Besides the conflicts, who were the individuals that promoted friendship and cooperation between Balkan nations?

[u/theDivic]

We often discuss the wars and conflicts in Balkan history, but I’m curious about the other side. Who are some notable individuals, leaders, intellectuals, or even everyday people who worked to build understanding, cooperation, or friendship between Balkan nations?

I don’t mean the mainstream political figures we always hear about, like Tito or the broader Yugoslav “Brotherhood and Unity” project. I’m more interested in lesser-known writers, thinkers, or activists - people like Esad Mekuli, the Kosovo Albanian poet who helped shape modern Albanian literature and also translated works from Serbo-Croatian, bridging cultural spheres.

On the Serbian side, an example might be Dobrica Ćosić in his early years, before his later nationalist reputation - back then he wrote sympathetically about Albanian issues and advocated for their recognition within Yugoslavia (though his views later shifted dramatically).

Who are other such figures - from any Balkan country - who genuinely tried to bridge divides rather than deepen them?

[u/Magistar_Idrisi]

A couple people from Croatia:

Marko Orešković - a Croat from Lika, he was crucial in organizing and spreading the uprising against the Ustaše regime in 1941. He was killed by Serb bandits in autumn of that year. He became somewhat of a folk hero among the Serbs of Lika. They composed many folk songs about him, the most famous of which started with "drug je Marko hrvatskoga roda, al je majka srpskog naroda".

Josip Reihl-Kir - police chief of Osijek in Eastern Croatia, who tried to organize many peacekeeping initiatives in the region in early 1991. He was well respected among the local Serb population, and often managed to calm tensions. Ultimately he was assassinated by a member of the Croatian armed forces, most likely under orders from a local Croatian warlord.

I would also mention Ivan Goran Kovačić, the author of Jama (a poem about the massacres of Serbs in 1941). He was murdered by Chetniks in 1943. Svetozar Pribičević was also an interesting figure - in 1918 he was a Yugoslav unitarist, but by the late 1920s he became a federalist and cooperated with the Croatian Peasant Party.

[u/theDivic → u/Magistar_Idrisi]

Thanks a lot, this is the kind of answer I was looking for. We all heard about these people but never learned much about their lives.

I would say that examples like these are a clear sign that radical nationalists movements were never about protecting, saving or preserving anything, they were always only about their own interests. Why kill people who are supportive of your nation?

Btw I am very glad that in my neighborhood in Belgrade we still have the school “OŠ Marko Orešković” and it’s still in the Oton Župančić street, even after they started the trend of renaming street and institutions names.