Jovanovic: Suspension of Assembly session an attempt to erase the Serbian name

Historian Luka Jovanovic assessed that the latest developments in the Kosovo parliament should be viewed as a form of hybrid attack on the Serbian people, as well as an attempt to erase the Serbian name, Serbian political will and freedom of speech among Serbs.

“The developments in the Pristina parliament should be followed and viewed entirely in the context of the obstruction of the constitutive session of the Assembly. At the same time, of course, the pretext used to carry this out should be condemned, particularly because that pretext was used to threaten a legitimate representative of the Serbian people with legal proceedings. The statements by members of the Self-Determination Movement that followed in rapid succession, beginning with Albulena Haxhiu threatening Igor Simic that he must not use the term ‘Serbian people’ but instead must say ‘Serbian community,’ constitute an act that should be viewed, on the one hand, separately, but also within the context of Self-Determination itself and the attitudes of the Albanian people toward the Serbian people. We must not forget that the term ‘Serbian people’ was previously widely used by Albanian officials. Albulena Haxhiu herself, I would remind you, previously spoke, when discussing the policy of reciprocity toward Serbia, about how members of the Albanian people in Serbia should enjoy the same rights as members of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija,” Jovanovic told Kosovo Online.

He also recalled that Self-Determination leader Albin Kurti had used the term “Serbian people.”

“Haxhiu’s political leader and ideological father, Albin Kurti, extensively used the term ‘Serbian people’ in two of his interviews, if I am not mistaken—one given to Radio Free Europe and the other to Vecernji list, one in 2020 and the other in 2022. Glauk Konjufca, another senior Self-Determination official, did the same when, in 2022, he made the well-known statement that the Serbian people even lived comfortably in Kosovo and Metohija. The statement I find most interesting is that of Xhelal Svecla, whom we can freely describe as Self-Determination’s strongman. Amid criticism that the police were carrying out repressive measures against members of the Serbian people, particularly in northern Kosovo and Metohija, he told Serbian media that he personally had nothing against the Serbian people. Therefore, demanding now that the term ‘Serbian people’ not be used and that ‘Serbian community’ be used instead represents a hybrid attack—yet another in a series of attacks on the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija. It should be viewed within the broader context of denying the Serbian presence, Serbian continuity, the Serbian state and legal, historical, spiritual and centuries-long development, and their deep history and roots in Kosovo and Metohija. The objective is to reduce an ethnic group to a community, to a statistical error. That is the policy of Self-Determination, which they have demonstrated through their actions in previous years, quite often openly,” he said.

According to Jovanovic, all of this should be viewed in the context of an attempt to erase the Serbian name, Serbian political will and freedom of speech among Serbs.

“The international community must condemn this because it is scandalous, if we indeed live in societies founded upon the human freedoms proclaimed in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Jovanovic said.
Given that on previous occasions, when Serbian Deputy Speakers were being nominated in the Kosovo

Assembly, the term “Serbian people” could be used without any problem, Jovanovic stressed that this time the issue was the obstruction of the Assembly.

“Serbian political representatives, namely Serb List MPs, have previously used the term ‘Serbian people’ without any problem when nominating a Deputy Speaker from their ranks. Why is it a problem now? Of course, as we have already said, it is precisely because Self-Determination needed to find a pretext—an awkwardly chosen one—to obstruct the Assembly. This sends a bad message to the Serbian people and a bad message to the international community: that Self-Determination is pursuing a policy rooted in certain ideologies that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history,” Jovanovic concluded.