The Root of Serbian Pugnacity
by Spyridon Moshonas
The image of Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo was heart-rending. The image portrayed of the Serbs, on the other hand, was that of a defiant race, neither easily intimidated nor subdued by foreign powers, including NATO, the mightiest military alliance in the world.
That which seemingly drives their pugnacity is a national character scarred by a violent past. The brutal ethnic extermination that the Serbs faced in Croatia and Bosnia during the Second World War hardened them. Throughout their history, they have never had it easy, and they have had good reasons to be wary of foreign powers.
It’s hard to believe that their aggressiveness finds its root in an imaginary line drawn up across Europe over 1500 years ago. The Serbs settled within both sides of the line that divided Christianity between the Roman Catholic West from the Orthodox East. This line placed the Orthodox Serbs on a direct collision course with the Austro-Hungarian Empire that sought to expand Catholicism and control Slav populations for its own interests.
The Serbs had also to bear the weight of the Ottoman Turks, a major force in Europe from the 15th century until the Balkan wars in the 1910's. The Turks were not as oppressive as the Austria-Hungarians, but they had the same effect. They brought Moslem Albanians into Kosovo and drew their own religious line across the Serb nation. This division separated Bosnia and Herzegovina from the rest of Serbia and converted thousands of Serbs to Islam. Both the Christian and Islamic lines were fatal to Serb unity as the Catholic Croats and Moslem Bosnians gradually developed identities and allegiances that were separate from their Orthodox brethren.
The independence of Orthodox Serbs in 1830 was a bittersweet event. They finally broke free of the Turkish yoke, but much of the Serb nation remained under Austrian and Turkish control.
They also remained in an economic chokehold between these two empires. This vulnerability became a national obsession in the 1910's when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina from Turkey and supported Albania’s Independence to cut the Serbs off completely from access to the Adriatic Sea.
Economic survival fanned the flames of Serbian aggressiveness as they turned their attention toward Northern Macedonia for access to Greek ports. This move in turn brought further conflict with Bulgaria, which had sizeable numbers of patriots in the region.
There are haunting parallels between this past and the civil conflict that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia. When the European Economic Community led by Germany recognized the breakaway Yugoslav republics, many Serbs must have felt that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had come back from the dead to torment them once again. The Europeans failed to see how the Yugoslav Federation had delicately balanced the Croat and Bosnian autonomy with the Serbian dream of a unified Slavic nation.
The hasty international recognition of the breakaway republics brought the Serbs back to where they started in 1840. They were once again cut off from all sides by nationalism that was nurtured by the defunct empires that they fought so hard against in years past.
The recent conflict, however, was not a carbon copy of the past. This time around, the Serbs faced another enemy, one more menacing than NATO. It was that of immoral and shortsighted leadership. The aim of expelling thousands of people from Kosovo was not just heartless but also lunatic. The Albanians may have been a thorn to the Serbian side, but their disappearance from the region would likely result in an economic calamity for Serbia.
It is unlikely that the NATO strikes will break the backs of the Serbs even if they do decimate their economy. Whatever the outcome, there is only one certainty. The land of the south Slavs will remain divided along religious lines that were drawn upon their land by others.
Editor's note: What is of interest now amidst the power struggles, both internal and external is the fate of the leadership of Mr. Milosevic who is desperately trying to maintain order amidst NATO attempts to remove him and bring to a head, war crime proceedings.