Smajlovic: Serbia should threaten to leave the Council of Europe

Serbia must defend the truth and its national interest, in relation to the Council of Europe and the announced resolution on genocide at the United Nations, as we see it, as if it is the most important thing in the world," stated Ljiljana Smajlovic, former editor-in-chief of Politika, long-time journalist and columnist, in the new episode of the podcast Kontekst.

She believes that Serbia should use all available means to stop the current processes regarding Kosovo and the Republic of Srpska in international institutions.

"There is no other way but to fight as we can and to say, well, maybe then you would also agree that Serbia should leave the Council of Europe. I am, for instance, completely against Serbia leaving the Council of Europe, but I am in favor of threatening it, because that is what we have at our disposal. I am in favor of pushing these Western countries to wonder - is it really worth it for Serbia to leave, and for Kosovo to join," Smajlovic says.

She particularly referred to attempts by some to tarnish Serbia with narratives of “genocide and imperialism.”

"I watched a session of the Council of Europe and the reaction of someone, I think his name is Goncharenko. He is a man in one of those high positions in Ukraine and Europe, and he celebrated the vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. And he says, enough with the Serbs and their empire. So, he actually supports the results of aggression against our country. Well, I don't know why then he doesn't reconcile with the results of aggression against his own country, why doesn't he say let's reconcile with aggression, what does it matter. Since they decided to interpret the Russian incursion into Ukraine as Russian imperialism, now they need to smear everyone who did not impose sanctions against Russia with the same filth. So then we, who have been expelled, defeated, sanctioned, who are victims of genocide, are now some imperialist power that needs to be stopped somehow. That man, in fact, wants to get even more support from the West, he wants those 60 billion dollars that are stuck in the U.S. Congress. What does he care about Serbia? He will declare it genocidal, imperial, whatever," Smajlovic points out.

According to her words, the media and the public in the USA, today, 25 years after the bombing of Serbia, are not interested in the truth about the NATO aggression of 1999.

“I think they have completely forgotten it. America did not pay any price. They count it as a success. The only thing we can say is that we somehow managed to spite America at that time. By being such a tough bite for them during the 90s, they subsequently rushed into aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there, they paid the price. Both politically and in every other way. And they remember it as a big mistake. There is a belief that it was a mistake. All the political elites have accepted that it was wrong. But, our ordeal is not remembered by anyone. A person only remembers where they paid a price. Even in America, you will never hear this argument even now when discussing Ukraine. That the West triggered the war in Ukraine when it bombed Serbia. No, that is not mentioned,” Smajlovic also pointed out.

The entire conversation between Ljiljana Smajlovic and Kontekst editor Milos Garic can be viewed in the video clip.