Mayors of Sarajevo and Bad Ischl Sign Cooperation Agreement

The Mayor of Sarajevo, Ivo Komšić, visited the Austrian city of Bad Ischl at the invitation of Hannes Heide, the head of Bad Ischl, a city historically linked to the Bosnian capital. The assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne occurred in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and a manifesto titled "To My People" was signed in Bad Ischl a month later, on July 28, announcing the beginning of World War I, reports the Patria News Agency.  

Komšić and Heide signed a Cooperation Agreement, enabling Sarajevo and Bad Ischl to find common interests and establish dialogue in areas of interest to the citizens of both cities. At the signing ceremony of the Agreement, the mayors specifically emphasized that the focus of cooperation between the two cities should be on the mutual ties of city museums, followed by the Winter Sports Club WSV Bad Ischl with Sarajevo ski clubs in terms of organizing competitions for children, joint training sessions, and winter camps, as well as through the exchange of students from secondary music schools and music academies.

- Sarajevo and Bad Ischl marked the hundredth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination and the outbreak of World War I with appropriate events last year. With today's act of signing the Agreement, from Bad Ischl and Sarajevo, we are sending a different image and encouraging messages of peace, solidarity, and understanding to the world, Komšić stated.

Mayor Heide emphasized that Sarajevo, along with Opatija and the Hungarian city of Gödöllő, is the third city with which Bad Ischl has partnership ties. The Mayor of Bad Ischl invited his fellow citizens to visit Sarajevo, emphasizing that it is a city worth seeing.

At the invitation of the Mayor of Bad Ischl, a string quartet from the Music Academy in Sarajevo performed. It was agreed that the Bad Ischl Brass Band will perform in Sarajevo next year, during the signing of the Cooperation Agreement between these two cities, as announced by the City Administration.