There are moments when an award feels less like the end of a journey and more like a reminder of why that journey began in the first place.
For all of us at Balkan Talks, receiving the Regional “Jelena Šantić – For Courageous Steps” Award is exactly that kind of moment.
The award, presented by the Jelena Šantić Foundation and CURE Foundation, recognizes initiatives that contribute to peacebuilding, solidarity, human rights, and reconciliation across the Western Balkans through courageous civic engagement. Established in memory of Jelena Šantić—a renowned ballerina and one of the most important peace activists of the 1990s—the award honors people and organizations that continue her legacy by building bridges where others build walls. Since 2006, it has been awarded every two years to initiatives whose work promotes peace, tolerance, understanding, and solidarity through activism, culture, education, and public engagement.
This year, the jury selected five laureates from twenty-six nominated initiatives. Balkan Talks received the Special Recognition for creating a space where young people speak about the legacy of war, discrimination, and the building of more just societies.
That sentence captures exactly what Balkan Talks has always tried to be.
It started as a classroom conversation
Balkan Talks did not begin as a project, a grant, or an institution.
It started in 2024 as an initiative of a group of students brought together through the Balkan courses at the Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU). We came from different countries, disciplines, and experiences, but shared one frustration: too often, young people from the Western Balkans were spoken about rather than listened to.
So we decided to create the kind of platform we ourselves wished had existed. A place where young people could write without having to imitate established academic voices. A place where research could stand next to personal essays, interviews, opinion pieces, and cultural criticism. A place where difficult conversations about war, memory, feminism, education, climate justice, discrimination, democracy, and human rights could happen without nationalist filters or imposed narratives.
Today, Balkan Talks has grown into an independent regional media platform published by the Critical Education Centre (CKO). Everything we have built has been created through voluntary work, solidarity, and an incredible community of people who believed that young voices deserve to be heard.
We did not build this alone
This recognition belongs to everyone who has helped Balkan Talks grow.
We are deeply grateful to the professors who encouraged this initiative from its very beginning and who believed that education should not end when a course finishes.
Special thanks go to Vladimir Petrović, Aleksandar Pavlović, Marija Mandić, and Olesia Marković, whose teaching, mentorship, and trust helped shape not only many of our authors but also the values on which this platform rests.
We are equally grateful to Vladimir Pavlović from the Belgrade Open School, whose support through the UNDP course encouraged us to continue developing Balkan Talks as an educational space beyond the classroom.
Our sincere thanks also go to Balázs Trencsényi— one of the founders of the Invisible University for Ukraine—who, together with Vladimir Petrović, has supported the independence of our editorial team from the very beginning and continuously encouraged us to believe that this initiative could grow into something much larger than we had imagined.
No independent media platform exists without people quietly working behind the scenes.
For that reason, we owe enormous gratitude to Antonije Nojić, who has volunteered his time and expertise to provide IT support from the very first day.
We also want to thank Emilija Krstić and Jelena Jaćim Jaćimović. Beyond creating the visual identity and design consistency that readers recognize today, Jelena was the person who believed in Balkan Talks enough to nominate us for this award in the first place.
Finally, thank you to every member of our volunteer editorial board, every author who entrusted us with their work, every interviewee who shared their story, every organization that collaborated with us, and every reader who chose to spend time with the ideas published on our pages.
This award belongs to all of you.
Looking ahead
One of the things that made this recognition particularly meaningful was the company in which we received it.
This year’s laureates remind us that peacebuilding takes many forms. Alongside Balkan Talks, the award recognized the War Childhood Museum for its work with young people through memory and dialogue, Dragan Popović for his long-standing commitment to truth, education, and responsible remembrance, the collective Karton Revolucija for its persistent defense of human rights and public goods, and the Student Plenum in Blockade of the State University of Novi Pazar for demonstrating how solidarity, democratic participation, and youth leadership can challenge prejudice and strengthen society.
Each of these initiatives works in a different context and in a different way, yet all of them share the same belief: that societies become stronger when people choose dialogue over division, solidarity over fear, and responsibility over silence.
It is a genuine honour for Balkan Talks to stand alongside people and organizations whose work has inspired so many across the region. We sincerely congratulate all of this year’s laureates and hope that this recognition will encourage all of us to continue building bridges, creating spaces for dialogue, and proving that another Western Balkans is not only possible—it is already being built by those who refuse to give up.
Receiving an award named after Jelena Šantić carries a particular responsibility.
Her work reminds us that peace is not built only through political agreements, but also through education, culture, dialogue, and the courage to create spaces where people genuinely listen to one another.
That is exactly what we hope Balkan Talks will continue to be. A place where young people from the Western Balkans write with honesty. A place where disagreement does not prevent dialogue. A place where solidarity is stronger than fear. And, above all, a place where authentic voices matter.
Thank you for walking this journey with us.
The best chapters of Balkan Talks are still ahead.