Serbophobia, or Anti-Serb sentiment, is a term used to describe a sentiment of hostility or hatred towards Serbs or Serbia.
Use of the term in history
Austrian pre-WWI caricature showing a hand crushing a Serb-looking terrorist. The phrase reads " Serbia must die"
The term was used in the literary and cultural circles since before World War I: Croatian writers Antun Gustav Matoš and Miroslav Krleža had casually described some political and cultural figures as "Serbophobes" (Krleža in the four volume "Talks with Miroslav Krleža", 1985., edited by Enes Čengić), meaning that they perceived an anti-Serbian animus in a person's behavior.
Acin-Kosta, Milos in his book Draza Mihailovic i Ravna Gora dedicates a section of his book to Serbophobia during World War II.
In the 1986 draft Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Serbophobia is mentioned.[1]
Cadik Danon, Chief Rabbi of Yugoslavia et al. in an open letter[2] to the American Jewish Committee in 1995, during the bombing of Republika Srpska by NATO during Bosnian War, wrote of a background of,"... unrestrained anti-Serbian propaganda, raging during all this war, following the Nazi model, but much more efficient means and in a much more sophisticated and more expensive way. ... Even American Jews were not able to withstand this propagandistic poison,... they did not recognize the Nazis and racist nature of the Serbophobic dogma. They did not identify Serbophobia as a twin sister of anti-semitism ...".
Instances of Serbophobia
According to those who use the term, Serbophobia can range from individual hatred to institutionalised persecution.
- That use of the term "Vlah", as well as the use of the word "Chetnik" as a derogatory designation for anything connected to Serbs (rather than a paramilitary as in its standard meaning) has occurred in modern times, during and after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s ([1]. The word shkije (sub-human) in the Albanian language is a derogatory word for Serbs [2].
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia submitted to the The International Court of Justice[4] in 1997 claims that acts of genocide against Serbs had been incited by
- a 'Patriotic Song' which read as follows:'Dear mother, I'm going to plant willows, We'll hang Serbs from them. Dear mother, I'm going to sharpen knives, We'll soon fill pits again.'[4]
- the publishing in a newspaper of, "Each Muslim must name a Serb and take oath to kill him."[4]
- the radio broadcast of "public calls for the execution of Serbs".[4]
These claims were later ruled inadmissable by the ICJ.citation needed
- nationalist Croats use to shout the slogan "Kill the Serb" frequently during public events, most notable during Marko Perković Thompson's concerts.[5][6]
Criticism
Critics associate the use of the term Serbophobia with the politics of Serbian nationalist victimization of late 1980s and 1990s as described, for example, by Christopher Bennett. According to him, Serbian nationalist politicians have made associations to Serbian "martyrdom" in history (from the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 to the genocide during World War II) to justify Serbian politics of the 1980s and 1990s; these associations are allegedly exemplified in Slobodan Milošević's Gazimestan speech at Kosovo in 1989. The reaction to the speech as well as the use of the associated term Serbophobia is a matter of heated debate even today.[7]
In late 1988, months before the Revolutions of 1989, Milosevic accused critics of his regime and political tactics like the Slovenian leader Milan Kucan of “spreading fear of Serbia”.[8]
According to political scientist David Bruce Macdonald, the term was popularised in the 1980s and 1990s during the re-analysis of Serbian history.[9] The term was often likened to anti-Semitism, and expressed itself as a re-analysis of history where every event that had a negative effect on the Serbs was likened to a "tragedy".[9] Often associated with the politics of Serbian victimization of late 1980s and 1990s[10].
But the criticism is unfounded - because only in NDH, in WWII, the Croatian Ustashe killed over a million of Serbs, mostly in the extermination camp system "Jasenovac", where about 800,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were killed in the most gruesome ways. On 25 Serbs, 1 Jew was killed, on 150 Serbs, one Gypsy was murdered. The word 'genocide' was first mentioned in the British press, to describe what the Turks did to the civilian population of Serbia, around the town of Nis, before the Battle of Deligrad.
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Discrimination |
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Social
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Against cultures
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Against religions
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Discriminatory
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Anti-discriminatory
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Discriminatory
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Anti-discriminatory
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Counter-discriminatory
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Law |
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Discriminatory
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Anti-discriminatory
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See also
References
- ^ SANU
- ^ C. Danon, 'et al': Open letter asking for help from the American Jewish Committee. 1995.
- ^ Trifkovic, Srdja (April 13, 2000). "Why Yugo-Nostalgists are Wrong", Chronicles. Retrieved on 2006-04-29.
- ^ a b c d INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE 17 December 1997 Case Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishmnent of the Crime of Genocide retrieved 26 August 2007
- ^ Vijesti.net - Thompson pozdravio Norca, rulja uzvikivala "Ubij Srbina!"
- ^ 60 tisuća ljudi po nevremenu dočekalo Thompsona, vikalo se i 'Ubij, ubij Srbina!' - Dnevnik.hr
- ^ Comment: Serbia's War With History by C. Bennett, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, April 19, 1999
- ^ Communism O Nationalism!, TIME Magazine, October 24, 1988
- ^ a b MacDonald, D. B. (2003)
- ^ Bennett, C. (1999)
- Србообија и њени извори, Јеремија Д. Митровић, Издање: Политика и друштво, 1992, ISBN 86-23-03053-2
External links
Use in various languages
- Neue Serbophilie und alte Serbophobie, "New Serbophilia and Old Serbophobia", a Junge Welt article, in German
- Marc Fumaroli, an article from Lire, a French literary magazine, in French
- Europa e nuovi nazionalismi, an article by Luca Rastello, in Italian
- Бомбы или гражданская война, a Sevodnya article, in Russian
- Сатанизација Срба, коме она треба?, a book by Boris Olijnik, in Serbian
- 'СПЦ може да предизвика србофобија кај Македонците, a Nova Makedonija article, in Macedonian
- Ku është antimillosheviqi?, an AIM article, in Albanian
- Globalizing the Holocaust: A Jewish ‘useable past’ in Serbian Nationalism, by David MacDonald, University of Otago New Zealand
Further reading
National Library of Serbia's catalogue lists following books written about serbophobia:
- Serbophobia and its sources: Mitrović, Jeremija D. (1991). Srbofobija i njeni izvori. Belgrade: Naučna knjiga. ISBN 86-23-03053-2. (second edition (2005) Srbofobija i njeni izvori. Belgrade: Službeni glasnik. ISBN 86-7549-423-8. )
- Serbophobia and antisemitism: Ekmedžić, Milorad (2000). Srbofobija i antisemitizam. Šabac: Beli anđeo.
- On serbophobia through centuries: Blagojević, Lazar; Ilišković, Rajko; Pavlović, Ilija (2004). O srbofobiji kroz vijekove. Šamac: Prosvjeta. ISBN 99938-687-2-8.
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