Andrej Nikolaidis

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Andrej Nikolaidis (born 1974, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is a writer and columnist.

Andrej was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia. In 1992, following the breakout of ethnic strife in Bosnia that soon evolved into an all out war, Nikolaidis' family moved to the montenegrin town of Ulcinj, his father's hometown, where they owned a summer home. An ardent supporter of Montenegrin independence, Nikolaidis initially became known for his political views and public feuds, appearing on local television and in newspapers with his razor-sharp political commentaries. His writings for Monitor and Slobodna Bosna were so controversial that he "received threats, including death threats, after publishing several articles about “facing the past.” During a talk show on Radio Antena M, one of the listeners, while he was on air, said that he would kill Nikolaidis." [1]

Nikolaidis published three novels: "They!" (Plima,2001), "Mimesis" (Durieux, OKF, 2003) and "Son" (Durieux, 2006), as well as several collections of short stories, from which "The Cathedral in Seattle" (published by Plima, Montenegro, 1999) stands out the most. His first critically-acclaimed novel "Mimesis" was very well received in Croatia, Bosnia and among liberal Montenegrin intellectuals, where local independent media compares his expression and attitude to the one of Thomas Bernhard. He writes columns for pro-independence Montenegrin media such as Vijesti daily newspaper, Monitor weekly magazine, and Crnogorski knjizevni list weekly newspaper, as well as Bosnian weekly newspaper Slobodna Bosna. He now resides in Ulcinj, Montenegro.

In May 2004, Nikolaidis wrote a controversial article named "Executioner's Apprentice" targeting director Emir Kusturica, denouncing him as one of the "biggest media stars" of the time when Milošević's war propaganda propped people who had something "stupid but patriotic to say" and made news for people who were "insensitive to human suffering, blind to their own guilt, and finally stupid enough to believe in their own righteousness". He was subsequently sued by Kusturica for libel, where initially the lower court in Podgorica, awarded Kusturica 5,000 Euros in damages but after a few trials, the verdict against Nikolaidis has been overruled by the The High Court of Montenegro in December 2005. You can find more detailed information about this controversy on Wikipedia's page on Emir Kusturica, in "Controversy" paragraph.[2]



[edit] References

  1. ^ Extract from the IHF report: "Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America" - Report 2005 [1]
  2. ^ Wikipedia page on Emir Kusturica