Rallying with the Serbian nationalists
are still brightened by Christmas decorations.
Twisted ropes of lights adorn every tree down the main roads; a parade of miniature Christmas trees in bright white light paves the way to the city hall and, especially impressive, four big ones lit up in shimmering purple stand in one of the main squares.
The Orthodox Christmas was on January 7 and Serbia is only slowly shaking its head free of holidays.
Perhaps that is why campaigning has been so sluggish .
Yet they could hardly be more important: looming over them is the all but inevitable declaration of independence by Kosovo, shortly after the election of a Serbian president.
Kosovo politicians have been persuaded to delay their long planned announcement until after the vote for fear of inflaming and swelling nationalist sentiment.
East or West?
And behind this question lurks another. Does Serbia turn east or west?
Does it , which is fighting Serbia鈥檚 fight over Kosovo on the international stage?
And then does Serbia become the first of the post-communist countries of eastern Europe to reject the lure of the European Union? Reject joining an organisation that, however derided in Britain, is seen by most such countries as a symbol of civilisation, modernity and wealth.
Like many crunch-points it may turn out to be a little mushier than that, not quite so crunchy, but in crude terms and over years that is what is at stake.
Nine candidates battle it out this weekend but most expect that the two left standing for the big fight in February will be and.
But the radical party certainly tried to make up for lost time during Christmas with a rally in the city鈥檚 central stadium. In many ways it was like many high octane political rallies I鈥檝e been to both in Britain and throughout Europe. But it had certain, shall we say, unusual features?
It certainly wasn鈥檛 speaker after speaker punching the air and making very vague promises.
It wasn鈥檛 the huge Serbian flag taking up one side of the auditorium.
Patriotic melody
The patriotic melody sung by a girl of 12 or 13 was striking. Dressed in black and white costume-dress, her pure voice soared about the accompanying choir of women in evening dresses, miners in blue hard-hats and matching overalls and, for some reason, a couple of men in chef鈥檚 tall, white hats.
鈥淔ar away from the sea is my village where the lemon blossoms,
Along the way that was the only road for the army 鈥
Did that awful night have to come when you my darling went to the bloody battle?
Far away, the white flower blooms.
That is where a father and a son gave their lives鈥 am living in my sorrow but still happily calling out Long Live Serbia.鈥
It perhaps loses a little in translation but it is a song that the audience knows is about Kosovo, just as this election is about Kosovo and how Serbia reacts to its almost inevitable loss.
Kosovo, for which Nato bombed this European country less than a decade ago. 
Kosovo which looms over this election. Kosovo, so often called the cradle of Serbian civilisation, the Serbian Jerusalem.
Kosovo, which speaker after speaker declared must remain part of Serbia.
Much more unusual than this emotive melody was the speech that boomed out, powerful and eerie because no one stood at the lectern to deliver it.
Their master's voice
Some recorded voice delivered the words in a letter written by at this rally or any other because he is imprisoned in the Hague awaiting trial for war crimes, encouraging murder and massacre during Yugoslavia鈥檚 civil war.
But in the end that wasn鈥檛 what made me sit up. We had been tipped off that , the , might sing.
How would we spot her?
The intellectual who had just given me a lengthy and erudite run down of the election issues was succinct: breasts like torpedoes, he said.
But it wasn鈥檛 she who roused the crowd before Tomislav Nicolic鈥檚 big speech.
Getting to perform before the big speech certainly was a coup. 
Marija Serifovic looks pretty normal for a pop star. Shortish, slightly plump with short, dark hair, dressed in grey check trousers and a black tee shirt, she鈥檚 a million miles from the high heels, caked-on make-up and bags of bling favoured by most Serbian pop stars.
In any other European country she鈥檇 have been campaigning for civic partnerships or more cycle lanes but here she was bouncing around the stage, egging on the crowd on behalf of a party where some supporters come dressed in paramilitary uniform and see men accused of mass murder as heroes.
I caught up with her by the side of the stage, as nice and as ordinary as I had guessed.
Returning a favour
What did she like about the party?
Well really she was just returning a favour. They鈥檇 been good to her. She knew nothing about politics.
What about Kosovo?
She started on a complex analogy about somebody being in your flat and saying they liked your TV set.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been stolen from you?鈥 I interrupted.
No, she didn鈥檛 say that: 鈥淲hat do I know, I鈥檝e never even been there?鈥
Of course neither had most in the hall or indeed most Serbs. Nor, I would guess, have most of the presidential candidates.
To many Serbs, Kosovo is like the garden of Eden, a place of enormous mythical significance but not somewhere you go for the weekend. And that was what WAS striking in a rally designed to raise emotions, banish doubt and unite everyone around the unquestioning belief that Kosovo must remain Serbian.
A moment of more than hesitation. Of genuine indifference鈥 from the star guest.
Remaining oblivious to the claims of a whole political class that the loss of Kosovo is a hurt that can鈥檛 be borne is quite a feat.
In the coming weeks, Serbia as a whole might be more comfortable if it imitated the pop star, not the politicians.
You can hear a version of this article on
UPDATE
Several of you have written in to say the song quoted is not about Kosovo, but about World War I Serbian solders buried in Cyprus.
This makes sense, so many apologies. I was relying on the information supplied by the Serbian journalist I was working with.
I don't think I was casual about this: one of the reasons I went to the rally was because I was told a song would be sung for Kosovo, and afterwards I twice asked if it defiantly was about Kosovo.
I even queried the reference to lemons but was told they grew in Kosovo (which they still might).
I hate getting things wrong so it is heartfelt and rather cross when I say sorry to you all.
I鈥檓 Mark Mardell, the 91热爆's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
颁辞尘尘别苍迟蝉听听 Post your comment
if this country as any brains it will keep well away from the EU it will only soak up its freedom.down with the EU ...
Thats right Thomas!
Serbia should stay away from the bad EU and their billions of euros, remain one of the poorest nations in Europe, elect a nice old-fashioned ultra-nationalist who will really respect Serbia's new democracy (sound like one they sent to The Hague a few years back?)and align itself with that lovable democrat, Putin.
Oh come on!
Mark Mardell writes:
Does it snuggle up to Mother Russia, which is fighting Serbia鈥檚 fight over Kosovo on the international stage? And then does Serbia become the first of the post-communist countries of eastern Europe to reject the lure of the European Union? Reject joining an organisation that, however derided in Britain, is seen by most such countries as a symbol of civilisation, modernity and wealth.
Mark,
1. Why do you see cooperation with Russia as resulting in rejecting "the lure of European Union"? It seems that you, like many others, are falling for newly developing stereotype that Russia is EU's adversary. Why? What is there in EU that Russia would want to have control of? French wine and German cars? Well, Russia has plenty enough of all sorts of resources to trade for these commodities. Or is it EU's bitter disillusionment with its dream of getting control of some of those resources (at least according to Britain's John Major, retired)?
2. Consolidating into a bigger common market and economic cooperation can bring significant advantages to small and mid-size economies. However, there is a critical size of the common market, and EU's market is already too large. This is why joining EU appears hardly beneficial for the eastern european countries. Economic cooperation with Russia, on the contrary, has great promise. This is easily verified by the figures of economic growth published by the CIA. Countries whose economies were closely linked with Russia, such as e.g. Ukraine and Armenia, grew significantly faster than similar countries whose cooperation with Russia was limited - Poland and Georgia. Even though Poland is a EU member, Ukraine's projected growth (provided its economic policies do not change) results in higher per capita GDP already in 4-5 years. And of course Armenia (GDP per capita grew from $3,800 in 2003 to $5,700 in 2007) vs Georgia' (GDP per capita grew from $3,100 in 2003 to $3,800 in 2007) is another spectacular case.
Very interesting post. Well as a serbian i could try to explain why serbs don't want to loose Kosovo. You used the right word "cradle of our civilisation". We have history in Kosovo, monasteries of cultural value and so. I am not a christian but i care about monasteries as historical treasures. Do you think albanian muslims would care about them? They are burning them becouse of religious hate.
Also, I wouldn't like Serbia to enter EU, I don't think that we are prepared for that yet. Our mentality simply does not fit... We brought new laws like in Europe, but it only made situation worse, becouse we use them as we like. The Bologna Declaration which we accepted not so long ago for our educational system was supposed to improve stuff, but we took parts of it which we like, and made university education possible almost only for rich people. Our universities are so corrupted that it is not a shame to tell in public the price [in euros] for passing the exams. If we want to enter Europe , we have a long way to go, or it will make thinkgs even worse for us.
An independent Kosovo is economically untenable. If granted independence, within months we'll see agitation from both sides of the border for a 'Greater Albania'. The resulting violence (for their will be violence) will act as a magnet for every Islamist Jehadi - much as Bosnia did a decade ago.
Does the EU really want an Islamist bridgehead in the Balkans? Don't we ever learn?
First, thaks to Mr. Thomas. As a Serb I have also hopes not to join that PC kumbaya of Eurabia any time soon.
Second, on Mr. Mardell words:"Of course neither had most in the hall or indeed most Serbs. Nor, I would guess, have most of the presidential candidates.
To many Serbs, Kosovo is like the garden of Eden, a place of enormous mythical significance but not somewhere you go for the weekend."
You are all right on this Mr. Mardell. But insead to listen some Serb like me or Mss. Sherifovic, find some Jew, and ask him does he ever go to Jerusalem. If he didnt, try not to belive that he doesnt care too much for it. At least not more than his pre 1947 ancestors.
Perhaps something was lost in translation and the star guest failed to get her point across. I won't mince words here - Kosovo is Serbia! Our Jerusalem, our Mecca! The heartland of Serbian mythology, pride, religion and culture.
What am I to teach my son about where his people came from?
The Kosovo my father comes from - Dalmatinsko, named after the one in question - now belongs to Croatia and I have to accept that a history of Serbs in this region dating back to the 15th century, no longer have a home.
The message is clear - Serbia will not yield, not this time.
"Remaining oblivious to the claims of a whole political class that the loss of Kosovo is a hurt that can鈥檛 be borne is quite a feat."
Remaining oblivious to the claims of international politicians (both sides) that their only interest in Kosovo is just to help, is even a greater feat.
Why is the Serbian electorate still voting for the facist, ultra-nationalist war-criminals that have caused so much suffering in the former Yugoslavia? They seem never to have admitted to any wrong-doing, and are only upset that they ultimately lost their nationalist wars. Until they face up to what was done in their name, they'll never be welcome as members of the European community.
...time has come for Kosovo people to decide on how they want to live. Independence is ultimate. It will not crown only the political identification of this small European country but will also ensure stability and prosperity for the whole region.
Europe, be ready to accept your about newly born daughter.
It seems that some members of this forum are capable of turning a debate on Japanese whaling into an anti-Europe platform. Still, back to Kosovo.
I think the article is revealing on attitudes to Kosovo - which can be extended in all directions. The "unity" of Kosovo (an economically non-sustainable potential country unless aid is provided indefinitely) is a taboo issue on all sides. Nevertheless, one feels that a partitioned Kosovo (part of it remaining in Serbia) is something that both Albanian and Serbian speaking Kosovars, as well as Serbians would dearly love to be railroaded into - saving pretexts and ideology, getting into a workable relationship and, hopefully, forgetting the emotional side in a generation or two. Of course it is more than likely that everybody would publicly protest against such a solution and privately rejoice in it. Instead, the looming arrangement seems to mortgage a future of Serbia, Kosovo and the region as a whole. Instead, the powers that be seem to have adopted an attitude towards Serbia of the form "unless you agree with exactly what the Albanian Kosovars want, we will enforce exactly what the Albanian Kosovars want". Hardly a diplomatic solution to a conflict.
The reason why so many Serbs never went to Kosovo and Metohija is quite simple: the region has been fraught with Albanian terrorists/bandits for decades and was quite unsafe for non-Albanians, so it really is no wonder that younger generations of Serbs never visited it.
The song that you refer to however, is actually about Serbia as a whole (not only Kosovo) sung from the perspective of a Serbian evacuee on Corfu during WWI.
Just for the truth's sake - that song that Mr. Mardell has translated to English has nothing to do with Kosovo. The country 'where the lemon blossoms' is actually Greece, where Serbian soldiers withdrew during WWI. There are songs that are much more directly connected with Kosovo, but this one has nothing to do with it. Translation itself is basically OK.
Kosovo has a right to be independent and so has the UK. The powerful can sign all the pieces of paper they like. They cannot take that right away from us. They should not expect things to work if they force unwanted unions upon us.
Sir,
There are 300000 Serbian refugees from Kosovo, who can not go back to their homes in Kosovo after NATO bombing, because of constant attacks by Albanians. Those Serbs who stayed in Kosovo,have to be protected by the heavily armed international forces, because they can not move freely, they can not even go to church, or school, or work, or shop freely, and they can not even live in their homes freely as they are the target for constant vicious attackes by albanians for years. Now, how do you expect ordinary Serb to go on holiday weekend to Kosovo, where any car with Belgrade plates is attacked by even albanian children who are throwing stones at anything serbian moving there. This all is happening in the 21st century in Europe by the way. So, please next time you report on Kosovo issues, try and go there yourself and tell us more of what have you seen and experienced. Also, Kosovo for most of Serbs is not just a mythical place of "Eden", Serbia and its citizens have real interest in its own country and its own property and resources which are being usurped and abused illegally by Albanians. If you by any chance follow the commodity prices, coal is on the rise, and by some chance one of the richest coal mines of Europe, enormous deposits of lignite, lead, zinc, non-ferric metals, gold, silver is in Kosovo, and Serbia is currently loosing billions of pounds because all that is usurped.
You say most Serbians have not been to Kosovo, which is true, how can one visit his monasteries and churches from the 13th century, when terrorists will most certainly strike, as they have before, while the "peace keepers" of the UN stand by and watch our heritage and people burn to death.
And there are people there who expect the Albanians in Kosovo to stick around and wait which other Serb lunatic will be elected and start another round of genocide. The Albanians are saying: no thanks, we rather take the chances on our own and with our partners, the EU and the USA.
Interesting, Mr Mardell. For many Serbs, Kosovo & Metokhia is not "a place to go for a weeked" simply because it has never been SAFE to go there if you are a Serb. This is particularly so since the Tito regime, which de facto tolerated Albanian nationalism and a population expansion. It was not safer to go there during the Milosevic political era either. Milosevic handled this issue in a politically autistic, crude and generally inappropriate manner. But then again, he has been dealing with the whole of Serbia in such a manner... In relation to Serbia and the EU: Serbia may be better off as the only country in the region ouside the EU. It could profit more as a "warehouse" for Russian, Chinese and say, Indian goods ready to be exchanged with the EU, or as a "heaven" for the EU off-shore companies...
The TV was the beginning of a good analogy, but I don't think it quite describes it. How about........ You let people into your flat and watch TV along with them and your family. The guests bring more guests until they outnumber your family. Then they decide they want the whole flat and the neighbors, especially the ones all the way across town, say the guests should have the flat and we'll help them take it!
Yep I think that describes it a little more accurately, though I left out the part of the family grabbing the kitchen knives a little too enthusiastically to stop them earlier.
I have never been to Winchester, the ancient capital of England. Neither have a lot of people in this country. If the majority of the city and local area became Arab Muslim, would it be alright if they declared independence? This is how I am beginning to look at the Kosovo question.
Have You, or for that matter 99% of British people ever been to the Falkand islands? Why not just give it back to the argentinians then? Double standards as is usually the case with Mr Mardell and his "diary"...
Dear Mark,
I must say that you are very worng about the song that you refer to. Translation seems to be very well but the song, originally called "Tamo daleko" has nothing to do with Kosovo and is not about Kosovo at all. It was a song, created during the first World War, sang by members of the Serbian Army during thier ordeal and withdrawal from Serbia all the way down Albania with intention to reach Greece and receive support from its alleys. And it explans thier sorrow to be far away from thier home as well as unhappiness of a woman whose dear went to the war. Neither the elections are about Kosovo. Those are regular Presidential elections as same as they are happening anywhere in Europe. They are coming in the specific moment but however are not about Kosovo.
Number one is right, Serbia should join Russia and not the EU also called Le Troisi猫m Empire fran莽ais or Viertes Reich or Neo Imperium Romanum. And we, the little Englander and our proud allies Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in our democratic elected union called the United Kingdom with our unbiased truthful news sources such as The Sun will fight on for peace, justice and freedom no matter how much those undemocratic continentals will try to change or 'improve' us.
God Save the Queen!
Mr. Mardel, the lyrics of the song you quoted, "Tamo daleko", have nothing to do with Kosovo - in its current form it appeared in WW1 when the Serbian army had to leave their homes and retreat to Greece, hence "far away from the sea". It's a beautiful song, and I'd appreciate it if you don't drag it into the mud-slinging contest about Kosovo independence. There are tons of facts about this song just a google search away if you wish to check your facts.
typical Mardell's British arrogance. why on the Earth you don't take look at your problems and stop interfering with other people business. Most of Serbs have been on Kosovo, Most of Serb know what Kosovo means for them, Why don't you go down there to Kosovo and describe horrendous conditions that remaining Serbs live, all under your watch Western Europe. Shame on you!! Remember Serbia will never lose Kosovo, there had been Third Reich, there had been Ottoman Empire. NATO neo-liberal corrupt fascists will be gone too. 5, 20, 50 years, doesn't matter. Kosovo is Serbia and it will always be.
dear mark,
the song you mentioned is not about kosovo, but about serbia's ww1 soldiers who were burried on the isle on korfu (still greece, i believe). unfortunately, no lemon trees in kosovo, it's climate doesn't allow it.
kosovo is no garden of eden for anyone these days - instead of lemon trees there are unexploded cluster bombs and depleted uranium, poverty and unemployment, organised crime, corruption and violence.
let's face it, situation in kosovo is very complex. no surprise then that even a serbian pop star or a bbc journalist may struggle to understand it - isn't this why we have international law and un security council?
@ Thomas White
If you "as" any brains you'll give good reasons WHY you think this rather than just coming on here to do nothing other than Euro-bash.
I hope except refusing EU, NATO and lost Kosova, serbs will not decide to refuse EuroVision also.
As it seems they are going for that also.
Kosova Independent Now.
Not a great translation of the most popular song during World War I. The same war, in which the Serbian army finally broke the Southern Front (together with French and British troops), which ended the "Great War" and brought the German and Austrian empires to their knees. It's funny how France, Britain and USA, who were TRADITIONALLY Serbian allies, support all of their enemies from WWI and WWII (Croatians, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians - all German puppets), knowing that the Serbs suffered millions upon millions of casualties from all of those ethnic groups. Germany and Austria will never forgive Serbia for loosing all of their vast "colonies", and they will do anything to always keep destroying Serbia by any means. Way to go Britain, France and USA, but, don't worry, all of these same problems will knock on your doors soon...
As a Hungarian, I can empathise with the way the Serbs feel about Kosovo. I call it the "Trianon Effect"; the massive and irreversible loss of territory that is so linked with the national history and consciousness. But like an amputee who is regretting the loss of a limb, the losing people will have to get on with their lives in spite of their grievous loss. As it stands, the Serbs stand no better chance of getting Kosovo back, than the Hungarians do of getting back Translyvania. The Serbs are not the only people in this part of the world who mourn lost territory. Eastern Europe has been a cauldron of irredentism and territorial differences since the First World war.
Oh yes, the losing people will weep and wail and thrash about, possibly for decades (like the Hungarians did) and feel enormously sorry for themselves. These feelings will be exploited from time to time by certain politicians and political parties.
Such national debacles are always the result of internal weaknesses and not external enemies. Enemies appear when they sense your weakness, or your lack of a good leadership. Neither Hungary or Serbia had good leaders or a sensible ruling class at their respective times of crisis. Was Milosovic the best man for the job in the 90's? Were his politics or policies the best at the time? Could anything different have been done while Yugoslavia was still intact?
Neither Hungary or Serbia have had or will have the power to realise their territorial claims and aspirations. Changing the map by force is not an option in a NATO led Europe. To the Serbs, I say welcome to the loser club that Hungary joined in 1919!
The greatness of a nation lies not in how many square miles of territory it has, but with what it does with the territory that it has. Such things as it's policies, it's economics, it's human rights etc. If size alone mattered, countries like the Sudan or Congo should be among the most splendid places on earth! Ha!
Centuries of failed national life have left the Serbs resentful and envious, especially of the more sucessful and developed "west". It forms a cultural barrier; hence your quote about the EU:
"...is seen by most such countries as a symbol of civilisation, modernity and wealth."
emphasises what is lacking in Serbia's historical development. Some Serbs will aspire to it, others will fear and loath it. This will be a society in a culture war for some time to come.
Just a quick note, the song Mark is referring to "Tamo daleko" is not about Kosovo but is a song from WW1, it's main subject is how a Serbian soldier longs for his village, far from the sea as he languishes in Corfu before the Salonica offensive in 1919. Fascinating report as always. Forza Tadic!
To find a solution for the current problems in the Balkan we should reshape it. The Albanian parts of Kosovo could become Albanian and the Serbian parts Serbian. As a compensation, we should split up Bosnia Herzegovina. The Serb part becomes a part of Serbia and the Bosnian/Croatian part could become an independent Bosnia, or join Croatia as they wish.
Hey Mark, I find it really cool that you put up controversial, ignorant comments like the first one. It's a great way to gauge what the mood is out there. Also it shows you're a believer that it's better to bring out irrationality and fear-mongering out in the open, where it can be exposed and put down for what it really is than to censor it and let it grow in the shadows like a cancer.
Does Thomas (embarrassingly we share the same name) really thinks Serbia will be better off clinging to old outdated fascist concepts of nationalism and gravitate towards Russia, which as everyone knows is a wonderful country, fully democratic, free and respectful of the rule of law? (sic)
I'm respectful of eurosceptics who are able to point out flaws within the EU and justify in a compelling way why some (or even all) aspects of the EU are bad. What I can't stand is when euroscpetics make outrageous claims such as the EU is the next Soviet Empire or that there's no freedom in the EU. Last time I checked, every country in the EU has full freedom of press, allows people to organize themselves any peaceful lawful way they see fit, respects human rights and follows the rule of law. I guess these finner points of civilization are what nationalists, racists and xenophobes, just can't accept. I wish real, smart, informed eurosceptics that are not nationalists or fear-mongers would disavow themselves of the crazies out there like Thomas (comment 1).
Thomas Patricio
Toronto, Canada
Just one correction.
The quoted song, "Tamo daleko" ("There, Far Away"), is not about Kosovo. It is a song about Serbia and Serbian army in World War I. It actually dates from that period.
The point isn't that Serbia cannot live without Kosovo. I suppose they could, much like England could most probably live without, say, Newcastle.
But I fail to see why any normal thinking person could ever think that a people could see the loss of part of their homeland as in any way acceptable to them.
As for televisions, I could probably live without my television - I would either not watch TV any longer, or buy a new one. However, I also wouldn't let someone simply take my television without putting up a good fight.
800.000 Montenegrins decided that they did not wish to live in a union with Serbia.
I don鈥檛 believe for a moment that Kosovo should be different.
The politicians in Serbia are using Kosovo to win votes.
Russia is supporting them to test the nerves of U.S. and U.K. I really don鈥檛 understand how you can force 90% of population to live under a country that they got nothing in common. The government in Kosovo has made it clear that they want the minority Serbs to be part of a democratic Kosovo.
I think people in Serbia get brainwash by the propaganda and they truly don鈥檛 have a clue about Kosovo.
The fact is Kosovo is independent from Serbia for nearly 10 year now. However politician in Serbia seem to ignore the facts and keep talking in some bizarre ways about the 鈥淕arden of Eden鈥 or E.U.
This report has depicted Serbia to be an evil and backward country. It is a shame that other nations cannot understand what the Serbs are fighting for. Kosovo is the province in which Serbia was born and which it grew. Serbia needs a president who is willing to fight for the Serbian cause (this person being Tomislav Nikolic) not a man who's only goal is to do whatever he is told by the west. Serbia has been abused by western countries and they're only option is to side with a nation that is willing to support them.
"Does Serbia turn east or west?
Does it snuggle up to Mother Russia, which is fighting Serbia鈥檚 fight over Kosovo on the international stage?"
Reminds me of an old joke from the times when Mother Russia was still called USSR, created, as its anthem claimed, willingly by nations with unity of purpose.
2 guys are sitting in Russian "psykhushka".
[a closed mental institution to which many dissidents were condemned, since only a lunatic could rebel against "people's rule"].
-Why are you here?- asks one another.
-Well, I suffer from schizophrenia.
I love comrade Andropov, but at the same time I fear him tremendously.
And why are YOU here?
-Well, I tried to escape from USSR but got caught by KGB.
-But then they should have shipped you to GULAG , not to a looney bin?!
-Well, I was escaping to the east.
looks like you got it wrong again.
Tamo Daleko isn't about soldiers who died in Cypress. It was sung BY soldiers who were exiled in GREECE.
The EU exists primarily for the purpose of tearing down borders within Europe and taking away countries' individual rights of sovereignty. Serbia has had more than enough interference in its sovereignty - first the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and then the sovereignty of Serbia. After WWII we were told that that kind of thing wouldn't go on again!
I hope Serbia stays steadfast against the EU and that she will not be lured in by the promise of economic gain for the price of her dignity, honor, and self-rule. That's the way the EU operates and many foolish countries have been taken in by the snobbish, self-agrandising clique that is the European Union.
The Serbian soldiers of the song, "Tamo Daleko," were in Corfu, not Cyprus.
The EU exists primarily for the purpose of tearing down borders within Europe and taking away countries' individual rights of sovereignty. Serbia has had more than enough interference in its sovereignty - first the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and then the sovereignty of Serbia. After WWII we were told that that kind of thing wouldn't go on again!
I hope Serbia stays steadfast against the EU and that she will not be lured in by the promise of economic gain for the price of her dignity, honor, and self-rule. That's the way the EU operates and many foolish countries have been taken in by the snobbish, self-aggrandising clique that is the European Union.
I am proud to say that i am Serbian. and i am sure that if Kosovo becomes independent that there will be trouble. even if the Serbian government doesn't do anything about it the people will. and i hate to say this but if it becomes independent that it will be worse then Iraq. what if Serbs start blowing them selfs up or using hit and run tactics? This is the new Kosovo Battle and lots of Serbs are ready to die for Kosovo just like our ancestors did. Kosovo Je Srpsko Milom ili Silom
What was Britain doing in Falkland Islands or India, killing people for that foreign land? And you, Mr. Mardell, are going to teach the public about the significance of Kosovo to Serbs and question whether Serbs ever visit the place? How can we visit when ethnic Albanians want to kill every Serb on the planet earth? You think that we all wouldn't want to be free to visit our monuments, monasteries and churches, families and friends if the place wasn't so life threatening? You are so naive and arrogant.
Doni, the autonomous province of Kosovo i (and) Metohija is not "Kosova". The word "Kosova" actually derives from the Albanians terribly poor grasp of Serbo-Croatian, the previously official language of Yugoslavia before the breakup. If a person from Kosovo was asked where are you from? (Odakle ste vi?) in Serbo-Croatian, then the correct answer was "Sa Kosova" (from Kosovo). The Kosovar Albanians have traditionally been poor at speaking Serbo-Croatian either through defiance or in many cases uneducated ignorance and therefore came to wrongfully call the province "Kosova" because of it. The province of Kosovo is named for Kosovo Polje (the field of the blackbirds) which lies in the heart of the province. There is no sensible meaning in either Serbo-Croatian or Albanian for the word "Kosova".
And before anybody flames me for being a serbophile I'd like to point out that I fought two wars against Serbian nationalism in Croatia and then Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have no love for Serb nationalism and I
abhorred the whole fascist concept of a "Velika Srbija" (Greater Serbia) at the expense of Croatia and Bosnia - I still do. That being the case why should I sign up to the idea of a Greater Albania at the expense of Serbia (for now) and Macedonia, to come later if this lunatic "independence" goes ahead in Kosovo and gives the Natioalist Albanians elsewhere a green light to start causing more trouble.
Also I'd like to point out that this independence of Kosovo will set an example to other troublemakers, for instance the extreme Serb nationalists in Republika Srpska in Bosnia, a mini-state formed through genocide. They will surely use the Kosovo issue to declare independence from Bosnia.
Kosovo has been the cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy for over 1000 years - perhaps as a Scot and therefore a celt I should ask my english neighbours to clear off back to continental Europe in order that we and our Welsh and Irish cousins can have a "Celtic Federation" or a "True British" Isles without interference from Anglo-Saxon-Danish-German-French johnny-come-latelys ;)
The journalist you were speaking to about the song either knows very little, or was lying to you.
The person that told you lemons grow in Kosovo? (I assume that same journalist) - again, either lying or badly misinformed.
Lastly, Serbian soldiers during WWI never went anywhere near Cyprus. The island in quetsion is Corfu, which is a part of Greece and is located in the Adriatic.
What gives us (Americans) right to go into Europe and re-shape it. This is BS. We are trying to create a Muslim country in Europe. As an American I am ashamed of this and everything else we do around the World.
It's funny when the United States and Western Europe lecture other countries on democracy and ethics when all of these countries have committed far worse atrocities. The wealth of Great Britain and the United States was gained by exploiting and killing millions of people and now that their financial base is secure they cast stones at developing countries. We don't even need to mention German and Islamic views on the fair treatment of neighboring countries their past actions speak for themselves. All of you people need to get off these stupid websites turn off the televisions and read a book every now and then. True knowledge can not be gained by reading articles by journalists that don't know a thing about their subjects.
Is the European Union about taking borders down or creating new ones? Also, the last time i checked England's past is a little more tainted than Serbia's. I dare say their isn't a continent that hasn't been exploited by the English or seen their citizens butchered by them.
Also, Albanians have already proven that they are not capable of running their own affairs. Take a peak at Albania, drug and human trafficing appear to be a sport there.
Everyone should remember that if you use the moral or ethics card it should then be applied to everyone not just a few. Should the Turks give up Constantanople and allow the Kurds independence? Should the Serbs be allowed to have independence in Bosnia and Croatia (look up the Croats Nazi past in WWII and the long Turkish occupation of the Balkans for reasonable Serb arguements). Bosnia and Kosovo are the big trade off and in the next few years the German and Arab influence will be felt.
Rewind back to the begining of last century.............It is 1914, and an all to familiar situation is arising in the heart of the Balkans. A small proud nation in the centre between Western and Eastern Civilisations is standing in the way of greater world domination by the larger States. All this small nation wants is freedom for its people and the land that is rightfully theres. I am of cors talking about Serbia and its fight with the great powers of Emperial Germany, The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottamons. In 1914 this trio of allies attempted to carve up Serbia for its own political and land gain..........Less then 4 years later, none of these nations still existed thanks to the co-operation of Serbia, Russia, France, Italy, America and of cors England.
Fast forward nearly 100 years, and the same nations (Bar Russia) who faught for the little guy against the agressive attitudes of the greater states have now taken on the same mantle themselves. And you wonder why Serbia doesnt trust the West?
You caused the dissolution of Yugoslavia..............and you will cause the dissolution of Europe once again with your attitudes.
Long Live the Little Guy!
how come kurdish pkk are terrorists and why are palastinians terrorists there is even more ex,, but the uck albanians are freedom fighters.. who gave u british power to be jugde and the god at the same time.?
Dear Mark,
You have to be careful when you write about Kosovo, cos Serbs might attack you, and you know why, everyone who is not from 鈥淒emocratic Russia and China鈥 is their enemy, so be careful my friend.
@ somebody (24):
What a great solution that is, let's start carving countries up!
Independence for Catalunya and Basque from Spain. UK to lose Northern Ireland to Ireland and independence for Scotland and Wales. Belgium to cease existing, Flanders & Wallonia separate and Eupen-Malmedy back to Germany. Italia to split into Padania and the rest.
France to lose Elsas-Lotharingia (choice between independence and rejoining Germany), independence for Brittany and Occitania. Saarland to be separated from Germany, possible independence for Bavaria or a south German union of Bavaria and Austria.
The western Ukraine to rejoin Poland and Silesia to rejoin Germany. The Kaliningrad oblast to join either Lithuania or Poland, or possibly even Germany as East Prussia. Independence for Transnistria, Chechnya, Ossetia and Dagestan.
Let's not forget to give independence to Kurdistan, Tibet and Taiwan. And of course, Maluku and Irian Yaya to be free of Indonesia. There might even be a few original native 'Indian' nations in the USA who would prefer self rule.
Yes, as you can see, independence for Kosovo (which they don't deserve) will open up a pandora's box of demands from dozens of other separatist regions. And as for being deserving, Kosovo ranks about dead last in that.
The lesson here: just because a group that is a minority in a country, yet a majority in a region of said country demands independence, doesn't mean they should get it. Except for the true deserving ones, Kurdistan, Taiwan and Tibet. Oops the EU and the USA won't support that of course.
@Thomas (25)
what we freedom loving EU-sceptics want is a restoration of parliamentary democracy. The legislative powers are being transferred from directly elected parliaments to unelected EU-crats and politicians. And we don't like that.
I guess things like direct democracy and national parliamentary democracy and parliamentary sovereignty do not mean anything to democracy hating EU-philes.
@ Marcel 53:
There is only one country in europe that practices direct democracy and that's Switzerland. All the others are representative democracies. Like the EU, whose leaders are elected directly for the parliament, or appointed/approved by elected officials (for the commission) or elected officials from the naiton-states (for the councils of ministers).
All of this is no more or no less democratic than the representative democracy you yourself are part of.
Then there is of course the irony that people like you -eurosceptics- are the ones stadning in the way of MORE democracy in the EU.
Sad is a nation who have Albanians for a neighbors
To Milan (13):
Of course the translation is not OK. Not "far away FROM the sea" (that could really mean Kosovo), but "far away, NEAR the sea".
Gavrilo Princip,
The West was not responsible for the dessolution of Yuguslavia. 17 years before that event Yugoslavia already started falling apart. Reason: nationalism. During the Tito-regime minority's enjoyed a form of autonomy. During the 80thies natonalism became more and more powerfull. Main reason: economic decline. Result: Slobodan Milo拧evi膰. After Slobodan Milo拧evi膰 came into power things started to fall apart. He was against autonomy for minority's and in favour of Serbian domination of Yugoslvia. His reign led eventually to the end of Yugoslavia.
Quite informative... Three questions are still in my mind. First, what is the reaction to the prospect of Russian troops in Serbia, that is, in a country that never had this experience, not even during the Cold War. Second, what is the effect of the mergers and acquisitions Russian campeign, which is timed just before the elections. Last but not least, I would be more interested to know why the organizers of a nationalist rally would want the winner of the Eurovision contest singing rather than what she has to say. Just one brief comment, the 'east versus west' choice is a very sad one...
Dear Mark
I enjoy your articles ,you know how to stir up a debate.I look forward to the day when you will be supporting Bosnian Serbs quest for independence with the same vigor you support Kosovo Albanians .Surely they deserve independence, too.And of course another future Albanian ministate emerging out of Macedonia ,maybe one more in Pressevo Valley in Serbia where Albanians are majority(we could call that Pressevo Valley Republic of Albania) and if Serbia dissagrees let's constructively negotiate and give them two choices :
1. meet reasonable Albanian demands for independence 100%
2.Nato(alias USA) will bomb Serbia to spread democracy (depleted uranium)
We could use the same formula to create another Albanian ministate in northern Greece since there are some Alabanians too.that's five!!!!Albanian countries .Mark ,you have your work cut out for years to come and later when these Albanian ministates will try to merge into Greater Albania you could support that as yet another evidence of EU integration and borders comming down. And if the Serbs have a problem with that ,well it will be the old Serb ultra-nationalists,radicals, war criminals yet again causing problems .
[B]#19[/B], Pat: if that situation upsets you, you must be advocating also that Serbs leave Vojvodina (for the benefit of those less familiar with the region, this is a province like Kosovo but to the north of central Serbia), and that Vojvodina returns to Hungary. Your analogy applies just as well as to Kosovo.
Dear Mark,
To err is human, to admit to it is divine, to feel insulted by it is small. It never ceases to amaze me how sensitive people are over their nationality, religion or beliefs. You wrongly interpreted the meaning of a song. So what? You admitted to it, made a correction to the best of your ability, now just move on people! Some of the comments, from what I assume are from Serbians and others from Kosovars, really show a lack of maturity. Balkan Scot (44) with his smart thoughtful comment, further shows how the whole region lacks maturity. When a nation and a people achieve maturity, they are able to shrug off perceived insults and perceived past grievances. Unfortunately, it seems Serbians and Kosovars lack this ability. This is why NATO and the EU will probably have to remain in Kosovo for two, maybe even three generations. NATO and the EU will just have to be patient and wait for Serbians and Kosovars to grow up.
Side comment:
And there goes Marcel again. He starts well in his comment (53). He states that EU-sceptics (which I assume is being sceptical of the EU, not of Europe) want the restoration of parliamentary democracy and that legislative powers are being transfered to unelected Eurocrats. That's a really good start. Then as I read along hoping that he'll justify his position with maybe an example, hoping that he'll state in a clear rational way why he believes things are wrong the way they are and maybe (how dare I?) hoping he'll present some solutions to what he deems wrong, he throws a precious gem of an insult to EU-philes. Dear Marcel, here's a solution for more accountability and Democracy within the EU: More powers to the European Parliament with the Commissioner being elected by the European Parliament and an EU President directly elected by the people. See? Not that hard to put forward some good suggestions. Please help reverse the image of EU-sceptics as irrational scaremongers who justify their positions with strident comments and insults. If you have any real, rational alternatives, please put them forward.
Thomas Patricio
Toronto, Canada
First of all, it is Kosovo and Metohija (KosMet, Muslim Albanians conveniently forget the 'Metohija' part since it is a Christian land owner reference) - get the name right!
Secondly, independent KosMet will join up with Mother Albania and create a Greater Albania with parts of Macedonia, Greece joining next.
The question is: does the West support (1) a Greater Christian Serbia or (2) a Greater Muslim Albania, with all its al Qaeda terrorism infiltration, drug-running, arms and people smuggling and prostitution?
Option (2) will definitely lead to war again ...
Mrs.Mardell the song you have so beautiffly quoted (So Far away- Tamo daleko) is not about Kosovo. It's a song from the First World War, and it's about Serbian soldiers, who have crossed Albania by foot, fought bravely and achieved some of the greatest victories in the Great War. It's about their longin for home, family, freedom.......
As far as your text is concerned, the problem is much, much deeper and very hard to explain.Ever since I was 18 I have voted and hoped that my people will wake up and finally learn something out of history (which they so often just quote but not really know). My hopes and dreams are turned towards Europe, I do hope that it has the power (together with us from Serbia who strongly believe in it) to once and for all determines the path prosperity and normal, civilized life. I think, after all these years of struggle and suffering) we've deserved it.
Russia, oh please........
Very well written article.Unfortunately,majority of the Serbs are still delusional and think that the west is out to get them.They still think that US and EU is trying to take away Kosova from them even if it never belonged to them to begin with.After what Serbia did during the 90ties to its neighbours,they are finally tasting their own medicine and see that indeed its bitter and they dont like it.Serbs are still electing radicals and ultra-nationalist in their governments and that is a pretty good indicator that a lot of Serbs are still living in the past of the "glorious Great Serbia".That doesnt sit well with EU or any Western civilization.
Kosova is a done deal.Its only a matter of semantics and how soon the Serbs realize that instead of clinging to fairy tales,they should indeed improve their lives in Serbia and move forward.Unfortunately,from the comments here it seems it will take a painfully long time for a Serbian rude awakening which should have happened in the 90ties instead and spared all of us the suffering we had to see.Serbia do Tokija dream was stillborn.Kosova was the last casualty of that dream that finally got away.Better late than never.
dear mark,
you have opened a right can of worms here!
i have to chuckle that people expect you to have a deep knowledge of the folk songs of serbia. meanwhile i am still looking for 'Cypress' in my atlas. i'd recommend a visit to the Military Museum in Belgrade - they had to close the section on Serbia during WW2 - it is a bit embarassing for them as the nationalists were usually fighting the communists rather than the nazis. the visitor book is like the feedback to your blog, but with extra intelligence and venom.
best wishes and keep blogging - you flush out all sorts of interesting people and their views
It is quite interesting to read some of the stuff that some people write here. About Kosovo, well let's start Kosovo has never been serbia nor will it ever be,. History tell's that serbs came from ukraine around 8 century the albanians have always been there so how can it be serbia ? and most of the hisrory that serbs tell about kosovo is made up and mostly un true an un found. But te refresh your memories serbia just killed about 15 thousands of Kosovar Albanians and there are some 3 thousand missing and buried in sites around serbia and some of you think that is ok! maybe in the cave man days but not today.I have visited both kosovo and serbai and found that kosovo is much friendly and more safe than serbia. In the end kosovo will be independent country and nothing will stop it.
reply to tony sweeting
kosova does not belong to serbs in the first place, the kosovar albanians are the descendants of the illyrian tribes who have lived in that region forever, serbian slavs came to the region in the 6th century. Basicaly even serbia isnt rightfully theirs. + to (everyone else) it is very untrue that serbs were unsafe to travel to kosova as kosova was full of policemen who happened to be serbs + how can you expects us to remain part of a country who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent kosovar children and women +
How do you explain this becuase those women and children certainly were not part of the kla. so think twice before you ask why kosovar albanians hate serbs so much
+ kla itself was not a terrorist organization but an organization who were tired of the serbs who deprived them of equality and freedom and decided to fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
kosova will be indipendent becuase it is the land of our ancestors and not of a few people who built churches there and dont be mistaken i have got nothing against christianity or any other religion but you serbs are failing to realise that you are the immigrants of the region which you live in now and that we kosovar albanians were in kosova (illyria) forever
Geographically it seems Serbia has always been in a tight situation. Its position in Europe has led the nation to many wars within its history. Russia has always supported Serbia, since the cultural ties are so similar. I find it difficult to see though how Serbia will benefit from joining the EU. As stated before, the independence of Kosovo is against UN law, which is what gives Russia the right to Vito any attempt Kosovo would make at joining the UN. But the backing of the independence of Kosovo from the west is so strong. Serbia would be smart to lean towards the Russian side. Russia has always supported Serbia, and would begin to use Serbia as a way to transport fuel and many other resources to Europe and even in the future the Middle East. The country would be much more prosperous being one of the lone countries in Europe to have Russian influence, offering Russian resources to the rest of Europe. Being a member of EU I see no superior benefits, simply because of the West鈥檚 previous engagements with the Serbs. Sadly, maybe not in the near future, but the Balkan area will surely have a new war under it, possibly even the start of another world war, since the previous two world wars were arguably started by Serbia. The territory that is the Balkans is much to controversial, full of war in the past, and surely war in the future.
Serbia lost the moral right to Kosovo when Milosevic's soldiers murdered and expelled its population. Yes, the Albanians are legitimate residents of Kosovo-the idea of a massive influx of Albanians into Kosovo from Albania is a figment of Serbian propaganda. Unfortunately, this propaganda (along with blatant anti-Islam prejudice) has dominated the debate in many quarters. I really don't sympathize with Serbian nationalists like the ones Mardell described expecting the Kosovo Albanians to continue to be part of a country that tried to eliminate them. Serbia should accept that its leaders committed terrible crimes, and that as a result they have lost the right to claim the loyalty of the people of Kosovo.
How many Englishmen were in Folklans, but you still went to war for it, right?
So stay out of Srbia.
Ilir in post 36,
It all sounds neat and tidy the way you describe how the Serbian people react over Kosovo, and how the 'Kosovan Government' has great plans.
The truth is, in Kosovo as i speak, right in this moment, Serbs are living in danger and are being totally isolated from the rest of Kosovo.
By no means does any pro-eu, suck-up and please donate speech by any Kosovan Politician, ever give out any credit to what they're saying. I think you're the one being brainwashed by the propaganda your television set is leading you to believe. More importantly, i doubt you've done much research, %90 Albanian was NOT always the case.
%100 of the 'Republika Srpksa' in Bosnia has a Serbian population, and it accounts for %49 of the entire country in size. Why are people not as passionate to give these people their independence? Hmm, good question, huh?
I'm very sure if one of those 'Argentinian Islands' in the UK was to develop lets say, a 90% ...Italian population, you guys would in a lot of ways hesitate to declare independence, would you not?
If Kosovo gains it's independence, i can sadly say it will not end the suffering, if anything it will further develop ratial tentions. Further more, it will definitely not be the end of it as far as Serbia is concerned. Sooner or later, Serbs will come marching back.
I'm a Serb who has seen his own father go to war in Croatia, and has been brought up in a way not to be Biast and/or racist towards any race or religion. Believe me, i'm not racist towards Albanians, i just think it is not right, and no country should have an ultimatum between 'Give me your Heart' or.. . . . .? or what?
Sadly, even with the corrections, Mr. Mardell remains confused, and refers to Cyprus instead of Corfu. But I won't belabor that point.
I simply have a problem with the fact that, while the rest of Yugoslavia was falling apart, the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia were repeatedly told "No, no, no, borders are sacred, we can't listen to your requests to separate". Now, suddenly, the borders are not sacred. Why? You might say it is because of the genocidal behavior of the Serbs during 1999 NATO war. Sadly, the precedent already exists, in Croatian cleansing of the Serb areas in 1995, something yet to go on trial at the Hague - and the Serbs there only got to leave and not return, let alone have a state. The point is that the Kosovo conundrum pits together the brainless morons who want war, and every thinking person, who realizes that two completely different yardsticks are in use, always at the expense of the Serbs. Even if it is for the betterment of Europe and the region, it is a bit too much to buy as "fair". And I don't need to go to Kosovo to feel that my country is being robbed of its most historical part.
Kossovo question belongs to a series of actions in Balkan peninsula the last 10-15 years.
Bosnians (Serb Muslims and Croates Muslims) became a nationality...
Western Bulgarians became of "Macedonian" nationality..
Kossovars (Albanians) became of Kossovar nationality...
..and as far US search factors for disintegration of EU, as far US wants small sattelite newborn countries to have its military bases, and as far as US wants to please Turkey and other Muslim ally countries by "giving" them a Muslim triangle in Europe........ we gonna see many more new "nationalities" and newborn "countries".
I think it is innevitable for the time being for Serbia to keep its land. Serbs have to wait until the hegemony of US in Europe stops.
Serbs don't deserve Kosovo. They don't deserve to be in the EU. Stop voting for ultra-nationalists, you buffoons.
As others have already commented, it is very difficult for ordinary Serbs to visit Kosovo and Metohija - buses and cars with Serbian registration plates have been attacked previously, often with deadly results.
I, for one, used to go to Kosovo regularly - we had family in Pristina and Pec and my family had a holiday home in the ski resort of Brezovica. The visits became less frequent from the early 1980s because we feared for our safety - we were regularly attacked driving through Albanian-inhabited areas (pelted with rocks, charged by axe-wielding men barring our way...) on the way to Brezovica.
These attacks were during a time before Milosevic, when the Albanians in the province exercised self-rule and had no reason to attack non-Albanians.
Despite these events, Kosovo is very real for me and a very special part of my childhood. Strong emotional ties exist even for those Serbs that haven't been lucky enough to visit Kosovo. Most of us have ancestral links to Kosovo, a land our forefathers never left willingly, but to escape the brutality at the hands of the Ottomans and their Albanian allies.
Kossovo question belongs to a series of actions in Balkan peninsula the last 10-15 years.
Bosnians (Serb Muslims and Croates Muslims) became a nationality...
Western Bulgarians became of "Macedonian" nationality..
Kossovars (Albanians) became of Kossovar nationality...
..and as far US search factors for disintegration of EU, as far US wants small sattelite newborn countries to have its military bases, and as far as US wants to please Turkey and other Muslim ally countries by "giving" them a Muslim triangle in Europe........ we gonna see many more new "nationalities" and newborn "countries".
I think it is innevitable for the time being for Serbia to keep its land. Serbs have to wait until the hegemony of US in Europe stops.
I sympathize with the Serbs, the Muslims always use violence to steal land from its original owners. This may be a gross generalization but it is the truth, Kashmir belongs to India, Cyprus to Greece and Kosovo to Serbia. The reason the US supports making Kosovo independent is because they want to get the resources in Kosovo. Heck why are they in Iraq for the Oil. The author does not understand how it feels when your land is stolen from you. How will a Brit no anyway, they have been stealing land from people for centuries.
Rambo wrote: Muslims always use violence to steal land from its original owners.
Would be Rambo enough to try and post it on one of HYS debates devoted to Israeli-Palestinian issues? :-)
Woo hoo, the Serbs are really sensitive about how the report portrayed the atmosphere in Serbia, Mark great job, it couldn't have been more realistic. I think a lot of people are very affected from the long term nationalistic propaganda encrusted in all aspects of everyday life and that is still going on (hence the big participation in rallies that support suppressive racial ideology). Serbs should look into moving forward, fixing their economy, reducing corruption and becoming a moderate society by looking out of the box. Obviously they are not ready for the EU and should not be offered an easy entry till they move forward and stop blaming everybody else for their problems. If they consider Kosovar Albanians as terrorist and their land not safe they should not try to keep Kosovo because obviously from the Serbs' point of view they can't coexist, let alone what Kosovar Albanians think about coexistence with the people that volunteered to go kill women and children. We are in the 21st century, both sided should be able to decide what is better for themselves and hopefully with peace.
The desired aim is for everyone to live in peace and harmony - no?
The EU - particularly exemplified by Schengen - represents a realistic route to a harmonious 'balkanisation' of it's constituent parts whilst still retaining overall political cohesion.
This whole package, with the added historical inevitability of cross-cultural blending, delivers freedom from cultural friction by preserving local identity, which is frequently quite distinct from national identity. I have myself recently witnessed this process in action on the recently-abolished Slovenian/Austrian and Slovenian/Italian borders.
Can anyone tell me if there is anything actually WRONG with such an historical itinerary?
Kosovo IS a part of Serbia. It is the historic and religious heart and soul of Serbia. The over 800 beautiful and spectacular 11th century churches, monasteries and chapels is concrete testimomy on the ground that Kosovo IS a part of Serbia. These physical structurec cannot be moved to Serbia if Kosovo is turned into a second Albania. If Albanians want to live in an Albanian state, they should move to Albania where they belong.
As for the song, not Cyprus for Gods sake! It is about retreating of Serbian army in World War 1 across Albania towards Greece and Africa.
Mark,great job!!
As you can read,you can draw your conclusions from racistic ,fake "historical"data that our "friendly"?! neighbours,the greeks and the serbs;and their protector russia have been introducing on your blog.I mean, dont't you see an analogy of greek and serb minds correspond with the people who are commiting dark acts around the world;This exceptional hate that they have towards their neighbour the Albanian people?In 21century these people think this way?Well thank god!-that is a same god that christians,jews and muslims warship-that we have the West.As far as Russia is concerned, my dear friends and neighbors they should worry what is hapenning as we talk behind the Ural Mountains(more than half of russia).The Chinese have been moving there populating those areas slowly but surely.Pretty soon the russians are going to cry uncle and ask for western help.Maybe you greeks and serbs should start and help your mother russia with everything you got-especially your hate.As far as we Albanians are concerned we are extremly comfortable to be "ocupied"by Britain,and USA and EU.That is where we belonged since time immemorial.As descendands of Mother Teresa that we Albanians are we forgive you -greeks and the serbs for your extreme hate towards us-because we are a western culture that believes in reason,morality,democracy and United Europe.
Missing from most of these comments is the plight of the people of Kosovo, 90% of them of Albanian origin and long discriminated for this very reason. The percentage of local Serbs in Kosovo is way smaller than say in independant Montenegro!
Serbian policies so far have been to ignore them (no school, no support etc.) and expelle or kill them when they get too noisy. By repeating ad nauseam that Kosovo is Serbian, Serbs confirm that they see the age-old Albanian majority as mere foreign with no real right to be there.
While Kosovo has a new State definitely doesn't sound too promising from the outside, people there can only too easily figure what return Serbian opression would mean. So sorry Serbia, after what you've done, no sensible Albanian will ever accept as a ruler and you got to get ready to yet another loss.
Serbs have made a serious mistake by aligning with Russians. If they want to keep Kosovo they must elect virulently anti-Russian government. They will find afterwards that all of sudden EU and US will become serbophile and Kosovo question will be miraculously quickly solved.
Ask president Voronin from Moldova how to organize this.
Like Bosnian, I hope Nikolic will keep his words about creation of the Greater Serbia on holly Bosnian soil. Really I hope he will try that, so finally we will have excuse to burn that sick idea once for all in Bosnia.
Why Tadic is smaller ultra nationalist than Nikolic? They all wish Greater Serbia, they all suported Milosevic until they found out that Milosevic is not capable to create Greate Serbia. So I hope 91热爆 will go in Sarajevo and Zagreb and take comments about those Serbian clowns? We all in Croatia and Bosnia supports Nikolic and we all hopes he will keep his words. Only thing what is different from last time (1991) we will wait them and we are ready to give them life lesson.
They don't have military power to do anything, if they try, we will wait them ready and give them lesson once for all. After all even if they have military power, we also have military power to destry them if they anything try.
Boris Tadic and Kostunica are also ultra nationalists, just they are not honest like Nikolic, and they are not brave enough to say that they fight for Great Serbia.
Mr. Mardell, again you are wrong about everything you write about Serbia, Please go and work in the USA or somewhere where your western thinking can be appreciated, because you just write rubbish about the balkans for your western readers.
Please just exchange the word 'Conservative' for 'Radikali'. not Radical.
Gavrilo Princip wrote: Long Live the Little Guy!
Gavrilo! You're alive?!
I thought you blew yourself to smitherins in Sarayevo, little guy, thus starting the Great War?
Does that mean that history's about to repeat itself?
@Joe (84)
the worst hardline nationalists I know are the Croats. Did you know that nazi collaborator Ante Pavelic is still being worshipped there?
To: Mark
Thanks for doing a review on state of mind in radical ranks that's been isolated for so long. It's a somewhat brave decision given the tensions.
As for Mark's critics, he is a fresh set of eyes and presents an opinion which is open for debate. You should counter argue via arguments and facts not comment on emotional state basis.
In my opinion, isolation in Serbia went both ways, internally and externally and over time it produced a very frustrated bunch of people in the country (to use some quite common terms here) who can't really care any more as to what's better long term or short term. They just want a change as they tried the pro-west and the pro-east and pro-whatever parties and nothing really changed.
Democracy on Balkans now is just as strange and new as colour TVs were back in 60s. Everybody wants it and thinks they can buy it but nobody really knows how it works. So if the remote doesn't work, they start hammering the box to see if that fixes the picture...
Secondly you'll notice how nearly EVERYONE from Balkans claims to be great in history. That's because in our education system when they say 'history' what they really mean is the history of all battles, assassinations, slaughters and territorial takeovers. The greatest warriors and marauders are automatically the most honoured people in the (history) books. I dare you ask anyone what was the greatest publication of their neighbouring nation in the Renaissances era or where did Handle compose his greatest works. One in hundred may know, if you're lucky. And what you don't know, you can't appreciate. We don't respect each other's cultural values (to start with), current or past, let alone to trust current politicians. That's why we burn each other's temples. In some minds, it's a symbol of culture which is alien, feared, taught to hate.
What people need over there, is simply EDUCATION.
Maybe then, somebody will note that Serbs AND Albanians (at the time the majority of Albanians were Catholics) fought Ottomans together on Kosovo.
Some Serbs here should know that the first Serbian King was honoured the crown by ROMAN POPE. Needs to be said just before we dive in to the glories of the Orthodoxy. (FYI Honorius 3rd was the pope, Nemanja was the king, Zica Monastery, 1217).
Serbs should also be proud that it was Josif Runjanin (a Serb) who composed current Croatian hymn - 'Lijepa Nasa' (130 years ago). And some lyrics those are!
Bosnians should appreciate that it was an abducted Serbian boy who became one of the most powerful Ottoman rulers in Turkish history. It was Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic (who was born in Visegrad in 1505) who ordered the construction of the bridge to connect the banks of the Drina river once he returned to Bosnia as Grand Vizier. He did it to connect the land, to bring together the two sides and two cultures together.
But because of basic lack of education and lack of culture, there is no appreciation and respect amongst the Balkan nations. Don't get me wrong. Being intelligent is completely different to been educated. There is a lot of intelligent and smart people on Balkans. But they get easily swayed over by the politicians who use various versions of 'history' in order to exploit them for their personal needs.
Put it all together and then you'll get a paradox of intellect which partly explains why a person of mediocre intellect gets to have a chance in winning presidential elections on Balkans. Current political reigns on Balkans are like medieval artisans. They are staging an act only so they can get two things out of it that they are truly interested in - glory and money.
As for Kosovo, the only solution is the one which is considered just (der. justice) by all the people who live\d there. No matter what borders are set, if not agreed by both sides, will not last long. My only hope is that people who live there will realise that they are part of global community and need to deal with global issues, before a new conflict erupts. If they do, they will see that they need no borders to divide themselves and that no borders will stop them from working together if that is TRULLY what they desire to do.
P.S. Apologies for making this post so long, I just had too much time on my hands :)
Poster > surely has an incerdibly naive concept of history and areas fraught with identity problems.
Many of the places and regions outlined in this post have directly contradicting protagonists and cannot be even at best compared in such a litany.
I thank other posters for outlining the plight of the Serbians in this particular position of the Balkan conflict, and feel that they are unfairly cast as the Big Bad Wolf in this situation. When in fact this particular territory has been essentially colonised by Albanians in such a way that Serbians are criticised for in other territories and expected to retreat from.
I spoke with a friend who grew up in Kosovo last week (I'm in Chicago). She said when they were growing up, there were hardly any Albanians in Kosovo. Tito opened the borders and "let them in". She also remembers when visiting Serbia proper, it was dirt roads, nothing much and when you got to the border and stepped onto Kosovo, it was paved roads, etc. She said there the universities taught in Albanian etc.. Tito did all this and naturally the Albanians from Albania flocked to get in. Wow, a release from poverty in a welfare state.
My endless curiosity is why he did it. Maybe he wanted to ensure that what is happening today would happen.
"Kosovo IS a part of Serbia. It is the historic and religious heart and soul of Serbia." [#79]
Kiev (established by Khazars)is considered by Russians a craddle and historic and religious heart of Russia (itself created by Vikings, and more specifically - Varangians). However, since Kiev happens to be today the capital of Ukraine your suggestion to Ukrainians would be to move to...?
Koenigsberg, built by a Bohemian king on the grounds of old Prussian village and considered the historic/cultural heart of Eastern Prussia is currently a capital of a Russian enclave called Kaliningrad Oblast.
Therefore your suggestion to Russians who occupy it would be...?
Chinese Inner Mongolia is considered a craddle of present day Mongolia, therefore...
On the other hand, Manchurians consider current Primorsky Kray...
Et caetera, et caetera, ad infinitum and ad... absurdum.
I always wondered. How is it that great powers of yesterday (UK, France, Germany,...) now consider themselves the source of the human intellect and civilization, while just 40 years ago they had colonies in far flung places, killing people directly and indirectly through theft of their natural resources, installation of dictators, all under the guise of a civilized world. Maybe, just maybe, it isn't rest of the world thats the problem, maybe its just the west. And we see time and time again, dear West supporting democracy when it suits them, but then overthrows democratically elected governments and installing dictators when needed. If Serbia elects a radical, who has the power to say otherwise. Stop paying lipservice to democracy and actually live it. But again, after visiting London, I've come to believe that even the UK elite don't trust their subjects, just judging by the sheer number of cameras.
Maybe it's important, so i'll say it...i'm Serbian.
1. I'm so sorry for Serbs because they are so blind, they are brain washed and i hope that they'll (very soon) accept the fact that Kosovo isn't Serbian anymore and that they'll have future life without anger and hate.
2. But most of all i'm sorry for West. I'm sorry because UK is "forced" to support USA in Kosovo matter just because they have old debts to USA. This is all big game and we are all victims.
But..i'll tell you one thing. I've been to Macedonia and Montenegro in 2007. More than half of Macedonia is already Albanian, and they have open support from West. On public buildings are are USA and Albanians flags in the middle of capital Skoplje (Macedonia). Almost half of Moontenegro is Albanian too, Greece has huge problem with Albanians too. What i'm trying to say is "forgive them God, they don't know what they are doing"! Serbia will loose Kosovo and we gonna cry next few years, but real we will recover. The bad side of all this is when that finally happen it's going to be legalisation of new Balkan war and countries like Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro will deal with the same problem..very soon we gonna have nice big muslim country in the middle of Europe, of course after we all together declare Kosovo independent!
WEll, good luck people!
Balcan Scot in his message no 44, is annoyed at the spelling of Kosova, preferring instead Kosovo-Metohija. In his erudite opinion, there is no such word. Well, there is in Albanian.
Kosova is the difinite version of the name in Albanian. The indefinite version is Kosov毛. And, by the way, this has nothing to do with 'the poor grasp of Serbo-Croat by the Albanians' as Balcan Scot claims. Almost all other toponyms in Kosova have their Albanian counterparts which Serbs and their friends apparently find annoying. This intolerance comes from the Serb determination to deny any Albanian connection with Kosova, which I find rather silly.
I wonder if Italians, for instance, mind the English names of their towns and cities.
to Mark: The question of kosovo can not be debated like some of the comments made about Kiev and Kaliningrad oblast. Kosovo is a southern province of Serbia not just a random city or a "Oblast". its full namewhich is rarely mentioned in the wsest is Kosovo and Metohija,Metohija meaning church/monastery land. Kosmet (osovo and Metohija) was the heartland of the pre-serbian kingdom of Rasca (Rashka) whose decendants formed the new country, one of them being prince Rastko commonly known as St.Sava. Kosmet's history under communist regime had a significant change in its population and many Albanians were allowed to settle in order to work in SFRJ. the song that mentioned lemmons and far away land was a ww1 song that described the events of the Serbian army's retreat (not victory) through Albania, where theywere evacuated (much like Dunkirk) by the French Navy to Crete not Cyprus. Once they reorganised they were sent to greek Macedonia i.e Thessalonica to fight their way up to Belgrade. Hence why there is a statue in thefort of Belgrade (Kalemegdan) openly saying "We love the French" and not as commonly thought the Russians. Russians are like brothers to Serbs, but even brothers do not get on sometimes.
Mospyt
Kosovo" is a Serbian place name, more fully "kosovo polje", meaning the 'field (or plain) of blackbirds'. "Kosova" is totally meaningless and means nothing to anyone who knows anything about Slavic languages.
Princepetr
princepetr,
Kosova may not mean anything in Slavic languages, but it does in Albanian which is not a Slavic language.
This topis is becoming so annoying. Just declare independence! And you serbs please dont make anoymore comments about the corrolation with Jerusalem and *your Mecca* because it just doesnt make sense. If you were so sensitive about Kosovo, you would try to save it by legal and civilized means, not killing the civilians and try to ethincally cleanse it. As far as history is concerned, you better try to read books by european writers for a change and not base all you assumption on your nationalistic history tales. Kosovo Albanians deserve independence, like any other nation tha is not satisfied with the reception in one state, esp when the treatment is like the one Albanians received in post-89 era. I guess serbs are just to proud to admit another loss caused by their own hegemony. Neither Russia is going to do anything about it, in the end. Talk is cheap when it comes to russian politics. Betrayal is going to happen sooner or later, like it did every time in the history of Balkans. I just hope this time Albanians won't be subject to that and european actors would finally fix their mistakes they did in the past.
No Mr.Kondracki - Kossovo is Serbia. UN 1244. Your examples could be carried on to other parts of the world and be just as valid. Now EU has to figure out how to break out Kossovo from Serbia. They will sort of have to fall on their backs to find a legal loophole. Other than that they will have to find a way to keep this entity functioning and not just siphoning tax money from EU citizens. And mean time watch them rushing to offer club membership to Serbia just so it does not fall in the Moscow orbit. The hypocricy of it all!
You talk about serb nationalism and racism and refer to them as fashists and nazis and ignore the fact that millions of Serbs and thousands of Jewish and Roma people were killed by Croats, Bosnian muslims, Albanians and other Hitler's WWII allies. How can Serbs possibly represent an ideology that call for the extermination of their own people? Calling Serbs fashists is alike to calling Jews nazis. Also, it seems to me that you know very little about former Yugoslavia and its constitution and politics. Yugoslavia was created, as its constitution clearly states, by the union of its constitutional nations (not states, ntions). Its constitution also clearly stated that these nations reserved the right to leave the union if they wished to do so (while all nationalities had equal rights, only the five "historic" peoples had the right to leave the union and take the land that belonged to them). Yugoslav communist authorities (who by the way were not just serbs as some seem to think but included all nationalities) are the ones that had a problem with Croats and others leaving the union, because they simplly didn't want the union to end, not the Serbian people. The Serbs did however have a problem with the Croats claiming that all of the state of Croatia belonged to them, because there were large regions in which Serbs represented a majority. Don't be fooled by the names of the states, the state of Crotia and its borders (as all other Yugoslav states,including Serbia) in their present form were created in the communist era (SFR Yugoslavi) for administrative purposes, and not on the one nation one state principle. This means that not all parts of Croatia were historicly and demographically Croat land. The comunist authorities could have solved this problem by creating an autonomous region in Croatia in the regions where Serbs were a majority (The way they did with the two autonomous regions in Serbia), but they didn't because the Serbs were the largest of the "nation building" peoples and most opposed to Communism. Another reason may lay it the fact that the leader of the communists was Tito a man of Croat and Slovenian desent. Tito was also the one responsible for the suppression of the truth about the atrocities commited by Croats against Serbs, Roma, Jews and also croats loyal to the monarchy. The Monarchy I am talking about is the one that created the first Yugoslavia, the Karadjordjevic dinasty. Despite the fact that they were of Serbian dessent this dinasty and its rulers were commited to the idea of the three nations (Croats, Slovenes and Serbs)living in one country because they believed, as did the representatives of the three peoples, that that was the only way they could preserve their freedom from those around them. If it weren't for this dinasty the Croats and Slovenes would still be a part of Hungary and Austria. For this reason they had some loyal suporters amongst not only Serbs but also Croats and Slovenes. But Croat ultra-nationalists couldn't accept the idea of having a Serbian king, and they saw the outbreak of WWII as an opportunity, and created an Independant state of Croatia, led by Ante Pavelic,who was responcible for the atrocities I mentioned above along with the killings of Croats who oposed his fashism and support for Hitler. Despite of what he did, he is still considered a hero by Croats. Albanians too were very strong supporters of Hitler, and were responsible for the murder of thousands of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, taking over Serbian houses and illegaly entering this region of Serbia and settling there. This is one of the reasons why they are now a majority in KiM despite the fact that they were not before WWII. Their takeover was further helped by the decidion of the Yugoslav leader Tito to stop all Serbs from returning to Kosovo and Metohija if they decided to leave it for any reason, such as a holiday, or in order to get some documents that they could only get from Belgrade.
Anyway, it's a very complex situation that cannot be resolved very easily.
As far as the rights of minorities in Serbia is considered, the fact that so many thousands Serbs had leave Croatia and muslim controled areas of B&H in order to survive, while not a single Croat or muslim had to leave Serbia during the war speaks for itself. Also the fact that Catholic churches and mosques in Serbia are still standing, while Orthodox churches in Croatia and parts of B&H are in ruins tells us a lot. Minorities in Serbia have the right to be schooled in their own language in all subjects, and textbooks in minority languages are available for the same price as those in Serbian. As far as the Albanians are conserned, university level education was provided for them in their native language in K&M, at a time when they were just a minority there (before WWII), and long before it was available in Albania itself. Another fact everyone is ignoring is that Albanians are not native to Kosovo, majority of them arrived illigaly during WWII. Thus they have no claim to this land.
I think someone compared Montenegro to Kosovo and Metohia. Well they are completely different, Montenegro is a state, whereas K&M is just a region, so they are completely different.
And as far as the genocide and other crimes against Albanians is conserned, where is the proof? There is none! Just as there is no proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the same weapons the US and others used as a justification to invade it.
Thomas from Canada wrote:
No Mr.Kondracki - Kossovo is Serbia. UN 1244. Your examples could be carried on to other parts of the world and be just as valid. Now EU has to figure out how to break out Kossovo from Serbia. They will sort of have to fall on their backs to find a legal loophole. Other than that they will have to find a way to keep this entity functioning and not just siphoning tax money from EU citizens. And mean time watch them rushing to offer club membership to Serbia just so it does not fall in the Moscow orbit. The hypocricy of it all!
I'm sure that you know as well as I do, that nations-states have historically been created by peoples united by common identity, and, much more importantly, by people able to HOLD the territory they aquired at some point by hook or by crook.
If people free to determine their destiny decide to stay within a larger entity/federation that's only because they've established that it's to their advantage.
Wouldn't you agree that that's why Quebec is still a part of Canada?
And wouldn't you agree that Canada is a sovereign state because it's neighbour to the south has never been interested in making it its 51st state?
Having said that, no. I do not think that a trend to create mini-states on the order of Baskonia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Flamandia, Kosovo or Montenegro is a healthy one (I'm not so sure regarding Catalunia). But Russian, Serb, etc., crypto-chauvinists have only themselves to blame for it, for had it not been for their discriminatory, gingoistic policies many nations with strong ethnical identities might have chosen to stay in loose confederations united by common economic goals, instead of going their separate ways the moment they regained some freedom of movement.
BTW. Do you think that UK would remain a part of EU superstate if British subjects could freely express their preferences in a national referendum?
I, for one, am not so sure.
P.S. Serbia is, and always has been in a Russian sphere of influence.
I don't think that anybody at Mons would bother to stop Serbs, even if they proposed to their Russian sponsors that they try and recussitate Warsaw Pact (of course without Warsaw).
And Pentagon wouldn't to that either, knowing that people with Homo Sovieticus mentality would simply join Dinosaurs on their way to extinction sooner rather than later.
I'm a Serb and I think we should put the past behind us, recognize Kosovo and apply for membership in EU. It's our fault that we chose a stupid butcher as our leader (Milosevich). He attempted genocide against Kosovo Albanians, and now it is too late to mend fences with them. Besides, why is Kosovo our "cradle"? Because we LOST there a battle against the Turks 600 years ago? Give me a break! Let's move forward, for the sake of our children.
Mr. Kondracki - it is very unfortunate that you are so blinded by hatred of Russians. It is also quite sad that you are wasting your intelect on hubris you constantly promote.
A person of such intelect should pay some regard for intelectual honesty.
What is your agenda?
Dear Mark,
I will like to thanks to you and to 91热爆 for giving a chance to all these different people to come with their ideas about Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija and global powers: US, China, Russia and EU. I spend all morning reading all these comments and I am worried for the future of EU. I grow up in central part of Serbia and for the first 21 years of my life I was isolated from the rest of the World because of bad politicians - that was nothing to do with my
family or myself. Once I had a chance to travel around the World I discover that Serbs (not Serbian politicians) are everywhere on the black list. I know that all nations have good and bad people but if anybody wants to have independent opinion about level of democracy in Serbia I suggest to go and see it in person and after it come with all this stuff how bad people are Serbs. Bear in mind that there are other 99% young people in Serbia that are not aloud to travel because of VISA regime that EU holds against Serbia. If country in such long isolation (over 18 years) can practice such a great religious and ethical freedom it deserves to be called Great democracy of Serbia.
Dear Mark,
I will state may personal experience with Serbian ethnic and religious minority right:
I grow up as a protestant (Seventh-day Adventist) in mainly Orthodox community in small village 150 km south from Belgrade. I was freely practicing my 鈥榙ifferent鈥 Christian faith in Serbia us much us other Serbian citizens of different faiths / Orthodox, Catholics, Muslim, Hindu/. My religious rights in Serbia during the time of Slobodan Milosevic where us good us they are now. At the moment, not many government run high schools in Europe (apart from maybe Sweden, Finland or the UK) will cancel final examination that was set on Sabbath ( Saturday) and organize everything few days after (on Wen.) allowing two young Adventist students to get their Grammar School diploma and be faithful to their religious values in the same time . It affected 400 other students but all our friends and lectures respected our religious rights and supported resetting of final examination. I am giving this example to everywhere where are people talking bad about my nation. I am proud to be part of that democracy and I am not worried will Serbia join EU or not. EU is a mainly political and not economical union where majority of people do not have right to say publicly their opinion.
I am ashamed of the results of the foreign policy conducted by Ukrainian government. Soldiers of the Ukrainian special forces helping to impose albanian rule (install albanian judges replacing the serbs) on serbs in Mitrovica - what a shameful nonsense. I do not think that history will judge favorably current Ukrainian leadership. And am almost certain that shameful stone praising Yuschenko as Hetman which he installedunder the Bogdan Khmelnitskii's horse in the capital city of Kyiv will soon be removed.
On the brighter side, - here is a joke for Mr. Kondracky. Polish soldjer rapproaches his enemy - ukraininan cossack. Well, you damned cossacks are fighing just for money! We, noble polish soldjers, are fighting for our honor! Well, you know, cossack answers - everybody is fighting for what he lacks...
Six pivotal themes in Serbian propaganda are:
1. Victimization, in which Serbs were constructed as collective victims first of the NDH, then of Tito鈥檚 Yugoslavia, and more specifically of Croats, Albanians, Bosnians, and other non-Serbs.
2. Dehumanization of designated 鈥榦thers鈥, in which Croats were depicted as 鈥榞enocidal鈥 and as 鈥楿sta拧e鈥, Bosnians were portrayed as 鈥榝anatical fundamentalists鈥, and Albanians were represented as not fully human. These processes of dehumanization effectively removed these designated 鈥榦thers鈥 from the moral field, sanctifying their murder or expulsion.
3. Belittlement, in which Serbia鈥檚 enemies were represented as
beneath contempt.
4. Conspiracy, in which Croats, Slovenes, Albanians, the Vatican,
Germany, Austria, and sometimes also the Bosnians as well as the U.S. and other foreign states, were seen as united in a conspiracy to break up the SFRY and hurt Serbia. In this way, the Belgrade regime鈥檚 obstinate disregard for the fundamental standards of international law was dressed up as heroic defiance of an anti-Serb conspiracy.
5. Entitlement, in which the Serbs were constructed as 鈥榚ntitled鈥 to create a Greater
Serbian state to which parts of Croatia and Bosnia would be attached, under the motto,鈥 All Serbs should live in one state.鈥
6. Superhuman powers and divine sanction. The Serbs were told that they were, in some sense, 鈥渟uper鈥. They were the best fighters on the planet, they could stand up to the entire world, and they were sanctioned by God himself, because of Tsar Lazar and the fact that Lazar had chosen the heavenly kingdom. Moreover, since Lazar had chosen the heavenly kingdom, the Serbs, encouraged to view themselves as Lazar鈥檚 heirs, were entitled to the earthly kingdom which Lazar had repudiated, as their patrimony.
What occurred in Serbia in the years 1981鈥87 could be described as a massive tectonic shift in which perceptions, values, and expectations changed dramatically, preparing the way for Slobodan Milo拧evi忙鈥檚 seizure of power within the Serbian party apparatus and his launching of his abortive 鈥榓nti-bureaucratic revolution鈥. Even the terminology here is significant: a libidinal leader inevitably finds himself at war with the quasi-rationalism of bureaucracies. But the 1980s were also years in which Serbs increasingly revisited the past, raising questions about the prison camps at Goli Otok and Lepoglava, about Tito鈥檚 establishment of Kosovo as an autonomous province, about the removal of factories from Serbia to the highlands in Slovenia and Croatia at the height of the Stalin-Tito conflict, and about the denigration of Dra啪a Mihailovi忙 and his Chetniks by Tito-era historiography, and parading the bones of Tsar Du拧an in a macabre clerical demonstration of national commitment.
Particularly poisonous was Vasilije Kresti鈥檚 1986 article, 鈥淥n the Origin of the
Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia鈥, which argued that the 鈥済enocide against the Serbs in [Usta拧a] Croatia is a specific phenomenon in our [Serbian] centuries-old common life with the Croats. The protracted development of the genocidal idea in certain centers of Croatian society鈥which] did not necessarily have some narrow 鈥 but rather a broad 鈥 base, took deep roots in the consciousness of many generations [of Croats].鈥
Where Tito-era historiography had vilified both the Usta拧e and the Chetniks, Serbian historiography after 1983 increasingly sought to rehabilitate the Chetniks, while ignoring the roles played by Ljoti and Nedi and exaggerating the numbers of Serbs dying during World War Two. The result was that the Croatian fascists took on ever darker hues in the thinking of both Serbian intellectuals and the Serbian public at this time, while corresponding Serbian renegades were either whitewashed or disappeared from view. This phenomenon is known to psychologists as dysphonic rumination, which
is defined as 鈥渢he tendency for individuals to unhappily reimagine, rethink, and relive pleasant or unpleasant events鈥resulting in an] increase [in] negative thinking about those events and contribut[ing] to a pessimistic explanatory style when trying to explain them.鈥
Dysphoric rumination is considered a contributory factor to paranoid cognition.
It was also in the mid-1980s that Vladimir Dedijer and others began to ruminate about a Vatican-Comintern conspiracy, to which various other states were said to have subscribed. This increasing tendency to treat the Vatican, Germany, Austria, and other states as enemies, even before the breakup of 1991, culminated in Milo拧evi鈥檚 claim in a public speech in November 1988 鈥 astounding some of his listeners 鈥 that 鈥淪erbia鈥檚 enemies outside the country are plotting against it, along with those in[side] the country.鈥
To the extent that such claims became part of the public discourse of Serbian society in the late 1980s, one may say that Serbia was increasingly given to exaggerated perceptions of conspiracy. As Kramer and Messick note, this tendency involves the overestimation of 鈥溾he extent to which [the group鈥檚] perceived out-group enemies or adversaries are engaged in coordinated
and concerted hostile or malevolent actions against them.鈥
In the latter half of the 1980s, Serbs were also repeatedly hearing (and believing) reports of Albanian rapes of Serbian women, the revival of Usta拧a mentality among Croats, and the like, with not only Croats and Kosovar Albanians, but also the Hungarians of Vojvodina and the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina cast as villains in rumors. What interests me here is not the question of the extent to which one or another rumor had some truth to it, but rather the composite character of the deluge of rumors which 鈥 seemingly uniformly 鈥 attributed ill intentions to the non-
Serbs of Yugoslavia. This syndrome, known as sinister attribution error, involves the 鈥溾endency鈥o over attribute hostile intentions and malevolent motives to others.鈥 And, given the foregoing, Serbs increasingly felt the need to be vigilant about their co-ethnics in Kosovo and Croatia especially. These concerns were effusively articulated in the infamous Memorandum drafted by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art and leaked to the press in September 1986; according to the 鈥楳emorandum鈥, the federal system had been designed by Tito specifically to weaken Serbia, neither Bosnia-Herzegovina nor Montenegro had any legitimate claim to republic status, and the threat then posed to the Serbs of Croatia by their Croatian neighbors (in what was still communist-ruled Croatia) could only be compared to the fascist depredations of the NDH! The Serbian Writers鈥 Association on the Francuska ulica in Belgrade began to host weekly meetings to discuss the tribulations of the Serbs, and books and special issues of magazines were published detailing the situation of Serbs in Kosovo. Serbia, thus, slid into a habit of hyper vigilant social information processing, a dangerous habit, in which every move taken by Croats, Albanians, and Muslims, was subjected to scrutiny and given potentially enormous significance. One more element is needed in the equation 鈥 the belief in a just world. This belief, hypothesized by M. J. Lerner, involves people鈥檚 need to believe that the world is basically just and that people get what they deserve. In the late 1980s, this belief fueled nationalist Serbs鈥 confidence that they would get what they thought they deserved 鈥 a Greater Serbia, in which few non-Serbs would remain. As the nationalist discourse became dominant, justice was increasingly understood in terms of the national program.
The aforementioned reactions 鈥 dysphoric rumination, exaggerated perceptions of conspiracy, sinister attribution error, and hyper vigilant social information processing 鈥 are associated, according to Kramer and Messick, with collective paranoia, manifested in social alienation, heightened antagonism toward others, and an attitude of hostility toward the outside world.