What is Laura?

About twenty years ago, the novel "Snow" by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk was translated and published in Croatia. At the point where the word "Snow" first appears in the book, an officer, the translator inserted a footnote, believing that she had to explain the decision to use the term to readers. She did so as follows: "The role and significance that the army has in the Republic of Turkey is difficult to compare with the role of the army in post-war independent Croatia. Therefore, when translating military terms, I have adhered to their semantic equivalents from the time of Yugoslavia."

The translator therefore considered it inappropriate to call military personnel in Turkey officers, as is customary in "post-war independent Croatia", even if it deviated from the Croatian language standard, but opted for officers, a term for members of the army "from the time of Yugoslavia". The term itself officer, it will be, contains a moral component that is not characteristic of the Turkish and Yugoslav armies, while it is inherent to the soldiers in "post-war independent Croatia". It would be inappropriate if in the novel officers parade as negative characters, the translator believed, when we already have officers, whose arrogance and atrocities we remember "from the time of Yugoslavia". Thus, with a slight deviation from the lexical standard, the atmosphere of the novel is brought closer to the general state of mind in "post-war independent Croatia". What is officers i officer As far as this is concerned - one might say - language itself makes it clear who is the aggressor and who is the victim.

From a seemingly opposite perspective, the lexicographers from the Narod.hr portal have also been dealing with military terminology these days. They claimed that in the HRT quiz show Superpotjera, a terrible injustice was done to contestant Kristi Kristić from Dubrovnik, whose correct answer was not recognized because the television producers were using linguistic practices "from the time of Yugoslavia". When asked "what is the highest rank in some smaller armies, including the Swiss Guard", Kristić replied: brigadierThe correct answer, however, was: ColonelThe expert staff at Narod.hr were absolutely pissed off about that, believing that brigadier i Colonel They differ only in that the first is presented in the correct native language, and the second in a disgusting foreign language: "For HRT, brigadier is the incorrect answer, and colonel is the correct one, just as if we were in Yugoslavia!"

At first glance, one might think that the red-faced editors of the right-wing portal - if it had existed at the time - would have given the translator of Pamuk's novel a good beating. But the paradox is that her motives (were) quite similar to theirs. In addition, in the note, she made it clear that the use of terminology "from the time of Yugoslavia" includes negative moral connotations - which, presumably, emphasizes the ethical predispositions of the language - and that is precisely why she reached out to it. She would, therefore, probably have been spared, officers i colonels They pass if it implies the characteristics of an aggressor and guardian of a reign of terror, and we can only guess how the language experts at Narod.hr would have positioned themselves if, instead of his ranks in the Swiss Guard, the unfortunate Kristo Kristić had been asked about his ranks in the army of the Republic of Turkey or - God forbid - the Yugoslav People's Army.

Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman is also very careful about the ethical use of terminology. "First of all, there is no such thing as a 'Lora camp' and there never was," he said in an interview with the Podgorica-based Vijesti. And secondly, "what you are talking about" - that there was some kind of Lora camp - "is a narrative that aims to equate aggressor and victim." Grlić Radman was asked whether the Croatian government intends to do anything to shed light on the case of the Lora camp in Split, in which 14 members of the former JNA from the so-called Nikšić-Šavnik group were killed. The complete answer is as follows:

"First, there is no 'Lora camp' and there never was. Secondly, what you are talking about is not an open question. It is a narrative that aims to equate aggressor and victim. Everything about the events in the Lora prison has been processed and adjudicated, and is in the domain of judicial proceedings, which is neither possible nor necessary to comment on. I believe that it should be clarified that this is an attempt at equalization and, to put it mildly, a provocation and is not beneficial for any significant steps forward in our relations."

Several human rights organizations from Croatia and Montenegro reacted to the statement of the head of Croatian diplomacy, stating that he was not telling the truth, because "everything about the events" in Lora has by no means been "processed and judged", and especially not the case of the deaths of captured military reservists from Montenegro, which the State Attorney's Office of the Republic of Croatia has allegedly been investigating since 2007, without results. However, we are not interested here in the murky facts about which Grlić Radman regularly lies, along with the rest of the fraternity that governs Croatia, but rather in his direct reaction to the blasphemous use of the term "camp", summarized in the claim that "there is no 'Lora camp' and there never was".

Montenegrin media reported that the Croatian minister wrote down the answers to the interview questions and sent them by email, after which the Vijesti journalist asked him several follow-up questions. One of them asked him to explain what Lora was if not a camp, and why the question of shedding light on the suffering of prisoners of war was "a narrative aimed at equating the aggressor and the victim". The office of the Croatian foreign minister responded that, given his obligations, the minister "did not have time for additional questions".

Indeed - what is Lora if not a camp? What do we call in proper Croatian the places where, contrary to international humanitarian law and applicable conventions, civilians and prisoners of war were imprisoned, where they were abused and tortured, and some of them were even killed?

If he hadn't been prevented by numerous obligations, Grlić Radman might have clarified that Lora was a health and rehabilitation center, specializing in electrotherapy. You know the one: you connect wires to the patient's tongue, scrotum or earlobes, then you turn the inductor phone and cause stimulation of nerve fibers, in order to deprive the therapy user of pain. Tanja Belobrajdić, who is unjustly and maliciously accused of violent behavior by surviving patients, may think similarly, at least judging by her testimony at the 2002 trial: everything at Lora was normal and exemplary, order and hygiene were at the highest level, we cared about the health of the users of our services, the Red Cross had no objections...

And she is, to tell the truth, overwhelmed with obligations, because at the expense of taxpayers she is completing the script for a documentary about Croatian veterans of Serbian origin, and at the same time, in the Croatian weekly, she curses the Croatian Broadcasting Corporation (HAVC) for financing the anti-Croatian film by Nebojša Slijepčević, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes - anti-Croatian because it portrays an ordinary officers shows as officer - but at any moment, following the example of Grlić Radman, or Jakov Sedlar, or a million other Croats, they will testify that calling Lora a camp is an unacceptable obscenity.

As ours officers I can't be officers, because they are morally superior to them, so our Lore cannot be either camps, like Manjača, Keraterm or Stajićevo. Camp is a special kind of Serbism: a word that in the Croatian language has no ethical license when it comes to Croatian territory. In Stajićevo, people were imprisoned, tortured and killed, and Lora was the scene of the "events".

However, the coded language of denial, however much it is used to weave a dense web of deception, does not actually deny the bare facts, nor is it intended to do so. The Croatian minister knows perfectly well what "events" were organized in Lora, but this knowledge simply does not have the usual meaning for him, and certainly not the kind he is normally able to associate with those who are not members of his people. I know so that people were imprisoned, tortured and killed here for years, but that ne means "If this were a camp," says the minister, and many others with him. A different connection between knowledge and meaning would not be "beneficial," it would lead to a disastrous equating of aggressor and victim."

The same reflex, after all, resulted in the fact that a memorial plaque was not placed in front of the entrance to Lora in memory of those who died there, but a monument was erected to those who caused the death. The coordinated performance of symbolism and rhetoric warns us not to give Gordan Grlić Radman's words less weight than they deserve, nor to reduce them to a mere routine of lying: he is not protesting because ill-intentioned people frame us for crimes, but because they frame us for their unjustification.

(portalnovosti.com)