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[JTW Interview] Right-Wing Extremism in Serbia |
8 August 2011By Lenka Kantnerova, JTW
Attacks by Serbian right-wing extremist groups have once again made headlines. On August 1, the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, five attackers devastated the Islamic center in Novi Sad by using wooden poles. The representative of local Muslims called this attack “an act of vandalism and attack on all Muslims.” Over a week ago, another act of violence was committed by ethnic Serbs. They attacked Kosovo’s border posts to express their disapproval of a ban on Serbian products to Kosovo.
The growth of the radical right in Serbia is directly related to the end of the Yugoslav wars, which were accompanied by great economic strife. Moreover, there are still significant political actors aiding this trend.
Among them for example, is the ultranationalist right-wing political party – The Serbian Radical Party – which takes pleasure in having popular support among people in Serbia. The party was formed in 1991 and has subsequently become a tool for Milošević`s propaganda. The official aims of the party are to solve socio-economic problems, fight against corruption and criminality, develop industry and agriculture, ensure high-quality health care, etc. On the other hand, a long term goal of the party – the establishment of a Greater Serbia – comes from a nationalist ideology which aims to create a larger state entity encompassing areas populated by ethnic Serbs in other ex-Yugoslav countries.
Other actors playing important roles in inciting Serbian right-wing extremism are: Obraz (sometimes referred to as an Orthodox clero-fascist organization), Blood and Honor Serbia (neo-Nazi organization), National Alignment (neo-Nazi organization connected to attacks at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and one anti-fascist event in 2005), and Rasonalisti Srbije (based on a concept of `rationalism`, a combination of racism and nationalism).
Apart from the abovementioned organizations, there are still some more small groups supporting the diffusion of right-wing extremism and neo-Nazi ideologies in Serbia. The Serbian radical right should therefore be considered not only a threat to the security of individuals or society, but also as a serious danger to state security. It has become a source of either domestic or cross-border conflict several times.
For a better understanding of the complex issue in Serbia, an interview has been conducted with Birgül Demirtaţ Coţkun, Associate Professor of International Relations at Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey.
Q: How would you define the right-wing extremism in Serbia?
A: I think the right-wing extremism in the Balkans is not something specific to Serbia. It has become a kind of global phenomenon, especially after the events of 9/11. That’s not the case only in the Balkans, but also in other regions in the world. The latest attacks in Oslo are important examples of it and we can find several reasons for those violent events.
First of all, after 9/11 the United States and some Western countries made an important mistake, in analyzing the attacks of 9/11. Some conservative circles believed that these attacks of 9/11 happened because there is something wrong with the Islamic religion itself. Muslim people were shown as the ‘Others’. And in that way, they just contributed to the rise of extremism in their own countries. What happened in Norway last month is an example of what these kinds of discourses and policies would lead to. Some groups in the West strongly believe that there is a conflict between Christianity and Islam. And this conservative environment contributed to the rise of extremism mainly in Western countries.
When we come to the Balkans, we can see an additional factor: the Ottoman past. In the process of the formation of the nation states in the Balkans, the Ottoman past was taken as something negative. And when the Serbian leaders tried to establish their own nation state, when the Bulgarians tried to do the same thing or the Albanians – even Turkish leaders– they tried to create an Ottoman past that was seen as the Other. It was shown as a black page in their history. And whenever they had a problem in their political, economic, or societal systems, the easiest solution was to just accuse the Ottoman past; The Ottomans just prevented us from becoming a modernized country, from participating in the Reform and Renaissance, etc. Accusing the Ottomans was quite easy to if you had a problem inside the country.
I think in Serbia, the effects of both of these factors are quite important and we have to be aware of the fact that although the wars of the 1990s are over, we can still see the effects of those wars. What we now have in the Balkans is negative peace. It means we don’t have war and we don’t have violent conflict. But we did not reach the point of positive peace. What I am trying to say is that, there is no widespread violence, but still the roots of the conflicts, the roots of the violence are still alive. Different ethnicities, different religions still hate each other and as a result of that people are living separately. For example, Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Federation of Yugoslavia was a place where you could see a high rate of intermarriage. In big cities in Bosnia, the rate of intermarriage was 30 percent before the war started. There was no problem when a Bosniak wanted to marry a Serbian or a Croat. But when we look at Bosnia today, we have kinds of identities that hate each other. Some time ago I was watching the news on the Republika Srpska national television, and it was so interesting when they were showing the weather forecast, they were not showing the weather in Sarajevo. They were showing the weather forecast just for the Republika Srpska.
And thinking of people in Kosovo, Albanian and Serbian kids are attending different schools, and what Albanian kids learn in school is that they are living in an independent state. What the Serbian kids are learning is just the opposite, namely that Kosovo is still part of Serbia. The gap between different ethnicities and religions is not decreasing, it is unfortunately increasing.
Bulgaria and Romania have been members of the European Union since 2007. Still they have significant economic problems, and some people in those countries could not adapt themselves to the trends of globalization. And they are still missing the old times when they could still have access to some basic facilities. The crisis of adaptation to the globalized world is also a factor that contributed to the rise of right-wing extremism in Bulgaria. On one hand Bulgaria is Europeanizing, but on the other hand its right-wing extremism is getting stronger.
Attacks by right-wing extremist groups happen from time to time and we have to take them quite seriously, otherwise you know what happened in Oslo may be imitated elsewhere.
Q: Yes, that was another question for you. Do you think that the events in Norway can aid extremists in Serbia in a sense by providing them self-confidence?
A: This is a possibility. Of course we cannot know for sure what is going to happen tomorrow, but it is a possibility. The important thing is that the politicians in all of those countries should be very careful when they talk about other people, like minorities and migrants, etc. They just use tough discourse and try to emphasize the ‘otherness’ of certain people.
Conservative parties think that when they use anti-foreigner discourse they are going to get more votes from people. But when they use that kind of rhetoric, ordinary people start hating one another much more. Everybody should take a lesson from what happened in Oslo.
It is very easy to accuse foreigners if you have a high rate of unemployment in your own country, if you have a high rate of inflation, etc. But politicians should also try to estimate what will be the effect of their discourse on ordinary people. If you just try to downplay the important role that migrants play in the development of Western economies in the post-Second World War era, you are creating hate between people. And sometimes the effects of these discourses and these policies can be violent, and we should take this possibility into consideration. Therefore what happened in Norway should be taken quite seriously; it should be thoroughly analyzed during the coming years.
Q: According to you, what are the main sources of Serbian extremism?
A: All of the Balkan countries, including Serbia, have significant economic problems and some parts of the society really suffer. And when you suffer, you really try to find somebody, some groups who are supposed to be responsible for that. The difficulty of adapting to the globalized economy is an important factor. Some Balkan countries, like Serbia, Croatia, and even Bulgaria, did not face their own pasts. It is quite recently that Serbian politicians have begun facing their pasts. “What did we do in Srebrenica?” It was only last year that the Serbian parliament apologized for what happened in July 1995. Although they did not recognize the events as genocide, the parliament apologized. It will take some time until these societies will actually face their pasts. Germany did it after the Second World War, but for the Balkans it is a process that is quite slow to start.
Facing the past, recognizing its events and taking lessons from it is something missing from the Balkans. It started only recently, but it will take some time. Until all the Serbians, all the Croatians understood what they did, what their leaders did, what their militaries did, and what their militants did in the 1990s, it is impossible to eradicate the roots of extremism in the Balkans.
Q: There are many political and non-political organizations in Serbia which directly or indirectly support the extremist behaviors of Serbian people. Namely there are, for example, The Serbian Radical Party, The Party of Serbian Unity, Obraz, Blood and Honor Serbia, etc. Do you think that their influence over people in recent decades has decreased or, on the contrary, increased?
A: Parties in power in Serbia at the moment are Western-oriented parties. It is a big opportunity for Serbia. That’s why the Serbian president took part in the anniversary in Srebrenica last year. Let’s see what is going to happen in the next elections in Serbia. We don’t know if that process of reorientation toward the West will continue at the same speed. It also depends on what the Serbian people will be getting out of this process and whether or not they can find what they expect from the European Union. But if the Serbians cannot get what they are expecting from the European Union, then it is possible that these right-wing parties might come back to power.
Q: In the last parliamentary elections, The Serbian Radical Party received more than 29% of the vote, which is more than one million people. What is the main reason for that huge amount of support for this party?
A: You know, there is this psychology of being victims. Every group, every community in the ex-Yugoslavian geography sees itself as a victim of the violent events of the 1990s. Some Serbian groups try to show that it is in fact the Serbians who suffered most. In addition, some parts of society are still living in a conspiratorial world. They think that the Western countries are trying to divide Serbia into different pieces and Kosovo is an example of that. If this process of recognizing what happened in the 1990s and dealing with the past gains speed, then I think this phenomenon of right-wing extremism will at least become less significant.
Q: What is the position of the Serbian government on nationalist extremism? Does the government take any measures to decrease the right-wing extremism in the country?
A: I think the main aim of the Serbian government is to just speed up the accession process. They just recently arrested Karadžič, Mladič, and Hadzic, and now their first aim is to get candidacy status from the European Union. They believe that if the European Union process will fasten then they will get more votes and this support for the right-wing will decrease. And I think it is quite important that Turkey and Serbia are trying to increase their levels of friendship and partnership, which they are taking mutual initiatives for. Last year Turkish and Serbian leaders were together in Srebrenica for the anniversary, and Serbia is part of the trilateral mechanism that Turkey has established in the Balkans along with itself and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is quite important because in the 1990s Turkish-Serbian relations were quite problematic. If the two countries really became closer to each other, if they really improved their political, economic, and security relationships, they can establish a good example for the Balkans as well.
Q: Do you see right-wing extremism as a threat to Serbia’s national security?
A: Potentially yes, because if some people continue to think that it was only they who suffered and became victims of violent events, then there is potential for every kind of extremism. But let’s hope that Serbia’s accession process to the EU will be faster and that it will become a candidate country soon. When it starts the negotiations and develops a European identity during that process, the potential for right-wing extremism to threaten its national security will decrease considerably.
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References
*BBC News (27.07.2011). Serbs attack Kosovo border post as violence flares. BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-europe-14316858
*Official Web site of Blood and Honor Serbia. Available at: http://www.bhserbia.org/intro.htm
*Ramet, S. P. (1999). The radical right in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. The Pelsyvania State University Press. 193-213
*SME (01.08.2011). V Novom Sade zaútočili na moslimské centrum. Available at: http://www.sme.sk/c/5999483/v-novom-sade-zautocili-na-moslimske-centrum.html
*Sovak, M. (2007). Pravicový extrémizmus v Srbsku. Rexter. Available at: http://www.rexter.cz/pravicovy-extremizmus-v-srbsku/2007/11/01/ |
8 August 2011
Lenka Kantnerova, JTW
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