Good morning! In early October, the Boka ‘scientific gathering’ was held in Kotor, organized by the Serbian nationalist organization ‘Boka’s Matica’ and the Association of Serbs of Montenegro from Belgrade. The pseudo-scientific meeting was an opportunity for the IN4S intellectual team to gather in one place and fantasize about the disintegration of Montenegro.
Autonomy of Boka Kotorska (SAO Boka)
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro supports and sponsors the campaign promoting disintegration of Montenegro. It’s nothing new. The ancient political activity of this institution, which aims to analyze the Montenegrin identity, in order to incorporate it as effectively as possible into the Serbian super-identity, is best reflected in the eparchial structure of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. Instead of one historical metropolitanate of Montenegro, between the two wars, the territory of Montenegro was divided into several dioceses, and Cetinje was given to run only half of today’s Montenegro, with the fact that even in the name of this diocese, the identity is divided into Montenegrin and coastal. There lies the biggest deception and self-deception of the Orthodox Montenegrins who today say, “we are not worshippers of the SPC, we are worshippers of the MCP”. If you live in Niksic or Berane, you are not a part of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, but of Budimlja-Niksic, which in the hierarchy of the SPC is not subordinate to the MCP but is equal to it. If you live in Pljevlja, then your competent bishop is not in Pljevlja but in Prijepolje.
But let’s get back to the topic. The Serbian Church, through its own, Serbia-oriented and Russia-oriented media, has been promoting a disintegrating narrative in Montenegro for years in which it boils down Montenegro and Montenegrins, as well as their identity, to four divisions, and promotes regional autonomy – Brda, Stara Herzegovina, Boka, “Serbian coast“.
The story about Boka Kotorska is particularly perfidious. Serbian nationalist organizations and Serbian ethno-nationalist authors like Nikola Malovic have been promoting the idea of autonomy and independence of Boka for a long time, and along with some activists from the Croatian and Catholic community of Boka Kotorska, they are promoting a narrative about the binational identity of Boka residents, currently under the occupation of Montenegro. The story about how Boka was never part of Montenegro until 1945 and that it was then forcibly annexed is part of a well-known campaign. IN4S billboards for promoting Serbian identity before the census were funded through something called ‘Serbian People of Boka’ and it’s all part of the same package. How much binationality there is, Croats could see precisely on the billboards, which were a textbook example of the cultural appropriation of the Croatian and Montenegrin cultural heritage.
The aforementioned gathering was an excellent opportunity for all far-right anti-Montenegrin academics to gather in one place. From Miomir Abovic, who used to work at the Faculty of the Montenegrin Language and Literature and afterwards joined the religious processions, to Caslav ‘women in Montenegro were in mourning following the Berlin Congress’ Koprivica from the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences. Pleiades of natives and primordialists who divide nations into natural and artificial debated the autonomy of SAO Boka. All of this would seem ridiculous if we had not walked into the Yugoslav apocalypse in the 1990s through similar projects of SAO Herzegovina, SAO Western Slovenia, SAO Northeast Bosnia, SAO Romania and others.
Boka Kotorska, along with Budva, represents a unique cultural and historical entity and its uniqueness should be emphasized and perhaps institutionalized. Just not in this way and not through Serbian nationalism. There’s another shortcoming to this whole story – and that’s Cetinje. Nor would Boka Kotorska be what it is if it didn’t have Cetinje and Old Montenegro in the hinterland. Nor would Montenegro exist if it did not have Boka Kotorska behind it. Any attempt to separate and dissect them is futile and dangerous.
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Best regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
