New Kosova Report

The Truth About Mythical Kosovo

Friday, 21 December 2007

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Remnants of a the historical castle of Artana/Novo Brdo

During the recent months and even years, the issue of resolving the Kosovo conflict and giving it a proper political status, whether as an independent state or as an integrated part of Serbia, has been a burning topic for many of the leading nations and organizations of the world. On one hand, the Kosovo Albanians demand secession from Serbia and de facto independence by making a reference to one of UN’s fundamental pillars, namely the right for selfdetermination. The Serbs, however, counter by referring to the inviolability of a nation’s territorial sovereignity. The arguments used by both sides are widely recognized as being relevant and valid, however, the depth of the arguments in use are not always thouroughly investigated. And this is very obvious in Serbia’s case.

Serbia has under this whole period made arguments based on the concept of territorial integrity, in order to make it easy for other countries with allegedly similiar conflicts to relate with Serbia’s position. In reality, there is a difference as to what concerns Serbia’s and the Serbs’ needs and what they think they want. Kosovo as a turbulent province has brought alot of troubles to Serbia as a state, crippling its economy and enabling opportunistic politicians to make a career on nationalist rhetorics by drawing away attention from other political, social and economical problems. They simply needed to shout ‘Kosovo’, ‘Kosovo’, and ‘Serbdom is in danger’. Such simplifications of issues deeply rooted in the very fundaments of the state are reminiscent of the tactics deployed by early nationalist states in Europe and elsewhere, Nazi Germany not excluded. And the scapegoats were always the Albanians, known as ‘Siptari’ in colloquial terms, a derogative corruption of the Albanian selfdesignation ‘Shqiptar’. And so inevitable one comes to ask oneself; ‘why do Serbs still insist on keeping an, to Serbia, expanding tumour within its flesh and body’? The reason lie in the mythical status Kosovo has received in popular circles. Though contrary to what official Serbian historiography wishes to teach out, this was not something which sprung up from the busom of the Serbian narod (nation), but rather a seed implanted intentionally into the people for clear political (and expansionist, as we will see) reasons.

Kosovo was undeniable an important region in the medieval Serbian kingdom; the site of many medieval churches and monasteries which in modern history have acquired the status of being the very symbols of Serbian identity. There is no doubt when it comes to these buildings’ aestethic beauty, but they have been very much politicized. The biggest Kosovo symbol, however, for the Serbs is the battle of Kosovo 1389. It is indeed a historical battle, but its memory has been injected with artificial substances aimed to attribute to it a more nationalist colour in an era when a modern (or any) concept of nationalism was very much absent. Nevertheless, 19th century intellectuals and patriots of the Serbian cause were not hesitant in portraying the battle as one between Serbs, defenders of Christian and European civilisation and values, and intruding, invading and pillaging Ottoman Muslims. This is only partially true. What the Serbian historians conveniently left out is the fact that Serbs participated in both sides of the camps. The Serbian nobles Dejan Kostandinovic and Marko Kraljevic, the latter of which we will come back to, aided none other than Sultan Murad I. And the coalition of Tsar Lazar Hrebeljanovic was precisely that; a coalition of which non-Serbian elements were members of. The Albanian noble Theodor II Muzaka, for instance, participated with thousands of men, as did other non-Serbian princes and soldiers. Yet this was something not hotly debated in a time when Serbia was not only emerging to become an independent state, but also as an expanding one. The battle was given a most religious role, of divine proportions.

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