Dusan T. Batakovic

«Межэтнический конфликт в Косово, примерно так же, как и в других частях Балкан, только в более острой форме, велся в рамках борьбы за территории, в отличие от современных концепций о совместном обитании народов и их взаимном сплетении в соответствии с моделью демократического, мультикультурного общества. Наряду с этим формировались две параллельные картины прошлого... Кстати, и само слово Косово имеет противоположные значения в разных этнических общинах. У сербов понятие Косово означает территорию «Сербского Иерусалима», блистательный культурный и экономический подъем которого в Средние века прервали османские завоеватели. Для этнических албанцев слово "Косово" является символом "древней албанской страны", который напрямую связывает античное иллирийское и современное албанское этническое сообщество... Идеал экстремистского [албанского] национализма [после бомбардировок НАТО в 1999 г.] предполагает как полное уничтожение сербских памятников, так и изгнание представителей сербского сообщества, что оправдывало бы наличие новой, неприемлемой для Сербии политической реальности - Косово как исключительно албанской страны».

...The purpose of this study is not to provide a detailed and complete picture of the life of Kosovo Serbs in the first post-war decade, but to point out the main political trends which allowed for systematic discrimination, forced expulsions and violation of their basic human rights. All of this is an unacceptable political practice, apparently in sharp contrast with the basic European values and universal human rights. Furthermore, there is a particular empha-sis on the unprecedented destruction of Serb patrimonial sites by the Kosovo Albanian extremists ― churches and monasteries which have been and still are an important component of European and world culture, as verified by UNESCO, which enlisted four Serbian medieval monasteries in the UN-administered Kosovo on the list of World Heritage Sites.
Serbian monasteries in Kosovo, which have been guarded from the hostile Albanian environment for more than a decade by KFOR-troops, are the only European cultural monuments which are still being protected from immediate destruction by strong international military forces.

"Nous avons affaire ici, au-delà du titre même de ce livre, à une véritable histoire du développement politique et institutionnel de la Serbie avant 1914, dans le contexte de ses rapports avec la France...

Le grand livre de Dušan T. Batakovic’, dont les conclusions sont toujours actuelles, montre admirablement l’évolution progressive et la modernisation d’un pays qui doit résoudre à la fois son problème politique interne et son problème national, cas fréquent à cette époque. Mais la Serbie disposait d’une base de départ, la démocratie agraire, qui n’existait pas ailleurs dans cette partie de l’Europe. Elle recevait d’autre part des influences multiples, françaises mais aussi britanniques, et pas seulement russes et austro-hongroises. Ce qui contribue à expliquer la situation très particulière de la Serbie dans cette partie du monde. Plus que d’autres pays de la région, la Serbie s’est montrée très tôt ouverte aux influences de l’Europe occidentale, et on comprend que l’alliance privilégiée franco-serbe reposait sur des réalités profondes, et pas seulement sur des considérations tactiques transitoires." (Georges-Henri Soutou)

The thousand-year long history of Serbia's troublesome province of Kosovo (Kosovo and Metohija) is a case study of conflicting narratives and opposing versions of history.The case of Kosovo became famous worldwide after the Kosovo Albanian minority in Serbia, within the wider federal, communist Yugoslavia, organized separatist movements, fully backed by communist Albania, openly demanding, since 1981, secession from Serbia, and claiming the status of a constituent nation. It was an announcement of the coming collapse of Titoist Yugoslavia in 1991 .The violent dismemberment of communist Yugoslavia, followed by the series of wars for Yugoslav succession (1992-1995), had its last chapter with the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia and FR of Yugoslavia in 1999,followed by the UN protectorate over Kosovo, administered by UNMIK under UN SC Resolution 1244 of June 1999, and militarily protected by the NATO-led KFOR.
The following study, covering the period from the medieval times to unilateral proclamation of independence of Kosovo by the Kosovo Albanians in 2008, illustrated by a series of lesser known Kosovo-related documents, provides relevant historic insight into important elements of the Kosovo drama, in particular from Serbian, rarely quoted or deliberately neglected sources.

""The questions regarding the status of the minorities in the Balkans over the past two centuries, seen against the backdrop of various government policies and ideological patterns, or simply as a vital test of interethnic relations, have remained a focus of both political and scholarly attention. The state context and the status of various national and ethnic groups have often undergone dramatic changes.

The Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, two dominant multiethnic and multicultural empires encompassing most of the Balkans, were seriously challenged by the rising national demands encouraged by the 1804 Serbian Revolution against Ottomans, and followed by a succession of wars for national liberation and the establishment of nation-states. In that context, the relationship between the new Balkan states and their majority nation (or majority nations), on the one hand, and their internationally protected minorities or other minority groups, on the other, were, throughout nineteenth and twentieth centuries, difficult and strained.""

Abstract. Reading through historical studies on Serbs and Serbia written during and after the wars of the Yugoslav succession (1991–1999) reveals many elements of a biased, one-sided narrative derived from various sources. This contribution looks at the ideological and nationalistic writings on “Greater Serbia”, “Greater Serbian nationalists”, “Serbian hegemony” produced by Croatian nationalists in interwar Yugoslavia and by Croatian Second World War émigrés, who were markedly anti-Yugoslav both in the monarchic and communist period and whose perspective has gained ground in Western Europe and the USA. These writings are often compatible with Albanian historiography produced under the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha. This simplistic and biased perception of the Serbs as endemic nationalists, communists and anti-Europeans, allegedly keen on establishing complete hegemony over other nations and minorities in Yugoslavia, has reappeared since 1991 not only in mass media but also in much of Western scholarship, strongly influenced by a black-and-white perspective on the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Such approach, fostered by some scholars from the former Yugoslavia, chime perfectly with the old stereotypes inherited from Austrian and German historiography on Kriegsschuldfrage which have found their way into American historiography in the post-1945 period. Many controversial interpretations (Noel Malcolm, Holm Sundhaussen, Tim Judah, James Gow, Robert Donia, Branimir Anzulovic, Stjepan Meštrović, Philip Cohen, Marcus Tanner, Sabrina Ramet etc.), have been designed to support some immediate political goals or geopolitical claims and have little to do with scholarship and intellectual rigour. Yet, many such works have become standard and wide-spread, albeit stereotyped, perception of the Serbs and their history in the Balkans.

Апстракт: Улога Србије у Првом светском рату остала је, у светској историо-графији, или прилично занемарена или погрешно тумачена. Значајни резултати српске науке ретко су превођени на стране језике, а доминирајућа идеолошка дог-ма, југословенска и комунистичка, инсистирала је на промоцији уједињења, а не на страдањима и успесима Србије у Великом рату. У ревизионистичкој историографији, Србија се редовно означава као наводни саучесник у Сарајевском атентату, и као руски сателит, непосредно или посредно одговоран за избијање светског сукоб. Анализа тока ратних збивања, политичких, војних и дипломатских, не-сумњиво указује да су обновљени стеротипи о наводној одговорности Србије ли-шени сваке научне подлоге. Они, међутим, због ретког превођења резултата српске науке остају још увек широко раширени у савременој светској историографији.

"The Young Bosnia and the "Black Hand", The Serbs and the First World War 1914-1918 : Proceedings of the International Scholarly Conference held in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Belgrade, June 13-15, 2014, Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2015, pp 139-152. ISBN 978-86-7025-659-0

Abstract: After the restoration of Serbia in 1830, the areas of medieval Serbia left out of her borders were dubbed Old Serbia – Kosovo, Metohija, Rascia (the former sanjak of Novi Pazar and the neighbouring areas). Old Serbia (from 1877 onwards the vilayet of Kosovo) was dominated by local Albanian pashas, whereas the Christian Orthodox Serbs and their villages were attacked and pillaged by Muslim Albanian brigands. The religious antagonism between Muslims and Christians expanded into national conflict after the 1878 Albanian League had claimed the entire “Old Serbia for Greater Albania”. The position of Christian Orthodox Serbs, who accounted for a half of the population at the end of the nineteenth century, was dramatically aggravated due to Muslim Albanians' tribal anarchy, Austria-Hungary's pro-Albanian agitation and, after 1908, frequent Albanian rebellions. All efforts of Serbia to reach a peaceful agreement with Muslim Albanian leaders in Old Serbia before the First Balkan War had ended in failure. The First Balkan War was the most popular war in Serbia’s history as it was seen as avenging the 1389 Battle of Kosovo which had sealed the Ottoman penetration into the Serbian lands. In October 1912, Serbia liberated most of Old Serbia, while Montenegro took possesion of half of the Rascia area and the whole of Metohija. While the decimated and discriminated Serb population greeted the Serbian and Montenegrin troops as liberators, most Albanians, who had sided with the Ottomans, saw the establishment of Serbian rule as occupation.
Keywords: Serbia, Old Serbia,

La présence française en Serbie à la veille de la Première Guerre mondiale est le résultat d’un long processus de développement de la Serbie moderne s’appuyant sur les sources politiques et culturelles françaises. La révolution nationale, entamée à l’aube du XIXe siècle, met le peuple serbe en contact avec les puissances européennes mais aussi avec des valeurs politiques modernes. Deux niveaux d’analyse s’imposent dans cette étude : le cadre des relations bilatérales entre la France et la Principauté, puis le Royaume de Serbie, et celui du transfert des modèles politiques, constitutionnels et culturels. Perçue par l’élite serbe comme la meilleure incarnation de la civilisation occidentale, la France jouit en Serbie d’une place particulière : un siècle de rapprochement entre les deux pays précèdera l’alliance de la Grande Guerre et l’après 1918.
Mots-clés : Serbie, France, relations bilatérales, modèles politiques, influences culturelles, constitutionnalisme, parlementarisme, libéralisme, radicalisme, démocratie