Sanya Popovic

Sanya Popovic from 1993 through 1999 was a visiting associate instructor of political science at Barnard College in New York. She was the girlfriend of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, who was killed when Pan Am Flight 103 crashed at Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988.

Academic background

Born to Nenad and Tatjana Popović, Sanya Popovic graduated from Syracuse University in 1982 with a B.A. (Hons) degree in political science and Russian studies. She received an M.A. degree in 1986 and an M.Phil. degree in 1987 – both from Columbia University. She was subsequently a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Columbia University.

In March 1999, Popovic conducted a "colloquium on political violence and terrorism" in the political science department at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Message of spring

Prior to the start of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in May 2000, Sanya Popovic posted the following "message of spring" on the ACCESS website::"In the eleven and a half years that have passed since the bombing of Pan Am 103, I have learned so very much about love and grief and life. I recall how excruciatingly painful the first spring was after the bombing – and indeed so many other springs thereafter. How possibly could life be springing anew everywhere, when the man I loved was dead, and it seemed as though my soul, too, was dying within?

:Somewhere along the way, though, I began to see that the message of spring was a powerful and universal one, found in so many religions and different cultures. It was hardly a surprise that within the Christian faith, the death and resurrection of Christ was said to happen in the spring... I began to find, first, solace and, later, hope in the fact that the way of the world is that life, no matter what, begins again. And as long as there is life, and renewal, there is hope.

:So this year, my eleventh spring post-Pan Am 103, I do feel that my late fiancé (Bernt Carlsson) is with me, in my heart, looking at the joy and beauty of spring."

External links

* [http://www.econ.barnard.columbia.edu/~polisci/faculty/popovic.html Barnard College profile of Sanya Popovic]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DA1638F930A2575BC0A963958260 Marriage to George Bogdanich, August 12, 1995 ]
* [http://www.accesshelp.org/mar00/spring00sonyapopovic.html Message of spring]