the second day of the conference, Saturday 3 June, a debate was held on the problems of managing the cultural heritage in the Balkans, as well as a photo exhibition of the photographer Maria Katsaouni. Among the speakers were Dimitris Moschopoulos, Skender Boshtrakaj, Hajrula Ceku and Dzenan Sahovic.

Finally, the documentaries “Kosovo Rising” and “Home” (which won the 2017 BAFTA Short Film Awards) were screened. After the debates, discussions with the producers of the two documentaries Alexia Euripidou & Stephen Nugget and Shpat Deda respectively, took place.

 

The agenda of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credits @Marianna Katsaouni