Oral history interview with Fazli Blakcori

Interview: 20 minutes 45 seconds

Fazli Blakcori grew up in Letanc, close to the Serb border in NE Kosovo. He comes from a family of artists going back several generations. His father, a head teacher before the war, is a pacifist who actively supported President Rugova, often willing to carry messages and documents for him. Fazli has memories of his father’s vulnerability and of the increasing terror he and his siblings found themselves embroiled in as war escalated. Following massacres of civilians in their home region, the family fled to the hills. His elderly grandmother was unable to flee and was found in a mass grave several years after the Liberation. At the age of 15, Fazli became involved in the work of Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MaK) in his home town and gradually took on more and more voluntary work for the charity, ending up as MaK’s representative in Kosovo. He studied fine art in Prishtina and was sponsored to study for an MA in Peace and Development in the UK where he gained a distinction. He is married to a Norwegian fellow student, lives in Manchester and has been given Home Office permission to work in the UK. Fazli is a keen supporter of Manchester United, has a passion for art, and loves the British, Kosovar and Norwegian countryside.

in this interview Fazli describes life in Kosovo during the conflict and his experience of moving from Kosovo to Manchester. Fazli talks about Kosovo in recovery, receiving a Master’s degree at Leeds, meeting his wife there, and life and work in Manchester.