Surprising absolutely no one, the Serbian student movement held a public panel in Kragujevac to proclaim their Kosovo Memorandum as the official position of the Students in Blockade, stating that “Kosovo and Metohija are an inalienable and integral part of the Republic of Serbia.”
Here is the full text that was posted on the “Students in blockade” X post.
We present to you the Memorandum on Kosovo and Metohija, the official position of the Students in Blockade, which was read yesterday at the jubilee forum “UPKM temporary headquarters, permanent institution”. (UPKM stands for University of Priština, temporarily in Kosovska Mitrovica – it is a part of Serbian parallel structures in Kosovo).
Memorandum on Kosovo and Metohija.
We, the students of Serbia, gathered in Kragujevac, the first capital of modern Serbia and the center of Serbian state-building thought, aware of our personal and collective responsibility and historical debt to our ancestors and descendants, have adopted this Memorandum as an expression of our united will.
1. Kosovo and Metohija are an inalienable and integral part of the Republic of Serbia. This fact is not only a constitutional category, but a historical and moral imperative that is not subject to negotiation on its essence. The preservation of the constitutional order of Serbia in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija is the foundation of the survival of the Serbian state and a guarantee of just peace in the region.
2. Kosovo and Metohija are not just a space; they are a component of the Serbian national identity. As the city where modern Serbian statehood was founded, Kragujevac has the duty to be the guardian of the covenant values that emerged in Kosovo and Metohija, not only on the blood-soaked battlefield, but also on the spiritual horizon from which the churches of Prizren, the narthexes of Peć, the gold of Banjska, and the columns of the Grača vaults still shine upon us today. Without Kosovo and Metohija, our cultural and historical code loses its source and meaning.
3. As a mature and historical people, we are aware that the issue of Kosovo and Metohija cannot be resolved in isolation, but exclusively within the complex flows of the international community. Serbia must actively and constructively cooperate with all relevant international organizations, recognizing them as indispensable partners in finding the most adequate and sustainable solution within the framework of its Constitution. Our goal is a model that will, with consistent respect for international law, ensure peace, security, and full protection of rights for the people living in this territory.
4. The issue of Kosovo and Metohija concerns every citizen of this country. Our connection with the southern province does not arise exclusively from the status of a passport holder of the Republic of Serbia, but from the essential status of a factor in Serbian history and culture. Every individual, as a bearer of collective memory, has a duty to contribute to the preservation of this spiritual and cultural heritage, which transcends the boundaries of administrative documents.
This Memorandum serves as a reminder that our fight for Kosovo and Metohija is at the same time a fight for our image, our culture, and our future in the family of equal peoples of the world.
From this place, from the heart of Šumadija, we say that the preservation of Kosovo and Metohija is the common denominator of all our efforts.
The gathering in Kragujevac didn’t exactly draw huge crowds.
And why should it? If you’ve seen one student protest gathering, you’ve seen them all. Pyrotechnics and slogans of not giving up Kosovo, like this one in Lazarevac, held in March.
Words mean things. Calling it a Memorandum is a carbon copy of the nationalist platform called the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the notorious SANU memorandum, a draft document from the late 1980s, predating the first wave of Serbian anti-corruption demagogy and nationalism called the Anti-bureaucratic Revolution, more commonly known as the Yogurt Revolution. It argued that Yugoslavia’s constitutional structure discriminated against the Serbs, and that decentralisation was leading to the disintegration of federal socialist Yugoslavia. It also made the claim that Serbia’s development was eroded in favour of other parts of Yugoslavia, or rather that other, more developed regions flourished at Serbia’s expense.
Dates mean things as well. When the student movement held its rally on June 28th last year on St. Vitus Day, they did so as an homage to the role model of Serbian nationalism – Slobodan Milošević, who held his throning rally at Gazimestan in 1989, on 28th og June, commemorating the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Field, a central event of Serbian nationalist mythology.
It was never about corruption or the rule of law or liberty or the EU or whatever. The ruling Progressives used the same rhetoric before they returned to power in 2012 – anti-corruption demagogy and pledges to “preserve Kosovo”.
Students did get support for their platform about Kosovo, namely from representatives of Kosovo Serb associations and from none other than Vojislav Šešelj, Vučić’s former party boss, who was convicted for crimes against humanity before the ICTY.
“If this is a general trend that exists among students, then it is good. Then it is positive. Then it is a return to some patriotic line,” Šešelj said in a television appearance.
Look, we all knew what was going on ever since the protests started. When a bunch of folks waved nationalist paraphernalia and blasted the music of “Belgrade Syndicate”, we understood that these were, in fact, far-right protestors who disliked Vučić for being too Western for their taste.
But most were making excuses for the behavior and political attitudes of the student movement in Serbia. It regressed from “just let the kids finish the job [of bringing down Vučić] by using far-right tactics” to “nationalist revanchism is perfectly legitimate”. At this point, this is nothing but stubborn idiocy.
Those foreigners who did know about the student protesters being just another wave of demagogic nationalism, like Timothy Snyder, Rachel Maddow, and Florian Bieber, for example, supported them to fit their own narratives and content creation.
There is some mild criticism coming from the opposition parties, like the Movement of Free Citizens and their president, Pavle Grbović, who called it “bad timing”, as it diverted attention from the, as he calls it, “most important topic of the year”, which is the case of Veselin Milić, the former Belgrade police chief recently arrested on suspicion of helping to cover up the disappearance of a man, presumed to be found dead and buried in a barrel outside Inđija.
Well, that’s what Kosovo and the droning about the “endangered, suffering Serbian people in other states of the region” is – a deflection from actual issues plaguing Serbia. No nationalist ever wants to solve those.
Vučić’s political organization never wanted to, nor did the students and their confederates.
Thanks for wasting everyone’s time, students.
Serbianism 