Man Smashes Cyrillic Sign in Omis: "Cyrillic Belongs on Other Side of Drina River"

August the 18th, 2022 - A man in Omis has smashed a plaque which bore written text in both the Latin script and in the Cyrillic script, stating that the Cyrillic script belongs on the other side of the Drina River, and not in Croatia.

As Morski writes, "Keep Cyrillic on the other side of the Drina River!" exclaimed an irritated young man in the Central Dalmatian town of Omis while breaking the plaque displayed on the "Pillar of Shame" in Poljicki Square. He committed the act a mere few minutes after the plaque was displayed there, and he then calmly threw the pieces into a nearby bin.

As stated in the Facebook post, Anand Stambuk is an art lover and collector who got the opportunity to present his original work at a renowned art festival.

He wanted to install a bilingual plaque on the Omis' city administration building with an inscription attesting to a positive relationship between Serbs and Croats in both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts.

His work is the only work from this year's festival that didn't receive a municipal permit, for which the festival administration apologised to Mr. Stambuk and returned the plaque to him, with the explanation that he can still manifest and display the work in his own arrangement, in the way he deems appropriate, but he'd have to do so without the support of the organisers, except in terms of documentation.

After this explanation, the author decided to display the plaque on the "Pillar of Shame" on Poljicki Square in Omis.

A few minutes after it had been placed in the aforementioned location in the town, a young man who happened to be there reacted by smashing the artwork and throwing the remains in the bin, shouting in a commanding tone to those present: "Keep Cyrillic on the other side of the Drina River!"

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