The Serb community in Mostar is being restored: The position of the Serbs is difficult, but they fight for their place (PHOTO)

President of the Serbian Cultural Education Association Prosvjeta from Mostar and the Mostar Priest Radivoje Krulj thinks that it is good that this city was chosen to host the trilateral meeting of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Croatia-Serbia, because Mostar is an art and cultural center, a bridge between the east and west, and it would be good to be a bridge between Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia.

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- I am glad that this meeting is held in Mostar, where our Serbian community is in the middle, where it is developing and fighting for its place - Krulj said to Tanjug, with the hope that "people will return to their homes".

He said that people are returning to Mostar, but not too much. 

- The living conditions must be created first, and we are developing as a people here in Mostar, in every precisely that way, in economic, cultural and every other way - he said.

Foto: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

Krulj says that about 5,000 Serbs live in Mostar, about 7,000 in Hercegovacko-Neretva Canton and that their position, like the position of all other inhabitants of this region, is conditioned by the lack of regional development due to unresolved political issues and the lack of new jobs.

- Everybody is having a hard time, and it's the hardest to Serbian community because it is in a renewal phase, but it's not desperate and we hope that it will be good - Krulj expects.

He sees in Serbian culture the best way to "represent our people and our community", and he said that it is a very important segment of the Serbian presence in Mostar.

Printskrin: YouTube/INPUT doo (jasastyle)

- Mostar, at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, was the leader of the cultural development of Serbs, along with Novi Sad. Today, we are trying to be on the paths of Santic, Corovic, and Ducic and all those who worked and created here - said the president of the Serbian Cultural Educational Society "Prosvjeta".

Radivoje Krulj pointed out that "Prosvjeta" has several recognizable manifestations - Santic evening of poetry, the Christmas concert, the children's poet's festival, and it has the support of Serbia, which, as he added, could be even bigger in order to represent Serbs with even more quality.

- We have a significant anniversary this year - 150 years from the birth of Aleksa Santic, 50 from the founding of Aleksa Santic literary award - Krulj said.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)