Good morning! A Belgrade resident said what I quoted in the title. The number of Montenegrins in Serbia cut in half over the last decade.
“I’m afraid to be a Montenegrin”
The latest Serbia census recorded a general demographic decline. All ethnic communities, except Bosniaks, including the majority Serbs, have much fewer members than was the case in the 2011 census. Negative natural growth and emigration will greatly surprise us when it comes to the number of inhabitants in the census planned for the end of the year.
However, when it comes to Montenegrins, the dramatic drop in the number of people who identify ethnically like this has nothing to do with the effects of migration, birth rate and mortality ratio. In the majority of cases, it’s about the assimilation processes, which since 1991 and even earlier, has been happening sometimes with greater, sometimes with lesser intensity.
The number of Montenegrins in Serbia cut in half over the last ten years – from almost 40.000 to 20.000. Compared to 1991, that number is 7 times (!) less today.
The situation is not better in Montenegro either – as that number had been gradually declining since 1948 until it stopped at around 45% of the total population.
This is not a nationalist complaining. Montenegrin nationalists think I’m a damage and polluter because I’m half ethnic Serb and I wouldn’t forgive collaborators for collaboration because they’re Montenegrins.
It’s simply about the fact that Montenegrins are a numerically small ethnic community that is threatened with extinction. Assimilation processes are strong and aggressive. In its strategic documents, the neighboring country aims to strengthen and expand Serbian identity in Montenegro. And they have a legitimate right to do so. The Serbian Church does that too.
A well-known American Montenegrin (or Montenegrin American) who, after his first stay in the country of his ancestors, began to mention his Montenegrin roots more and more often in public, was directly warned by the SPC priest in his city that he should not say he was a Montenegrin, rather a Serb from Montenegro. The Serbian Church – through its media – forces and disintegrates the narrative that Montenegrins are a small confederation of tribes from four territorial units, and that with all the others they are just a sub-ethnicity of the great Serbian people.
All this gives results. Serbia has more human, organizational and financial resources. The former government was mentioning identity when it was convenient for their daily political fights. The new government is not interested in that. The international community, which is the only one with the authority to stop the violation of the human rights of Montenegrins, is not interested in this, because they believe Montenegrins are the majority in Montenegro. The fact that fewer people in Montenegro speak Montenegrin than Serbian belies this perception.
A long time ago, Milo Djukanovic tried to explain to our northern neighbors during the separation from Serbia that the narrative of one nation in two states will inevitably lead to unification initiatives. These are long and intensive processes. We need to rise above the daily politics and see where it leads. The Church of Serbia is an old institution with a long memory. It doesn’t depend on biology and daily politics. Now the 1998 movie “Fallen” and the song by the Stones “Time is on my side” come to my mind. Time is literally on that side. We have no institutions, we have scattered publications of enthusiasts from emigration, frequent interruptions of continuity, while on the other hand there is a serious state with a serious intention to make a people disappear. And judging by the latest numbers, they are doing pretty well.
That’s all for today. Until tomorrow.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
