Dimić: The Myth of the Battle of Kosovo Feeds Serbian Nationalist Politics

Serbs have not yet fully understood what the myth of the Battle of Kosovo means, says journalist Radomir Dimić, as he takes a critical look at this myth, describing it as a product of 19th-century political theology, a "false religion" that has served to justify harmful policies towards Kosovo and Albanians.

In this interview with The Geopost, Dimić talks about the misuse of history by Slobodan Milošević's regime, the continuation of the Gazimestan ideology in the current government of Aleksandar Vučić, and the role of students and citizens in the recent protests in Serbia.

Full interview:

Partly yes, I would agree with your question that it is a period of the 19th century, I would say maybe more, maybe less, of the indoctrination of the Serbian people with the concept of myth, or more precisely of the absorption of the myth about Kosovo.

Serbs still live with myths, and this has been going on for a very long time, a very, very long time, and I can say that the whole story about the myth of Kosovo is being misused, being misused as a paradigm, as a paradigm of freedom.

What really is the myth of Kosovo?

The myth of Kosovo is a product, so to speak, of 19th-century political theology and false religion.

In fact, the myth of Kosovo was built with the aim of restoring Dushan's empire, and thus a kind of revenge for the lost battle of Kosovo, or more precisely an expansionist policy towards Kosovo, especially after the '90s when Kosovo, thanks to the policies and regime of Slobodan Milosevic, has now gained its independence.

So, when it comes to Kosovo Serbs, I think they still haven't fully understood what the Kosovo myth means, that it's a hoax, that it's a kind of religion that tries to bring heaven down to earth and that Serbs are still the people of Kosovo, that Kosovo is still the holy land of Serbia, and it's essentially a metaphysical space that Albanians live in and that they experience it pragmatically as a space that they live in, and not as a heavenly history of the Serbian people and so on.

So, the Serbs of Kosovo are still the Trojan horse of the politics not only of Slobodan Milosevic when they gathered in large numbers in Gazimestan, when we heard big slogans and big threats against the Albanians of Kosovo, that they will expel them all through the Bjeshkët e Nemuna, and that this Gazimestan policy is in fact just a continuation of an ideology that has lasted for centuries and that is still manifested through the current existence and the attempt to restore a kind of Serbian world of Aleksandar Vučić. In this regard, I would like to continue and say a few words about the upcoming call of students and citizens in synergy that they are organizing on June 28 in Belgrade.

In fact, it is a continuation of that grand rally, that grand protest and the entire Serbian and student assembly when it was magically dispersed by the use of sonic weapons that are still being investigated by the United Nations and we still don't have a real answer.

What does the call of students and the people on June 28th really mean?

In fact, it is not a manifestation of violence, as someone wants to portray it in the government, as someone wants to overthrow the state now and because they are what they call mercenaries, foreign mercenaries, that they are now Nazis, that they have prepared some kind of coup for June 28, which I absolutely disagree with and this is not true.

I think that on June 28, the students will come out with a unique decree that changes need to be made, mainly democratic changes that the students have been demanding for seven months, and for which the government has given absolutely no response.

So, not only democratic changes, but also political changes of the system that is damned corrupt, in which a system in which only one man rules, has absolute control and power over the institutions that have been usurped and for this reason the students rightly demand, not cosmetic changes, but systemic, deep changes, they demand that the rule of law and the rule of law be established and in this sense the students on June 28, unlike all previous Vidovdan celebrations that have a nationalist charge, want something else, and this is a unique, modern, progressive Serbia, free from any nationalism and chauvinism and aspirations of Greater Serbia.

In this regard, Serbs are truly expecting a big mess.

/The Geopost