WHO IS WHO IN THE 'BOSNIAN PYRAMID' PROJECT – part II
People Who Mean Something
“ANCHOR: Have you thought about.. that the whole idea of pyramids in Visoko could be used for preelection purposes? You know, we have elections in October, I don’t know if you’re going to vote, if you’re registered…
OSMANAGIC: Here.. Concerning.. uhm.. mixing politics and this project, I can say only this. This year we have 200 days of research. Untill the end of October. Next year we have 200 days. The following year 200 days. This is a project that will go on for years and decades. And elections will come and go. Political establishments will come and go. My wish is, in fact, that this project has support of all political establishments, because I think that is in the interest of this country. However.. uhm.. the Foundation is a non-political, non-governmental, non-profit organization and it will not interfere with political.. uhm.. elections and..
ANCHOR: What if political elections interfere with the Foundation?
OSMANAGIC: How?
ANCHOR: By Sulejman Tihic coming to kiss you at.. [refering to the May 24 visit by 12 foreign ambassadors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, lead by Mr. Sulejman Tihic, the then President of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Presidency, and the warm welcome by Mr. Semir Osmanagic on the Visocica hill plateau]
OSMANAGIC: First of all, Sulejman Tihic is the nominal chief of state and we were very proud that a chief of state made a visit to the archaeological site. After him, there were ambassadors..
ANCHOR: Do you think.. sorry for interrupting, do you think that this kiss will not be worth, I don’t know, a thousand votes in Visoko tomorrow? Because you’re not popular only in Visoko, but in that region, have you thought about that?
OSMANAGIC: No.
ANCHOR: Because then it, it’s worth a thousand votes.
OSMANAGIC: Well look, the pyramid was visited by dr. Haris Silajdzic too.. [Mr. Tihic’s presidential opponent in the October elections] ..so how about that? We sent out several invitations to dr. Zlatko Lagumdzija as well, who has not replied yet, most probably because of his other obligations, Mr. Dodik, etcetera. Therefore, uhm.. people who mean something, who are in the decision-making process surely must know.. uhm.. enough about this project. They are regularly informed, updated and I think it’s good that they come to the location so that they can.. uhm.. inform their partners accordingly, etcetera.”
Semir Osmanagic in radio-interview by Sarajevo-based Radio 202, June 16, 2006
After the above quoted inteview with Mr. Osmanagic, made in June this year, there is little room for any doubt about the perception of the Bosnian Pyramid Project in the eyes of the Foundation. The priorities are certainly not to rally relevant domestic and international archaeologists and other scientists, nor to produce detailed scientific reports that could be examined by the wider audience of skilled professionals. These are, obviously, not the people who mean anything in the eye of Mr. Osmanagic. Those who really do mean something are, apparently, the ones from the political establishment.
The inner structure of the Foundation indicates the same tendency – a project aimed at the economic, political and media establishments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, not at science of archaeology or geology.
Amela Odobasic
Ms. Odobasic is the spokesperson of the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation. Just like Mr. Hadziahmetovic, she also works for the already mentioned Communications Regulatory Agency – as the agency’s spokesperson too – and has a fascinating biography [opens a Word document], which says that she earned a degree in Public Affairs at the PR Institute, London, England.
Jasna Ahmetspahic
Another Foundation's PR person, actually the author of the Foundation's PR strategy [link to download a Word document, saved from the Foundation web site before it was removed along with other similar documents and names this spring], Ms. Ahmetspahic, happens to also be the spokesperson of the Zenica-Doboj Canton government, and the author of the government's PR strategy [.pdf document] as well.
To remind the reader, the Visoko municipality belongs to the Zenica-Doboj canton, and the cantonal government, particularly its Prime Minister Mr. Miralem Galijasevic, has on many occasions expressed staunch support for Mr. Osmanagic. Amazingly, other Foundation’s projects – involving ‘magical stone spheres’ and ‘energetic megalithical temples’ – geographically all fall within this particular canton.
As a matter of fact, the cantonal government dedication to Mr. Osmanagic’s projects is so tight that the Prime Minister Galijasevic even gave the finger, so to speak, to the higher, federal level this March, when the Federal Ministry for Culture and Sport annulled the excavating permits that the Foundation obtained from the Institute to Protect Monuments. As the Sarajevo-based daily Avaz wrote, Mr. Galijasevic refused to issue the order to stop excavations on the Visocica hill.
Both the Zenica-Doboj Canton government and the cantonal Tourism Board are sponsors of the Bosnian Pyramid Project. And just how much the real cultural, archaeological and historical heritage matter to these People Who Mean Something can be illustrated with this example from the Tourism Board web site: the text refers to the remains of the late medieval royal coronation and burial church in Arnautovici, while the images refer to the early medieval basilica in the town of Breza. It doesn't matter if the real monuments get mixed up, or even ordinary hills with pyramids, as long as there's a (tax payers') buck to squeeze.
to be continued…
