Category: Serbia

Posts about the culture, events, language, etc. of Serbia.

Kosovo Part I

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Kosovo has been in the Serbian news a lot lately so I wanted to get a bit of historical background on the place. In February they declared independence and that caused protests in Serbia. It is a place of conflict and violence.

Kosovo was the southern part of Serbia. It held 20% of the Serbian population and composed about 12% of its land mass. The area is small compared to the USA, with Kosovo only being ¼ the size of my home of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is actually only a bit bigger than Iron county. The majority (> 90%) of the population is Albanian but many Serbs consider it the “cultural heartland” of the nation and the scene of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, historic battlefields, and other historic sites.

It was my goal in reading Kosovo: A Short History by Noel Malcolm, to learn more about why some Serbs feel so strongly about the place, considering it is now mostly Albanian. The question of Kosovo independence is a touchy subject with Serbs and this particular book caused many ill-feelings with the Serbs. It is not my place to form an opinion this question and I will read more on Kosovo.  I can say it is sad to have had so much death and hate in the breakup of Yugoslavia. This is the last bit of it. The topic of Kosovo will come up in conversation with my future Serb friends and I do want to visit the place to see it for myself, so some background on the area will not hurt.

In general, I disagree with the former US president Woodrow Wilson regarding his view on independence movements. When the great powers were deciding the fate of nations and peoples after World War I, he had the philosophy that if an area was mostly homogeneous in regards to ethnicity, that they should have self-determination. That sounds nice, but the world is more complex than that. I see that a strength of the USA is the union of many different kinds of people to form one unified government and more importantly, one economy. Personally, I believe that standard of living takes precedence over everything and it is nicer to live in a bigger economy. There are more opportunities to earn a living and have a better home and lifestyle for individual families. I am not sure that this movement of smaller and smaller nations is beneficial in this regard.

I am mix of Slovak and Polish descent. I am a “pan-Slavist” and wish that the Slavs would have banded together from the beginning to form one country. They would have had a better standard of living and wielded more power in defending themselves against larger outside powers like the Ottomans and the Nazis. According to Wikipedia there are 320 million Slavs. Imagine if Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia along with the Slavs of  former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria formed one country. It would also be more powerful than current European heavyweights, Germany and France.

As I move through the book, I’ll blog more about what I am learning.

Michael Totten Blogs About Belgrade

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“I initially thought the former Yugoslavia might be a bit far afield from my usual beat in the Middle East, but the more time I spent there, the less I thought so. The troubles that wrack that part of the world really are identical to many of those in the Middle East. This should not be surprising. Most of Europe’s Balkan peninsula belonged to the Turkish Ottoman Empire and was cut off from the West and rest of Europe for hundreds of years. The peoples of Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Prishtina belonged to the same political entity as most of the Arabs for a longer amount of time than the United States has existed as a country. Al Qaeda and like-minded fanatics insist the region will belong to their future caliphate once again.”

““I could live here,” Sean said. I was tempted to agree as I took a swallow of my locally brewed Serbian beer. Belgrade was my kind of place – intriguing and troubled, yet attractive, cultured, and fun.”

Michael Totten, an internet journalist and blogger, recently wrote about his trip to Belgrade. The post is entitled “A Dark Corner of Europe Part I” and it appeared on June 2, 2008. As you can see above, he brings a Middle East perspective to the Balkans. Interesting take on life there. He has some nice photos also. He interviews Belgrade writer, Filip David. Below is the Mr. David with Totten’s friend in front of the Serbian parliament house. This has been the center of Serbian media this month with the long deliberations of between the parties to form a majority government.

Totten is pretty opinionated and the comments on the article are interesting to follow. I will be curious if I agree with his observations after living there.

Serbian President Boris Tadic

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Boris Tadic, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

“Serbia is in urgent need of a government that will, in the next four years, lead it to the EU, and which will continue the battle for territorial integrity, but also a government that will tackle corruption, crime and conduct a socially responsible policy,” the DS leader explained.”

The current Serbian President, Boris Tadic is quoted above in yesterday’s B92. He is commenting on the delays in forming a government after the May 11 parliamentary elections. No single party or coalition has a majority so the Socialist Party is having talks with the Radical and Pro-European blocs. No agreement has been reached yet after almost a month.

I did a bit of research on Mr. Tadic and I am quite impressed with his background. He is in his second term as President. He was first elected in 2004 and then again for a five-year term in this past February. He is long time politician having served as the Minister of Telecommunication and Defense before becoming President. He is the leader of the Pro-European Democratic Party (DS).

Both of his parents were university professors. He was born in Sarajevo and grew up moving between Paris and Belgrade in his early childhood. He has a degree in psychology from Belgrade University and has worked as a high school teacher, university professor, and clinical psychologist. He is fluent in English and French. It is very nice to see a strong intellectual and cosmopolitan background in a president.

Tadic has always been an independent thinker and idealist. He was fired and arrested from his professorship after giving anti-communist lectures. His grandparents were killed by the Croatian, Nazi-backed Ustase so he must have very strong feelings against oppression of dissent.

He took the following oath during his inauguration ceremony:

I swear that I will invest all my efforts in the preservation of sovereignty and integrity of the territory of the Republic of Serbia, including Kosovo and Metohija as its integral part, as well as the realization of human and minority rights and freedoms, observation and defense of the Constitution and laws, preservation of peace and welfare of all Serbian citizens and that I will fulfill all my duties conscientiously and responsibly.

From what I have learned so far, he seems like a smart, hard-working, and decent fellow. As almost everyone does, he has his own web site although it is only in Serbian cyrillic.

Serbia & the European Union

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EU Flag, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

On April 29, 2008, Serbia signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union (EU). This has caused much debate in Serbian politics. I keep seeing the different parties mentioning the SAA and so I did a bit of research about it. Here is what I found.

The 27-member country European Union (EU) has a Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) with countries in or near Europe that are not part of the EU. One of the countries involved in this process is Serbia. Serbia has been identified by the EA as a “potential candidate country” and some leaders in Serbia are aiming for EU membership sometime between 2012 and 2015. Part of the SAP is these candidate or potential candidate countries signing Stabilization and Association Agreements with the EU. These are detailed contracts of the relationship between the EU and the country involved.

The agreement is basically the EU offers Serbia tariff-free access to some or all EU markets, and financial and technical assistance. Serbia in return commits to undergoing political, economic, trade, and human rights reforms.

One of the stumbling blocks with signing the SAA was Serbia’s cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The agreement covers a wide range of the economy, law, government, etc. Some aspects of the SAA include:

• EU facilitating visas for Serbs to EU countries
• 164.8 million Euro financial assistance from the EU
• Serbia needs to cut down corruption and have a stronger justice system and constitution
• Civilian oversight of the military
• Better human rights for Roma and other minorities, women, children, prisoners, etc.
• More protected freedom of expression in media and citizens
• Stopping of ethnic violence
• Serbia have friendlier relations with neighboring countries
• Fight against organized crime
• Lower inflation and have a market economy
• Fight trafficking in human beings

Most of these “demands” by the EU are characteristics of a modern functioning state that is trying to do the best for its people. I understand the viewpoint of some in Serbia that they are losing some autonomy. There should also be some historical resentment of larger powers dictating the affairs of Serbia. For hundreds of years, Serbia was controlled by the Ottoman Turks and the Austro-Hungarian empires. Other Great Powers from time to time also have interfered with Serbia like Germany and Russia. I haven’t read enough about the International Tribunal to make a comment on it. I know there is resentment and calls of unfairness from Serbs regarding this. That will be a future post for me.

I would think however, that economic factors take precedence over this. Economic prosperity for my family is important and it probably is for most Serbian families. Serbians for hundreds of years have benefited by being close to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Many became rich merchants in trade with the Empire, mostly selling pigs for AHE consumption. In fact the royal families of Serbia started that way. Serbia has taken steps this century to open their markets. Many older Serbians were hurt with these reforms because they live on pensions from the old communist government of Yugoslavia. Some politicians in the radical bloc are not in agreement with these reforms and further economic integration with the EU. They seem to offer Russia as an alternative. I would think the French, Germans, etc. would be better consumers of Serbian products than the Russians.

The question of what kind of relationship Serbia will have with the EU is looming large over the country. It will be interesting to see how it will go. Here is a link to a B92 interview with EU spokesperson Christina Gallach about the SAA agreement.

Understanding Serbian Politics (Or At Least Trying To…)

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Hvala from Boris Tadic, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

The past month I have been following Serbian politics on Blic, B92, and various blogs trying to make some sense of it. This post is my current understanding of it and I am sure it will change as I learn more, especially when I move to Belgrade in July.

On May 13, 2008, the country held parliamentary elections. In order to form a government, a political party needs to have 126 of the 250 seats (over 50%) of the seats in parliament. No single party won that many, so coalitions are forming among parties to try to get to the 126 necessary seats. The big issues in this election are defining the relationship of Serbia with the European Union (EU) and the country’s reaction to the Kosovo declaration of independence.

It looks like the winning side won by a touchdown, as the SRS-DSS-NS-SPS-JS-PUPS coalition won 128 seats vs. the losing side, DS-LDP-Minority Parties coalition won 122 seats.

Those acronyms are the political parties with candidates running for parliamentary seats. Even though there are lots of different parties, they seem to fall in one of two philosophical camps. Being an American, I am thinking of it as “red state” versus “blue state” dichotomy. In the US, the higher income, more diverse states like California, New York, and my home state of Michigan, vote liberal, democratic, while the red states vote conservative, republican party. In terms of population, it is about 50/50 for each side which happened this election in Serbia.

The Serbian “Blue State” people would support the Pro-EU bloc. This is the philosophy that Serbia needs to be part of the European Union to improve its economy and the well-being of its citizens. This is also the side that seems less bothered about losing a big part of their country (Kosovo). The “Blue Team” consists of mainly the Democratic Party (DS), which had the single most votes of any single party. They won 39% or 102 seats. They state they want EU integration and to “defend Kosovo,” which I am a little unclear on, but more on that later. The DS is the party of current Serbian President Boris Tadic and a thank you message from his web site is featured above. He believes in a free market economy and is very pro-EU. He has been pushing for further EU integration and signed a controversial agreement with the EU for a road map for Serbian membership. There are two other “blue state” parties in Serbia. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP-it helps to memorize them to keep everyone straight) won 13 seats (5%) and they are the only party to support an independent Kosovo. The final “blue state” party is a coalition of minorities in Serbia. The minority parties are as follows:

– The Bosniak List for European Sandzak – 2 seats 1% These are the Muslims in the Sandzak region.

– The Hungarian Coalition – 4 seats 2% (must be in the Vojvodina region)

– The Coalition of Albanians of the Presevo Valley 1 seat

That gives a total of 122 seats for the pro EU or blue side. I am not sure if they ever tried to form a coalition or not.

The “Red States” of Serbia are the Radical Bloc. They believe that Serbia was humiliated with the loss of Kosovo. They also seem to lean more to Russia than that the EU although they have not clearly defined what they want to do about Kosovo or about EU membership. The red or radical bloc is led by Serb Radical Party (SRS) that won the second most seats of a single party at 78 seats (29%). They are “ultra-nationalist” and the president of the party is currently in the Hague on trial for war crimes.

The other “red” party is the Democratic Party of Serbia coalition with the New Serbia party (DSS-NS). They won 30 seats (12%) in the May parliament election. They are the sworn enemies of the DS. The red states or radical bloc had a total of 108 seats, not enough to form a government.

Outside of the Red State vs. Blue State paradigm is the ultimate in political acronyms. They are the independent bloc and are a coalition of several socialist parties. The first is the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) that was founded by Slobodan Milosevic. They won 20 seats (8%). They formed a coalition with United Serbia (JS) and the Associated Pensioners Party (PUPS). That would make this bloc the SPS-JS-PUPS. The interesting point is that the coalition won 20 seats (8%). They would make the difference.

If the Pro-EU bloc could get them to form a government with them, that would mean they would have a total of 142 seats. If the Radical bloc could woo them to their side, they would have 128 seats, two more than the necessary 126 seats. The socialists held talks with both sides, and recently decided to go with the radicals. They seem to have a philosophy more in line with them. The details will be hashed out next week.

What does this all mean for Serbia? There is much speculation, but most commentators think it will be doom and gloom for the Serbian people, as William Montgomery write:

“The new government, probably with the Socialists in the lead, will undo some of the market-driven changes put in over the past seven years. Moreover, they will use the 10 billion euro foreign currency reserves to finance infrastructure projects, probably raise pension payments, and pay the cost of subsidies in order to demonstrate that their policies are better for Serbia. Western foreign investment will dry up in the face of the economic policy changes and the raised political risk of investment in Serbia.

Two or three years (at most) down the road, Serbians will find that inflation is far higher; the dinar far less stable and decreasing in value; and foreign currency reserves far lower. The situation will only continue to deteriorate from then on. The thought that Russian investors will offset all of the above flies in the face of reality. Other than a few high-profile projects, such as the acquisition of NIS in a “sweetheart deal,” high-quality investment that actually helps to build the Serbian economy will be very rare indeed.”

Or as Jonathon Davis writes,

“At worst we could see a unified Nationalist bloc with a tiny parliamentary majority drag a liberalising and increasingly European orientated Serbia into the Russian fold and return the country to the isolation and pariah status that it suffered in the 1990s.”

I really can’t state an opinion because I am still learning about the situation.

Learning Serbian Cyrillic

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Nadia, Owen, and I are going through the “Teach Yourself Serbian” language course by Vladislava Ribnikar and David Norris. We are first concentrating on the alphabet – letter recognition and sounds. Nadia is putting into play her experience as a kindergarten teacher. That is what she does, teach children a new language, English in our school. She loves the Jolly Phonics program, which is a British phonics system of learning the 40 basic sounds of the English language. Nadia made a “Serbian Jolly Phonics” packet for Owen and I. We have flash cards, posters, and put the lessons on our iPods to try to absorb the language. The opportunity to learn new languages is one of the nicest things in living abroad. I learned Spanish in my long time in working in Latin America. Our family speaks “Spanglish” a mix of Spanish and English in the home. Spanish has given me a better understanding of the grammar of English and a different way of looking at the world.

Serbian offers many challenges, the first being two alphabets. Serbia has always been at the crossroads of East and West and this is reflected with the two alphabets. Belgrade and the south of the country belonged to the Istanbul-looking Ottoman Empire for centuries, while Novi Sad and the north was controlled by the Vienna-looking Austrian Hungarian Empire. Serbian’s original alphabet is Cyrillic. This letter system is over 1000 years old and was adapted by Bulgarian priests from the Greek alphabet. Some of the Greek symbols remain or remnants of them. Cyrillic is named after St. Cyril, a Greek Byzantine Missionary who brought Christianity to the Slavic people in the 800’s. Below is a picture of Cyril and his brother Methodius, holding up the Cyrillic script. The script is strongly associated with the Orthodox or Byzantine Christian Church, as the Bulgarian priests who developed it, did so in order to put the Bible and church documents into a language for the Slavs. It is telling that the Croats, who went with the Roman Catholic Church instead of an Eastern Orthodox Church, now only use a Latin alphabet.

Today, variations of Cyrillic is used by over 50 languages, including the Slavic countries of Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Macedonia. I finally now understand what the CCCP meant on the uniforms of the Soviet athletes in the Olympics of the 1970’s and 80’s. In Cyrillic, the “C” represents the “s” sound and the “P” represents the “r” sound.

Saints Cyril & Methodius

Below are some notes to try to help me learn all 30 of the Cyrillic letters. I discovered on my Mac, I can switch among English, Serbian Latin, and Serbian Cyrillic on my key board. Now I now what the US flag in the upper right hand corner is for. Here is my breakdown of the 30 Cyrillic letters and sounds:

Easy Ones – Six have the same shape and sound as in English. To spell the word for strong it would be MET.

А Е К М 0 Т

False Friends- Six look like our English letters, but have a different sound than in English.

Х «throat clearing h»
Н «N»
Р «Rrrr»
С «s»
У «oo»
Ј «y»

В “v”

The remainder are odd with no resemblance to English letters.

The pi symbols – Four look like the Greek letter pi (I am also a former mathematics teacher.)

П This one is «p» sound which makes it easy to remember because p for pi.
Л The pi symbol with a little twist, represents the «L» sound.
Љ Add a loop that looks like a b to make the «ll» sound of «million»
Њ An «H» and a «b» together make the «n» sound in Spanish like Nandu

The three “C’s” – Some of the letters in the Latin Serbian have accent marks. There are three Latinized “C” letters. The Cyrillic equivalent is first and the Latin is second. Frankly, at this point, I don’t hear any difference among the three.

Ц C pronounced like the «ts» in cats
Ћ Ć prounounced like the «t» of tube, but with tongue slightly back.
Ч Č easiest of the three, the «ch» of child

My surname of Kralovec is from the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. The final c is probably one of the three above. I see that many Serbian surnames have the second Ć. I will be using this one to spell my name.

The Three “D’s” – Two of the letters in the Serbian Latin are a take of the letter D.

Ђ Đ The Cyrillic looks too similar to the Ć but the part of the h is curved in at the bottom of the figure. It is pronounced like the «d» in dew but with tongue right behind front teeth
Џ Dz Pronounced like the «j» in judge. The sign looks like football goal posts, like the NY Jets

The actual “D” sound is represented by this Д symbol that looks like a door making it easy to remember for me.

The Rest –

Б This is «B» and it is pretty close to our B.

Г It looks like a small «r» but it is the «g» sound as in goat.

Ф This is phi from the Greek alphabet and its sound is «f»
Ж This is the strangest sign, the double K matches the «s» is pleasure
И The backwards N has the sound «ee» or the Spanish i
Ш The Roman numeral three has the sound of «sh» in shoe

Z My Serbian Cyrillic Mac keyboard will not give me the 3 that represents the sound “z

My favorite Cyrillic letter is Ж. It sounds Slavic and looks exotic.

I will be chronicling my growth in the language. It will probably be boring to read but it helps me reflect on my learning.

Хвала!