In the internal affairs of Montenegro, through the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), intervened politics that was expected to disappear from this area, and which is promoted through the message of the so-called “Serbian world”, said former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in an interview with Radio Free Europe (RFE).
Mesic also says that there are large-scale projects in the region, and that not everyone understood that the borders cannot be changed.
He sees Milo Đukanović‘s recent visit to Croatia at the invitation of President Zoran Milanović, immediately after the Cetinje conflicts, as a confirmation of good relations between the two countries.
During the visit, Milanovic supported Djukanovic's policy, saying that he would draw the attention of Western partners to the crisis in Montenegro, which arose after the enthronement of the SOC metropolitan in Cetinje, despite protests in which more than 50 people were injured.
Restoring a policy that seemed to have disappeared
Can everything that is happening in Montenegro be viewed as an internal religious issue or is it a foreign policy issue with clear implications for the region, as official Zagreb obviously perceives it?
Mesic: The events in Montenegro are its internal issue, but there are other implications. It is clear that this is an interference of the church in state affairs, which is not good. Specifically, it is about the interference of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the top of the Orthodox Church from Belgrade, in religious issues, but also in the state affairs of Montenegro. Then it can be seen from a broader aspect, because it is not good for the church to interfere in state affairs.
In Montenegro, it has been shown that this is not exclusively church interference, but politics is also interfering through the church, the politics that seemed to have stopped in our region. However, some are renewing it. In Montenegro, as in all of us, the church is separated from the state, but in Montenegro it is specific.
The Montenegrin Orthodox Church was autocephalous and everyone should know that in terms of the relationship between the two churches, which exist in Montenegro. Neither the state should interfere in church affairs nor the church in state affairs. In Montenegro, it has been shown that this is not exclusively church interference, but politics is also interfering through the church, the politics that, it seemed, has stopped in this area of ours.
However, some are restoring it. They are renewing it through the message of the “Serbian world”, so that is only one part of that policy.
The fact is that the Serbian Orthodox Church is at the center of political events, from the elections, through the formation of the Government, to the last ones in Cetinje. This was not the case in the early 1990s. How did the church become such an important factor?
Mesic: There were attempts to stop Montenegro's independence, but they were unsuccessful. There are those circles in Serbia that live in the illusion that through the Serbian Orthodox Church, Montenegro's position in the world can be changed, that in some way, through church policy, Montenegro can be implemented in the circle of the “Serbian world”.
These are the stories of illusionists. There is nothing of that. It would be good to come to sobriety and to understand. Let the church deal with church matters. It should not interfere in state affairs. Wherever the church interfered in state affairs it was to the detriment of the church and to the detriment of the state and most of all to the detriment of the citizens. It is necessary to understand that.
With a confederation, war would be avoided
In general, how do you see the current policy of Serbia in the region?
Mesic: I look at that policy from a critical point, for several reasons. Everyone involved in politics knows that we could have passed without the war. It is quite clear that Tito's Yugoslavia had three main integrative factors. One was Tito and his charisma, as a war winner after World War II. Secondly, as one of the greatest politicians, by forming the Non-Aligned Movement, he became one of the great or greatest statesmen because he gathered over 150 countries and through that Movement communicated with those infected in the Cold War, East and West.
The second factor was the Communist Party of the League of Communists, which was broken by the will of Slobodan Milosevic and the League of Communists of Serbia, and the third factor was the Yugoslav Army, which practically ceased to be Yugoslav because Slovenes, Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks left it.
It turned into the Serbian Army, and Slobodan Milosevic was convinced that he could achieve political goals with that Army. And his political goal was neither a federation nor a confederation, he was against it. Milosevic cheated the world to fight for Yugoslavia. The world was sentimental towards Yugoslavia because of its merits in and after the war.
Secondly, Milosevic also cheated Serbs. He cheated on them because he claimed “you lived in one state, you will still live in one state”. He did not mean Yugoslavia because he destroyed it by all means. He told them “you must bring a dowry to Greater Serbia in the territories.” That was his policy of 65 percent of Bosnia and Herzegovina and what else is stolen. He did not count on Slovenia. There is no autochthonous Serbian population in Slovenia.
Because the integrative factors disappeared, a new political agreement had to be reached. That’s what we failed to do. As a member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia and later the President of the Presidency, I tried in every way to find a new political agreement. And that is a confederation. If we had succeeded, we would have avoided war because we would have agreed. We would term the confederation for three, five or eight years, as we agreed. Let's agree on what the confederate affairs will be and which affairs will be transferred to the newly established states. The constitutive elements would become independent and we would sign a confederal agreement.
That would save the country in any case, all the constituent elements, all the republics, would continue on their way to Europe on their own. This is how we got the “dismemberment” of Yugoslavia in the provoked war that Milosevic wanted. There he found an associate of the President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, because he also thought that he could expand the Croatian borders a little. So, the attempt to agree on the division of Bosnia is the real cause of the war.
We had 100,000 dead and the limit has not changed an inch. We return to those messages of the “Serbian world” that Ilija Garašanin sent, such as “unification of countries wherever Serbs live”, then Stevan Moljević, a member of Draža Mihailović‘s staff, who placed ideas for expanding Serbian borders. We have these attempts again because some cannot get rid of the fact that the borders cannot be changed, that the borders are set, the architecture of Europe is finished and therefore the architecture of the borders of Serbia towards Montenegro and Kosovo.
There are no ‘interventions’ at the borders
Do you notice similarities in today's processes (in Montenegro, but also in the region – BiH, Kosovo…) with the events from the beginning of the nineties? Do we have great-power concepts again?
Mesic: Obviously, someone cannot get rid of their great state goals. Instead of fighting in their country for the greatest possible civil rights, for the highest possible standard of living, for the highest possible employment, the greatest possible cooperation between the countries in the region, they are again dreaming of great interventions at the borders. But there is no intervention at the borders.
If it could not be possible to change the borders in our region with 100,000 victims, so many weapons and the army, then what kind of nonsense must it be that he thinks he can do it now? The whole world, and above all Europe, is against any encroachment on the borders that exist today.
How can what is happening in Montenegro affect the region? Can it be transferred to the region?
Mesic: It will not spill over to the region, but it would be good for people in Montenegro to become aware and understand that there is no change in borders. Because, in fact, this is an attempt by Serbia to do through faith what it could not do with state policy. This is the last attempt of some circles, I do not accuse everyone, to think that it can be achieved. These are illusions and it will not happen.
Do the negotiation processes between Serbia and Kosovo have anything to do with what is happening on the Podgorica-Belgrade route?
Mesic: The difficulty of our region is that Serbia, as a society, did not succeed in what the Germans understood after the Second World War. They did not realize that they were following ideas that were unattainable. The Germans experienced catharsis. Following Hitler, most of them supported Hitler, who left millions behind.
Unfortunately, Serbia has not experienced catharsis. It accuses Milosevic, not because he went to war, but because he did not win the war, and now some cannot agree with the fact that they understand that they went the wrong way and that they should open cooperation with their neighbors.
The illusions are that some politics in Serbia can do anything towards Kosovo. No one in Serbia dares to say that Kosovo is a technical issue for Serbia. Neither Serbia can occupy Kosovo with the Army, nor can it impose its solution on Kosovo in any way. Stories about how “the heart of Serbia” or “its soul” can create some reminiscences, but we need to look at things in the current context.
Serbia could have had a different policy towards Kosovo. In the end, with independence, Serbia may have been able to accept federal cooperation with Kosovo, a confederal relationship, much could have been done. But after the war, which was imposed on Kosovo, those are now illusions. There is no more possibility for anything to change in the relationship between Serbia and Kosovo.
Kosovo is largely recognized. Others who have not acknowledged it will do so. It goes its course. It would be good if there was more information in Serbia that the society could orient to understand that Slobodan Milosevic's policy was wrong and that it was wrong to follow it, and now we need to accept reality. And the reality is the independence of Montenegro, the independence of other republics that became independent after the disappearance of Yugoslavia, but the reality is also the existence of Kosovo.
If Serbia cannot, due to its internal reasons, recognize Kosovo, it can do something else. It can allow capital to pass on the border between Serbia and Kosovo, citizens, companies to pass, economic cooperation to take place, people to have no problems crossing the border, to stabilize, then the solutions will be better.