Suchergebnisse

The article offers a comparative analysis of minority politics and arrangements for the autonomy of Hungarians in Vojvodina and Albanians in Kosovo, which were Serbian territories and provinces during much of the 20th century. It discusses the reasons why minority struggles led to violence and independence in the Albanian case, while being peacefully accommodated within society, and even providing internal cohesion and good neighbourly relations, in the Hungarian case. The analysis follows both minorities from their post-1918 and post-1945 status in the two respective Yugoslavias, as well as in modern-day post-1990 Serbia. After providing a comparison of the political status of the two national communities, this comparative research argues against simplistic notions that view ethnic relations and conflicts in the Balkans as the result of centuries-old hatred and historically deeply rooted hostilities, and instead advocates a more nuanced perspective that is sensitive to subtleties, internal interrelations and mutual dynamics in tackling majority/minority issues.

The relation between history and poetry in Serbian culture is nowhere as strongly and persistently present as in the case of the 1389 Kosovo battle. Over the centuries, this medieval event acquired a mythical aura in the historiography, literary discourse, and oral tradition of the South Slavs, evolving into one of the central national symbols in Serbian culture and a burning political question. This article traces the origin of one of the central elements of the Kosovo myth, the idea of Prince Lazar's choice between the kingdom on earth and the kingdom of heaven on the eve of the Kosovo battle.

The article approaches the question of political views promoted by oral tradition through Carl Schmitt's notion of politics as the distinction between friend and enemy. It focuses on four versions of "Perović Batrić", a comparatively short Montenegrin song with a typical subject of blood revenge, documented during the first half of the nineteenth century in Serbia, Montenegro and Herzegovina. It is demonstated that the only version documented without any impact of the ruling Montenegrin Petrović family from Cetinje displays explicit antagonism between the Montenegrin and Herzegovinian Orthodox Christian tribes and has no explicit antiturkish sentiment. In addition, two other versions written down from Montenegrin singers influenced by Cetinje as the political centre show the consolidation of political perspective and emphasize the hostilities between the Montenegrins and the local Turks. True political character of the enemy in the Schmittian sense, it is argued, is finally recognized only in the version of "Perović Batrić" edited by the Montenegrin bishop-prince Petar Petrović Njegoš II. In this song, the hostility towards Batrić's adversary Osman follows not from his tribal conformity or his distinctive personality, but from his "Turkishness" as such. It is therefore argued that this recognition of the specifically political character of the enemy occurred under the increasing influence of Cetinje (as the political centre) on the representation of the oral tradition and that nationalistic elements in oral tradition mainly became associated with it, and inserted into it, during the process of publication and canonization of the oral tradition in the first half of the nineteenth century

This article presents an attempt to approach the dispute over Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians from a non-territorial perspective, with particular focus on the preservation of the Serbian cultural and religious heritage. First, we argue that the Kosovo issue is at present commonly understood as an either-or territorial dispute over sovereignty and recognition between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian politicians. However, we claim that a lasting resolution to the Kosovo issue actually needs to account for at least three separate aspects: 1) status of Northern Kosovo which is ethnically Serbian and still maintains various ties with the Serbian state, 2) status of Serbian cultural and religious heritage, chiefly UNESCO world heritage Serbian medieval monasteries and churches and 3) the fact that the Serbian population in central Kosovo, i.e. south of the river Ibar, where most of the mentioned monasteries and churches are located, are located in small municipalities or enclaves of Serbs surrounded by vast Albanian populations. We examine the applicability of the non– territorial approach (NTA) to the Kosovo issue by analyzing the normative framework directly regulating the Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo, its preservation and protection, particularly of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches and other historical and cultural sites, while comparing these regulations to the existing normative NTAs in Croatia and Montenegro. Arguably, since most Serbian monasteries and churches are not included in any sovereignty negotiations, we point to the potential to combine territorial and non–territorial approaches, regardless of the continued obstacles in implementation arising from continued contestation of Kosovo's sovereign status. ; Tekst se fokusira na neteritorijalni pristup (NTA) sporu oko Kosova između Srba i Albanaca, posmatrano preko srpskog kulturno-religijskog nasleđa na ovoj teritoriji. Polazno stanovište je da se kosovsko pitanje uobičajeno shvata kao teritorijalni spor između srpskih i kosov ...

This article presents an attempt to approach the dispute over Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians from a non-territorial perspective, with particular focus on the preservation of the Serbian cultural and religious heritage. First, we argue that the Kosovo issue is at present commonly understood as an either-or territorial dispute over sovereignty and recognition between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian politicians. However, we claim that a lasting resolution to the Kosovo issue actually needs to account for at least three separate aspects: 1) status of Northern Kosovo which is ethnically Serbian and still maintains various ties with the Serbian state, 2) status of Serbian cultural and religious heritage, chiefly UNESCO world heritage Serbian medieval monasteries and churches and 3) the fact that the Serbian population in central Kosovo, i.e. south of the river Ibar, where most of the mentioned monasteries and churches are located, are located in small municipalities or enclaves of Serbs surrounded by vast Albanian populations. We examine the applicability of the non– territorial approach (NTA) to the Kosovo issue by analyzing the normative framework directly regulating the Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo, its preservation and protection, particularly of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches and other historical and cultural sites, while comparing these regulations to the existing normative NTAs in Croatia and Montenegro. Arguably, since most Serbian monasteries and churches are not included in any sovereignty negotiations, we point to the potential to combine territorial and non–territorial approaches, regardless of the continued obstacles in implementation arising from continued contestation of Kosovo's sovereign status. ; Tekst se fokusira na neteritorijalni pristup (NTA) sporu oko Kosova između Srba i Albanaca, posmatrano preko srpskog kulturno-religijskog nasleđa na ovoj teritoriji. Polazno stanovište je da se kosovsko pitanje uobičajeno shvata kao teritorijalni spor između srpskih i kosov sko-albanskih političara oko priznanja suvereniteta. Stav autora je da trajno rešenje kosov skog pitanja mora obuhvatiti najmanje tri odvojena aspekta: 1) status Severnog Kosova koji je etnički srpski i još uvek održava veze sa Srbijom, 2) status srpskog kulturno-religijskog na sleđa, odnosno srpskih srednjovekovnih manastira i crkava koji su uglavnom prepoznati kao svetska baština UNESCO-a i 3) činjenicu da srpsko stanovništvo na centralnom Kosovu, tj. južno od reke Ibar gde se nalazi većina pomenutih manastira i crkava, naseljava male opštine ili enklave Srba okružene većinskim albanskim stanovništvom. Primenljivost NTA koncepta na kosovsko pitanje analizira se preko normativnog okvira koji se direktno odnosi na srpsko kulturno-religijsko nasleđe na Kosovu, odnosno na očuvanje i zaštitu srpskih pravoslavnih manastira, crkava i drugih istorijskih i kulturnih mesta na Kosovu, komparirano sa NTA reše njima koja se odnose na očuvanje srpskog kulturno-religijskog nasleđa u normativnom okviru Hrvatske i Crne Gore. S obzirom da lokacije na kojima se nalazi većina srpskih manastira i crkava nisu uključene u pregovore o suverenosti Kosova, namera je da se ukaže na potencijale koji dolaze iz kombinovanja teritorijalnog i neteritorijalnog pristupa, bez obzira na stalne prepreke za sprovođenje takve zamisli koja prevashodno proizlazi iz stalnog osporavanja su verenog statusa Kosova.

This thematic issue brings together five scholarly articles, each tackling from both theoretical and practical perspectives a sensitive and elusive issue of accommodating minority rights within a wider national and political framework. These timely considerations are framed through a broader, vibrant and rapidly emerging approach of non-territorial autonomy (NTA), which is not so much a particular model but a generic term that refers to different practices of minority community autonomy that does not entail exclusive control over territory. In this way, novel forms of national self-determination can take place while the self-determining communities reside in shared territorial spaces. NTA can thus have a number many different forms such as consociationalism, national cultural autonomy, and can be particularly well suited for communities or nations that do not live in a unified or joint territory but are territori-ally dispersed or scattered. ; Editors' Note

In this article, we argue that the nineteenth-century Serbian scholars had a pivotal role in establishing Kosovo as the crucial subject of Serbian literature, culture, and politics. By revisiting the formation of the Kosovo epic in the collections of Vuk Karadžić, the founder of modern Serbian culture, we trace his role in making Kosovo the foundational myth of the whole Serbian nation from the nineteenth-century surge in Romantic nationalism onwards. In particular, we scrutinize Karadžić's editorial procedures as parts of a process of cultural inscription representing a cultural transformation that made the Kosovo epic an instance of the invention of national tradition in Eric Hobsbawm's terms.