History lessons
My colleagues over at TransConflict have posted my reflection, prepared some months ago, on one chapter of the Scholarly Initiative, led by Charlie Ingrao:
Rereading the Scholarly Initiative’s Confronting Yugoslav Controversies in its second edition on TransConflict is déjà vu all over again. The sections on “Kosovo Under Autonomy” remind us of the growing demographic predominance of Albanians, the province’s declining economy, heightened demands for political equality and republic status, deteriorating interethnic relations, the 1986 Serbian Academy memorandum claiming genocide, Serb migration from and political agitation within Kosovo. In Momcilo Pavlovic’s well-crafted narrative, impeccably written to achieve acceptance on both sides of the ethnic divide, the evolution is clear and the outcome seems all too logical and inevitable – a violent confrontation leading eventually to Kosovo independence.
That is not, however, the Scholarly Initiative’s point. Nor would it be a valid one. It is not difficult to imagine many junctures at which wise politicians in a less stressed environment might have intervened to stop the spiral towards violence and dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. But the anti-nationalists in power who might have been so inclined were also, for the most part, Communists. Their autocratic methods were ill-suited to the requirements. Once the Soviet Union came apart, the nationalists—some like Milosevic recent converts from Communism—were unleashed. They were far more likely to aggravate the situation than ameliorate it. What happened in Moscow in 1990 and 1991 was the trigger that enabled what happened in former Yugoslavia in the next decade.
The tragedy that ensued is still playing out, but in ways that offer some hope for the future. The April agreement between Belgrade and Pristina is a striking counterpoint to the prior history Pavlovic recounts so well. The basic Yugoslav question remains “why should I live as a minority in your country when you can live as a minority in mine?” But once minorities really do achieve equal status, with education in their own language, personal security and local control over most of the things that matter in daily life, the question gets reversed – “why should I not live as minority in your country if you don’t want to live as a minority in mine,” especially if doing so will accelerate the day on which I can get one of those nice red passports that makes me a European free to circulate and live freely, even as a minority, in 28 countries other than my own.
Some of my friends who write for TransConflict see an easy fix – exchange of territory between southern Serbia and northern Kosovo, putting the Serbs and Albanians who live in those territories on the “right” side of the border. This seemingly neat and clean solution would be tempting if nothing else were at stake. But the majority of Serbs in Kosovo live not in the north but south of the Ibar. Albanians in Macedonia and Serbs in Bosnia would also like to adjust borders, which is a proposition that has already caused wars in both countries and would once again. [I should have noted here in addition the desire of Albanians in southern Serbia for union with Kosovo and Bosniaks in Sandjak for union with Bosnia].
It is these broader regional issues that make partition and territorial exchange not only inadvisable but deadly. Reigniting the Balkans wars would end any country’s hope of entering the European Union. Even if you think EU membership for Serbia is 10 years off and for Kosovo 20 years off – estimates that by my lights are high – it seems to me worth waiting for borders to disappear when accession occurs. The sad history of Kosovo under autonomy should be fair enough warning to those who would reignite ethnic hostilities that have fortunately declined markedly from their peak. May they continue to do so, for the sake of both Albanians and Serbs.
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8 thoughts on “History lessons”
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The Russians have decided that the situation of the Serbs in Kosovo is currently so dire that they are opening an NGO in Belgrade (with a branch in North Mitrovica) to defend their rights, today’s papers report.
Perhaps the Russians should start by looking into last week’s murder of the Serb council member who ran for mayor on the Independent Serbian Liberal ticket in the recent elections. This was the party, by the way, that has been represented in the national government in Prishtina for the past few years, and it wasn’t the first time he’d been targeted. It will be interesting to see how vigorously the new NGO encourages Dacic to follow through on his pledge of complete cooperation in finding the killer, although I have a feeling this isn’t the right kind of Serb with rights needing protection for them. Or maybe the impossibility of finding the killer on the territory of Kosovo will serve as a useful stick to beat the KP and Eulex with?
If it is going to reassure Serbs who are to live on Kosovo It is good thing opening of an NGO that they would perceive as a friendly one. It is more likely it will bring security to elected officials among Serbs from attacks which ever directions those attacks might come from.
It is fascinating to hear (and rightfully so I might add) how “Albanians in Macedonia and Serbs in Bosnia would like to adjust borders” a proposition which “already caused wars in both countries and would once again”.
Interestingly enough, in this text (again rightfully so), there is no mention of Macedonians wanting to adjust borders with Greece or Bulgaria and yet it is Macedonians who typically get credited by European semi-literate aparatchiks based in Brussels with “ultra-nationalism” and “irredentism” and by its EU neighbors (primarily Greece and Bulgaria). Others, (particularly Albanians and Serbs) barely get mentioned in this context although they very well deserve to be. They are never labeled as ultra-nationalists or irredentists. They are just “wanting to adjust…” As if their visions are the only ones to count.
Perhaps Macedonians should also follow suit just as Albanians and Serbs. Therefore if someone plans to throw a Balkaniko party we can all try and make it a big one this time! Bigger than the one two decades ago!
@MK Observer – Why would you want for Macedonians to return to hazardous state of a high risk. E.G. if we start throwing bombs and killing people someone might treat us better. It is those who are in difficult emotional and intellectual states that require kids gloves. Why would you be jealous of somebody else’s hardship? My advice to Macedonians is as it was before the same as it is for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Factor out parties to left and right and reduce their number. Push out to the margins extremists may they be on the left or on the right (Communists and nationalists) and have a healthy, economically wise, left and right parties that stand on the principle, yet pragmatic. There is also a room for a party in the centre, green. Politics on Balkans is poisoned beyond reasons that usually grant parties involved in political process in a democratic country reason to exist. The reason is to exist in a plural society and thus democracy is to solve everyday’s problems. It is not to enter endless debates on problems that wouldn’t exist if participants were to respect most simple rules such a society.
Danijel, I am not advocating returning to hazardous state for Macedonia. Yes, you are absolutely right about the need to push extremists to the margins. Unfortunately this process in Macedonia is a hostage to the “name issue” and in this respect we have not seen any substantial help from the US or the EU. On contrary, most of their actions only irritate and contribute to further antagonisms in the society. As a result, we can not go further than the current mindset of the region itself. Staying sober and alert is what’s best for the country at the moment despite all hallucinations created that in the Balkans business is now “as usual” when in fact it is not.
In time, when the major problems in the Balkans are sorted out, Macedonia will find allies among the Balkan countries when it comes to the name of the country resolution. There is a lot of binding tissue between the Balkan countries for the Balkan people to be reminded of once economy and trade take its roots between them. I cannot imagine anyone arguing against for the name of an EU country to be Macedonia. No country in EU can have pretension for other country territories. Within or without EU.
Mr Serwer’s ex-Yugoslav question for Kosovo Serbs to ask Kosovo Albanians, “Why should I not live as a minority in your country if you don’t want to live as a minority in mine?” might perplex the Serbs, given his website’s enthusiasm for Kosovo as a multiethnic democracy with an ethnically transcendent Kosovar identity. I can imagine Kosovo Serbs, before they get around to asking Kosovo Albanians anything, asking Mr Serwer the following questions:
If we ask Kosovo Albanians about living as a minority in “your country,” doesn’t that mean that Kosovo actually belongs to its Albanian majority?”
If Kosovo belongs to its Albanian majority, doesn’t that mean that it doesn’t actually belong to us as Serbs?
And if it’s not our country but theirs, and bearing in mind that it is not of our own will that we find ourselves in a country that has changed from being ours to being theirs, why should we identify with it, or feel loyal to it, or assume a new identity as Kosovars, and why shouldn’t we maintain our identity as Serbs and go on identifying with and feeling loyalty to Serbia?
And in that case, shouldn’t our policy toward the Kosovo majority and its state be based not on loyalty but on self-interest, to take the maximum and give the minimum in our relations with them?
I’ve got into trouble with Mr Serwer before for putting words into his mouth, so I won’t try to guess how he would answer these questions. But his “my country” and “your country” wording certainly seems to go against the much-proclaimed ideal of Kosovo as a multiethnic democracy, and to make that country look much more like that traditional and allegedly obsolete type of polity, a national state.
As for how the Kosovo Serbs would answer the above questions, the results of the recent elections, with the Belgrade-sponsored party victorious among Serbs south as well as north of the Ibar, would seem to leave no doubt about that.
The “majority/minority” issue is an artificial issue, used as a cause incite a war. However the far more horrible side of that ‘issue’ is that it is one of the worst kinds of self fulfilling prophecies. On Balkans no-one was really endangered until they became endangered by the talk they will be majority/minority and subsequently many were killed or ethnically cleaned. Take for an example Serbia. If Serbia did not enter expansionistic war (the very same way APIS and the Black Hand knew they had to go to war to expand Serbia to sea before Gavrilo Princip has been manipulated into destroying the sensitive balance of the powers of the time) and if instead relied on the international law to safeguard the Serbs outside of Serbia borders it would have much more than it has today in every sense. Those are two philosophies, one is of blood and borders (if it reminds to the one of blood and honour it is not accident) the other is of land and life. In Balkans the former one won and everybody lost. The problem is that people on an individual level but more often as a society do not want to admit that they were wrong and that they made mistakes. If they were to admit they would have to face the consequences of those mistakes. The more horrible consequences after the fact a bigger denial of the fact. This is only human (with both, the good and the bad connotations). If we look at the Serbia expansionistic logic of the time and apply it to someone else, e.g. Turkey, Turkey could claim most of the Balkans as its territory. The first time Serb came to Kosovo after the 14th century they were minority. Serbs came to Macedonia and to parts of Albania as well. The problem is that there are no real Academics among the balkan people to examine the history. Everything is some kind of Reality Show and search for the spotlight. There are no deep-thinkers, no one is practicing the real values and the lessons of democracy they way they ought to be practiced in every aspect of the life. The values and the lessons can be summarised in a sentence about the Democracy which is that The Democracy is pluralism of a considerate thought. Everyone is thinking that the democracy is that their ignorance is the same as your knowledge. E.g. Miroslav Perisic and Emir Kusturica going out with a copy of an original of letter of Oskar Pocorek as a proof that absolves Serbs from initiating the WWI when the letter itself is proof to the contrary. It is blindness and worse than that, it is the self deception, which is of all of the roads to the perdition, the worst one. Democracy and waging the intrinsic conflict of the human nature on the elections is the natural, though not permanent, antidote against it.