Bulic: Everyone wants to pull away from Serbia, it will be difficult until world relations change

Serbia is the border between the West and the East, which is why there is so much pressure here on us, that's what the struggle is about, noted in an interview for the Context podcast the well-known journalist and TV presenter Vanja Bulic, who has also introduced himself to the domestic audience in recent years as a successful novelist, often addressing the Kosovo issue in his books.

Bulic sees Serbia's position completely surrounded by NATO countries as the biggest complicating factor for the country.

"NATO has completely encircled us from all sides. We are an oasis. Someone asks me what I would do. Well, probably the same as the current government. You are pressed from all sides. Everyone wants to pull from you, and you are small. How can you fight when NATO is all around you? It's difficult to do anything now until world relations change," Bulic explains.

In his opinion, there is not enough understanding and knowledge of the facts about events in Kosovo and the position of Serbs within the Serbian society as a whole.

"In Belgrade, some are fighting over Kosovo in cafes. I ask them who among you has been to Kosovo. I was in Strpce just before the pandemic; they invited me. The misery that people here don't understand is that Serbs in Kosovo live in two worlds, the northern part and the southern. It's not just about going to Mitrovica. Fear is present among the people. I remember, I was there with some other journalists, we were even at Bondsteel. But, we returned without a statement from any Serb. They are scared. I returned disappointed. There are divisions there among our people, unfortunately. This is what we talk about when we talk about autochauvinism. How to fight against that? I remember being in Ropotovo. A singer asked me what to sing. I told him, you’ll sing 'Kralja Petra Garda' and 'Srbijo Lepotice'. Our people want to hear that," emphasized Bulic.

He sees optimism in the fact that Serbs who have decided to stay in Kosovo despite all difficulties are forming large families.

"I was glad when I was recently in Zvecan at a literary evening, I saw Serbian families with four, five children. Serbs now have a higher birth rate than Albanians. It has turned around. Now, drugs have also entered their homes," Bulic notes.

He pointed out many mistakes that Serbian officials have made in Kosovo and Metohija policy over the previous decades.

"We ourselves made decisions to forbid Serbs from returning to Kosovo. Not to allow our own, who were driven away, to return. Only two voted against, Mile Perunicic and Marinko Golubovic. My father’s mother was one of those Golubovics. I remember when we once gave an interview in Duga with Spasoje Djakovic, a prominent revolutionary from World War II, he told all sorts of things. There was pressure on why we released that, it caused a stir. We were hit on the head not to think. How were we raised? What did we learn? Later we wonder why it all came back to us like a boomerang," Bulic recounted among other things.

The entire conversation between Vanja Bulic and the author of Kontekst, Milos Garic, can be seen in the video report.