Kosovo je Srbija

"Kosovo je Srbija" (Serbian: Косово је Србија, English: Kosovo is Serbia) is a slogan used in Serbia since at least 2004,^[1][2] popularised as a reaction to Kosovo's^[a] declaration of independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008.^[3] The slogan has been used by a series of protests, and by the Serbian Government.^[4] The slogan has appeared on T-shirts and in graffiti, and was placed on the websites of Kosovan institutions by hackers in 2009.^[5]

Protests

• A Kosovo je Srbija rally organized by the Serbian government was held on 21 February 2008 in Belgrade in front of the Parliament, with around 200,000^[6][7]-500,000^[8] people attending. The US Embassy was set on fire by a small group of protesters.^[9] A small protest also occurred in London^[10] and 5,000 protesters demonstrated in Kosovska Mitrovica the following day.^[6] Kosovo police were injured during a protest by 150 war veterans at a border crossing on 25 February.^[11]
• In March 2008, American-born Serbian swimmer Milorad Čavić won the European championship in the 50m butterfly, setting the new European record, a result briefly quashed when the European Swimming Federation (LEN) disqualified the swimmer for wearing a T-shirt at the medals ceremony that read “Kosovo is Serbia” in Cyrillic.^[12] Shortly afterwards the disqualification was lifted and recognition of his record reinstated.
• Violent protests using the slogan occurred in Montenegro after the government recognised the independence of Kosovo in October 2008.^[13]
• Similar protests were held in the Greek and Russian capitals of Athens and Moscow, respectively.

Serbian media campaign

Solidarity - Kosovo is Serbia (Serbian: Солидарност - Косово је Србија) is a media campaign in Serbia started by Petar Petković in the final months of the negotiations over Kosovo and organized with the participation of twenty-five notable Serbian public figures, among them: Bata Živojinović, Svetlana Bojković, Dragan Bjelogrlić, Sergej Trifunović, Dragan Jovanović, Bora Đorđević, Đorđe David, Miki Jevremović, Slađana Milošević, Merima Njegomir, and Emir Kusturica.^[14][15]

Response outside Serbia

Andrea R. Nagy noted that "In some sense this slogan is true: Kosovo's town of Peć is the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church; Kosovo's monasteries hold the relics of 14th-century Serbian saints; Kosovo's "Field of Blackbirds" marks the place where Serbs lost their influence in the region. Kosovo is considered by Serbs to be the heart of their country, central to their history and sense of nationality. Nevertheless, a Serbian Kosovo remains as elusive as a mirage, because in fact it has been part of Serbia for only brief periods in Balkan history. Although the Kosovo conflict was aroused by a complex mix of political, economic, and religious causes, to some extent Serbian aggression was an attempt to recover a part of Christian Europe that had been lost for centuries."^[16]"

Oxford historian Noel Malcolm responded to the slogan "Kosovo is Serbia, ask any historian" on placards at protests in Brussels by stating that "the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue". He notes that "legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one."^[17]

Notes and references

Notes:

References:

External links

• Kosovo je Srbija site (French)
• Kosovo is Serbia