RENAMING OF 22 STREETS IN BUJANOVAC

26. January 2015.

Bujanovac - Serbian members of the municipal committee for renaming streets in Bujanovac agreed to change the names of 22 streets in the city, mainly of those where Albanians live, said today Miodrag Milkovic, one of the members of the municipal committee for renaming streets.

The decision on changing the names of 22 streets in Bujanovac was supported at the session of the Municipal Assembly by the Serbian councilmen, who are all part of the ruling coalition with the Albanian Democratic Party led by Nagip Arifi, the Mayor of Bujanovac, and the Movement for Democratic Progress of Jonuz Musliu, who is also President of the Bujanovac Municipal Assembly.

Mr. Milkovic said that among the proposals for new street names in Bujanovac, with which the Serbian side had agreed, there were no names from the recent history which were unacceptable for the Serbs, as it occurred in 2012, when the then Albanian Coalition asked that streets in Bujanovac be named after some of the former members of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

“A new committee for renaming the streets was established in 2013. We agreed to discuss the topic and a consensus was reached to change some street names because we thought that it wasn’t appropriate for the streets, in which exclusively Albanians lived, to be called Duke Radomir Putnik or Branko Radicevic Streets“, Mr. Milkovic said.

According to him, the Serbian and Albanian members of the municipal committee agreed that these two streets henceforth be called Prizrenska and Djakovicka streets.

Consensus between the Serbian and Albanian members of the committee for renaming streets wasn’t reached about the change of the name of the central city’s Karadjordja Petrovica Square, the name of which the Albanians wish to change into Tolerance Square or Skanderbeg Square.

“The name of Karadjordje Petrovic Square won’t be renamed either, nor the name of the main Karadjordjeva Street”, said Mr. Milkovic on the attitude of the Serbian side in Bujanovac.

The streets in Bujanovac will change their names if the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government approves the decision of the Municipal Assembly of Bujanovac.

Source: “Beta” News Agency and Coordination Body