By Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer
Good morning. You’re reading a daily contextual review of the news that marked the previous day.
Fictional nation
The mayor of Banja Luka, Drasko Stanivukovic, who was recently allowed to enter Montenegro, provoked the Montenegrin public in various ways during his stay in the country, from mentioning reconstruction of the chapel in Lovcen to denying the existence of the Montenegrin nation. This is not the first time for Stanivukovic to say that Montenegrins are a fictional nation, but that still didn’t bother our authorities to lift the ban on entering the country.
Denying the existence of Montenegrins as a nation and telling that they’re a regional identity like the people of Sumadija or Licani is a well-established practice of Serbian nationalists. At the same time, within Montenegro, the Montenegrin identity is being diluted by the strategic forcing of the narrative that Montenegrins are exclusively people from the area of Old Montenegro (four nahiyahs).
Let’s face it, all nations are fictional, or rather imaginary. History has played a little, migrations have done their part – for some to gather around language, territory or sovereign, and with the work of states, churches, tribal leaders to acquire, establish and preserve their identity. There are no natural and unnatural nations. Nations come and go with time. Some are older, and some are younger and in themselves are neither good nor bad for any reason. What is perceived about them depends on the actions of their elected or imposed leaders.
Young Drasko, now criticized by Dritan Abazovic’s party who described his victory in Banja Luka as a “wave of change”, believes that some nations are natural, and with his ignorance classifies himself as an extreme nationalist, hammering his leadership path into the well-trodden paths of his predecessors, Milorad Dodik and Radovan Karadzic. And he had a chance to be something else. Although, it’s also a question of whether he had a chance in such a projected entity.
All the drama over enthronement
The election of the Cetinje Monastery as the place of enthronement of the new metropolitan is a manifestation of cultural and political aggression and the power of official Belgrade over the consciousness of Montenegrin citizens, but also an opportunity to show that Montenegro is part of the ‘Serbian World’, said Srdjan Susnica, a culturologist, lawyer and publicist from Banja Lukain an interview for Gradski Portal. According to him, Montenegro, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a victim of the official policy that Serbia pursues towards neighboring countries.
URA has reacted to “get its leader out of that sh*t”, as MP Momo Koprivica likes to say, and to tell that it’d be best for the Church of Serbia to decide to move the enthronement ceremony of Metropolitan outside Cetinje. Abazovic said earlier that he would come to the enthronement ceremony if he were invited, and that “Montenegro got a metropolitan” who should be enthroned in Cetinje. Now, a healthy wing of URA has suddenly shown up in the form of Filip Adzic who abandoned the parliament so that he could painlessly and in vain show up and pretend to be a Montenegrin patriot. Luckily, no one trusts him anymore.
Former head of police and advisor to the president, Veselin Veljovic, was interrogated in the prosecution because of his column. Recall, lawyer Kavaric was not interrogated for his claims that terrorist acts are being prepared in Cetinje, that no DF leader who called for an armed rebellion and the formation of paramilitary units was interrogated either. Veljovic was threatened with death on social media yesterday because of the whole story. This is the latest in a series of threats related to the events in Cetinje.
After all this, the police searched the cigarette factory in Mojkovac yesterday and “invited” director Zeljko Bulatovic for talks. Deputy Prime Minister Abazovic posted a tweet suggesting that this was a kind of revenge on Veljovic because of the column. Mr Abazovic, if there is any suspicion or evidence that anyone acted against the law, no matter whether it’s Mr Veljovic or me, tell the public everything you know about it and put pressure on the prosecution to prosecute the culprits.
With these tweets, one may think that you’re punishing people for their columns and not because of illegal actions. Are you sending a message like this, that those who are silent will be able to continue what they did, if they did?
Maja Milickovic
If, after all this, awards for opposition activism are ever granted, one of the first should be given to the feminist and activist Maja Milickovic, who, together with God-pleasing women, provokes the public with intelligent humor and exposes hypocrisy. Yesterday, she made another ingenious performance and announced that she refused the position of vice president of the Prime Minister’s party that’s supposed to be set up. The DF members could hardly wait for this to attack the prime minister, conveying Maja’s sarcastic performance in their media as true news.
Keep your hands off Plav
The President of the Municipality of Plav, Nihad Canovic, said that there is no division into the Serbian and Muslim part of that city, despite the individuals who would try to divide it at all cost. “There is no the so-called Serbian and Muslim part, Plav has always been civic, wide enough for people of all religions and nations to live in it, despite Rakovic and others like him who wish to divide it at any cost,” Canovic tweeted.
Situation with Covid
The number of infections goes up, while the country’s still open for tourists all around the world. The German government imposed restrictions for passengers from Montenegro and the U.S. government recommends delaying travel to Montenegro.
That’s all for today. Have a nice day.
