Researchers of the Institute of International Politics and Economics, Dr. Marina Kostić Šulejić and MA Nikola Marković participated at the international scientific conference of the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences “Ethnic and religious problems in the Balkans: theory, practice, policies”.

Within the fifth session chaired by Prof. Dr. Mark Kramer from Harvard University dealing with the duration and violent disintegration of Yugoslavia, on the second day of the Conference, Marina and Nikola held a joint presentation on “The position of the Serbian people in the territory of the former Yugoslavia: between rights and disappearance”. They presented a comparative overview of the position of the Serbs, the problems they face in terms of exercising their rights and the challenges they face in all the former countries of Yugoslavia and in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, with special reference to the latest developments in the north of the southern Serbian province.

In conclusion, colleagues Kostić Šulejić and Marković offered some of the possible instruments for overcoming crises in this area, such as the creation of a regional mechanism for the establishment of common standards for the position of national minorities and ethnic groups and common principles and ways of solving still unresolved border disputes and issues of territorial integrity.