Abergaz & The Troubled State of Punk in the Balkans

About a week ago, I woke up to a flood of headlines on social media. All I could make out were a few jagged words: Sonja Hranjec. Abergaz. Arrested. Medika. Murder. I sat in silence, glued to my chair, trying to make sense of it all.¹

I worked with Sonja on a split release between Abergaz and my queercore project The Harness in 2020. She was willing, cooperative, and easy to work with. No drama, no ego—just music, mutual respect, and solidarity.² ³

But when the news broke, it felt like more than just a tragedy. From what I gathered, this wasn’t just a random act of violence: it looked like self-defense in a deeply transphobic society. And her arrest? A symptom of a larger disease; not just systemic bigotry, but a failure of the very communities that were supposed to protect her.

We are living in a region still haunted by denial, corruption, and historical revisionism. During recent protests over state violence in Novi Sad, not one person dared speak about the Srebrenica genocide. Instead, they raged about 16 people who died under a canopy. That’s when it hit me: we haven’t even started the real conversation.⁴

The same rot infects our punk scene.

Punk should be clear: it stands against bigotry. It’s not “just music.” Saying “we just wanna play” when under fire for problematic behavior is cowardice. A way to stay comfortable while others suffer.

Take Blankfile, one of the longest-running hardcore bands in the Balkans. Their vocalist publicly supported police during the protests. Ex-members distanced themselves. The band tried to spin the situation, but the damage was done. They were rightfully labeled Ćacicore, a nod to their alignment with the pro-police, anti-protest movement known as Ćaci.

The controversy surrounding Serbian band Blankfile began during the protests in Serbia, specifically in relation to state violence in Novi Pazar. On Instagram, multiple people called out Blankfile’s frontman for supporting the SNS (Serbian Progressive Party) and downplaying police brutality, while continuing to promote their Euro tour. They wrote:

“Yeah yeah, all the former members of the band are gossiping about you defending SNS for all the crimes and murders and you are complaining about the tour of Europe you paid for while the police are beating up the youth in Novi Pazar. Well said, Highwaystar [Magazine]. New level, man. New level of EMBARRASSMENT!”

Blankfile’s official Instagram account dismissed the claims as “nonsense” and implied they would not revisit the matter, despite multiple users addressing concerns.⁵

Then there’s Ukor, who have been the subject of multiple accusations from within the scene, including claims of sexual assault (SA) and reports from queer fans describing homophobic and transphobic behavior at shows. According to those making the allegations, the band denied wrongdoing, crossed personal boundaries, and shared private information in ways that they say further isolated survivors.⁶

According to direct testimony from a survivor who reported the incident, members of Ukor were involved in both transphobic abuse and victim-blaming behavior. The band’s frontman reportedly dismissed serious accusations with slurs, misgendering, and denial. The survivor faced harassment and ridicule after exposing screenshots of abusive behavior from affiliated individuals, and was then accused of “spreading an agenda.” The situation escalated to personal attacks and gaslighting, including false claims of inappropriate behavior. Though many of these conversations took place in person or over private messages, the survivor has since been blocked and is unable to retrieve screenshots.

Nabod! broke up after one member faced serious SA allegations. Instead of taking accountability, they claimed the accused was “innocent” and had the “legal right to defend himself”—as if survivors don’t have the right to exist in this scene safely.⁷ ⁸

What’s even more grotesque is that Nabod! used tracks like “Suknja moje devojke (Meni bolje stoji)” [My girlfriend’s skirt (suits me well)] to trick AKAB Okretnica, one of Belgrade’s key DIY venues, into giving the band its antifa cred—despite the same members previously playing in H2O2 (also sharing members with Quasarborn), a band with explicitly misogynistic lyrics like “Glupa K*rva” [Dumb Sl*t].

There’s also a nasty amount of TERFdom infecting the political left. LGSM (Lesbian & Gay Solidarity Network) is gaining traction while trans rights are quietly blocked. Even in student spaces, things are dire…

One such incident took place at a student plenum in SKC in Belgrade, where two underage individuals were harassed and misgendered by a known transphobe, who was allowed to remain present at the event without any repercussions. The victims were forced to endure further re-traumatization when the individual not only approached them to offer a manipulative “apology” while still misgendering them, but later was invited on stage during the plenum discussion about the incident. When other attendees expressed outrage, they were told to stay silent because “those are the rules of the plenum.”

The topic of transphobia and harassment of minors was initially listed as the nineteenth point on the agenda, trailing behind irrelevant topics like a Super Smash Bros tournament and internet router relocation. Attempts to move it earlier were dismissed as “disrespectful.”

During the discussion, the accused individual mocked the situation and garnered sympathy from some attendees, while others laughed, minimized the violence, and blamed the victims by calling them “too sensitive” and suggesting they “should’ve just moved away.” Eventually, a unanimous vote banned the perpetrator from SKC—but not before they continued joking around, hugging supporters, and being warmly greeted as they left.⁹

The victims, along with several supporters, were left stunned by the clear lack of solidarity and the open gaslighting from peers who should have been their allies. In fact, their Telegram chat proves how indifferent they actually are when it comes to human rights.¹⁰

Whenever protests erupt in Serbia, even ones supposedly in the name of “freedom”, the moment someone waves a pride flag or reaches out to fellow queers to join in solidarity, they’re often met with violence, verbal abuse, and physical assault. All of this under the same banners claiming to fight for “the freedom of Kosovo and Metohija.” How did we get here? Why are we always sliding backwards?

This Instagram story says it best:

“It pisses me off that so much četnik glorification is allowed at protests. These are people who’ve ambushed and beaten me and my queer friend… people who literally want us dead. On the other hand, Vučić unfortunately won’t fall without the far-right. And the volunteers organizing the protests simply can’t fight back against the crowd, some of them are even četniks themselves or are fine with ‘No Surrender’ flags flying around. It’s all so exhausting. Maybe I should be happy that at least none of the protest demands so far say: ‘Return Kosovo under Serbian control, even militarily if needed.’”¹¹

Compare that to what’s happening just a few hours north. In Hungary, a country also plagued by authoritarianism, protesters dressed in gray¹², in a brilliant act of irony and defiance against a Pride ban. Not long after, hundreds of thousands filled the streets of Budapest in one of the biggest queer-led mobilizations in recent Eastern European history—a display so massive, it couldn’t be ignored or erased.¹³

So why haven’t we followed suit?

Why is our “fight for justice” allergic to queer voices?

And it’s not just in Serbia.

A friend from Croatia told me how some local punks casually blast problematic turbo folk, wear MAGA hats, and crack homophobic jokes—not ironically, but to provoke and harass. Human rights look shinier from a distance; up close, they’re paper-thin. They had publicly complained about their discrimination by the punk scene and were then “calmed down” and silenced.¹⁴

When I played a show in Bucharest last year, someone came up to me with a black eye—a fresh wound from a homophobic attack (personal experience).

In Bosnia, queer icon Božo Vrećo was verbally assaulted by a fucking imam.¹⁵

There’s also a rise in anti-trans hate crime in Greece last year, and it doesn’t seem to be going away. Erdoğan-era Turkey rolled back harder on human rights, arresting Pride participants, eliminating any opposition standing in their way, and imprisoning protesters who are fighting tirelessly to change their respective country for the better.¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸

Ivan Tsochev, the lead singer of the Bulgarian metalcore band Engineer of Death, is an alleged pedophile with Nazi tattoos, some of which are covered up. The band has essentially been canceled within the DIY hardcore punk scene in Bulgaria, yet they are still welcome to play metal shows and are defended by their fellow metalheads. Despite people calling for gig organizers and festivals, the band booked several international shows, including Rockstadt Extreme in Romania in July 2025. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian government continues to scapegoat the LGBTQIA+ community for “pushing an agenda,” while predators and extremists like Tsochev walk free—shielded by the same apathy and complicity that runs deep across our region.¹⁹ ²⁰

And those on the other side? They never bat an eye. Not even once.

If we instead focused our energy on confronting corruption, censorship, and human rights abuses—and if we worked to build actual systems of protection and accountability—then maybe, just maybe, stories like Sonja’s wouldn’t happen in the first place.

To borrow the words of Yugoslav partisan Stjepan Filipović, who raised his fist before execution in 1942:

“Don’t just watch. Hit the bastards. If you’re watching, the bastards will kill us one by one.”

References

¹ Abergaz’ Sonja Hranjec arrested for alleged murder. (N1)
² The Harness and Abergaz’ Queercore split. (YouTube)
³ The Harness’ Bandcamp page. (Bandcamp)
⁴ The Srebrenica Genocide Wiki Page. (Wikipedia)
⁵ Screenshot of Blankfile’s Euro tour post with commenters’ backlash. (Screenshot)
⁶ Accounts of transphobic harassment caused by Ukor. (Screenshot 1, 2)
⁷ Powerviolence band Nabod! break up due to SA allegations. (Instagram)
⁸ Rebuild Collective’s open letter to the hardcore scene regarding SA. (Instagram)
⁹ Normalized transphobia at the students’ plenum. (Screenshot 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
¹⁰ Students’ Telegram chat’s response to IG story call-out. (Screenshot 1, 2, 3, 4)
¹¹ Experiences of queerphobia by protesters. (Screenshot)
¹² “Gray Parade” in Budapest. (Le Monde)
¹³ Biggest Pride Parade in Budapest. (HRW)
¹⁴ Croat “punks” being hypocrites. (Screenshot)
¹⁵ Imam verbally abuses Sevdaliza singer. (Balkan Insight)
¹⁶ Anti-trans hate crime statistics in Greece, 2024. (Inkstick Media)
¹⁷ Pride protesters arrested in Istanbul. (CNN)
¹⁸ Istanbul Mayor arrested. (Wikipedia)
¹⁹ Instagram story calling out Engineer of Death’s singer. (Screenshot)
²⁰ Bulgaria passes anti-LGBT law. (ILGA Europe)