English

Serbian nationalists have long been obsessed with Montenegro

Milenko Perović

Serbian nationalists have long been obsessed with Montenegro and the fact the Montenegrin people finally got liberated from inferiority was a horrible nightmare for them [Serbian nationalists]. The liberation first happened in a political sense, i.e. back in 2006 when the independence referendum took place, and afterwards in a spiritual sense by introducing the Montenegrin language. The situation is reaching its peak nowadays as we are currently witnessing the religious liberation of Montenegro citizens, said Prof. Dr Milenko A. Perović in an interview with the weekend edition of Dnevne Novine daily.

Mr Perović will be granted the state award of Montenegro for preserving state identity on 29 July and the award-granting ceremony will be held in Bar during Days of Diaspora. President of Montenegro, Mr Milo Đukanović, will grant the award to Mr Perović.

On the significance of the award and how it looks like to fight for the Montenegrin identity while living in Serbia, Mr Perović stated: “I’m not used to the awards. In my life, I used to be punished not awarded. I believed I had the right, and even an obligation, to be critical towards the political and social reality in the times of socialism. When majority of the so-called Serbian intelligences opted for Serbian nationalism, I chose another option. I couldn’t peacefully watch all that nationalism-backed political decisions which destroyed Yugoslavia, Serbia as well, and that just brought poverty, suffer, crime and hopelessness. Even in that time, my anti-war and humanitarian engagement was punished. Finally, in times of heated anti-Montenegrin actions, I was emphasizing my Montenegrin nationality and I publicly defended the right of Montenegro to exist as an independent and sovereign state.

When asked to comment on Serbia’s position towards Montenegro and why its [Montenegro’s] progress should bother Serbia, he said: “No one can give any reasonable and acceptable answer to the question why Montenegro’s progress is in any way harmful to Serbia and Serbs! No one can tell why the Serbian Orthodox Church believes that the Montenegrin Orthodox Church should not continue with using church property that it was deprived of in 1920. Is it possible that anyone believes Montenegro’s progress is in any way harmful to Serbs who live in Montenegro?!”

 

 

Send this to a friend