The Kosovo Crisis (Part Two), A General Historical Overview

Though history may not determine behavior today, it helps to explain it. According to historian John Cox, the single most important date in Serbian history is June 28, 1389. That was the day of the Battle of Kosovo. On that day the Christian armies of Serbia lost Kosovo fought the Muslim armies of the Ottoman Sultan to a standstill. In doing so they protected Europe from further Ottoman invasion, but lost Kosovo to the Turks. Cox writes that the events of that June day more than six hundred years ago have come to define the Serbs’ identity and mission as a people.

History in Eastern Europe and the Balkans is much closer and plays a greater role in memory and daily life than in the west. A friend of mine from the Eastern Ukraine tells me that people in her village still recount with terror the horrors that Genghis Khan wrought upon them.

When I studied Russian history as an undergraduate I read in a number of sources and was told by my professor that Russians are still very conscious of the conquest of their land by the Tatars. The best known of this conquest is The Lay of Igor’s Campaign, which was written by a monastic chronicler. This account explains that at the time of the Mongol invasion the ruling princes of Russia refused to unite against their common foe and instead fought amongst themselves. This internal discord allowed the “infidels from all lands to invade the Russian land and to win victory.” From that moment on the Russians decided that they must have a strong ruler at all costs. The liberty of each prince and person to do as they pleased led to slavery. Russia must unite under even a tyrant in order to stay free.

I always thought the importance of this historical event was overestimated until I traveled to Russia and talked to people myself. I asked the people I met what they thought of President Putin. The overwhelming majority of the people I talked to loved and supported him (empirical data supports this as well, in December of 2007 Putin’s United Russia Party swept Russia’s last election, gaining six times more votes than the second closest party). I asked the people of Russia what they thought about the way Putin has undermined democratic institutions, expelled international organizations, and curtailed the rights of the press. They were well aware of these things, but were not bothered by them. Over and over I got the same response: Russia is a great and enormous land and it must be ruled by a strong leader or it will be divided and it will fall. They continued by stating, the last time we were divided the Tatars enslaved us. Putin is strong; he will keep us united and safe.

I was amazed. I was surprised and astonished that many modern Russians base their support and inform their votes from an event that took place eight-hundred years ago. I can’t imagine Englishmen basing their vote or support on Prime Minister Brown from their memory and interpretation of the Norman invasions. I doubt many Italians worry about falling into a collection of autonomous republics if they don’t vote a certain way. And yet, so important was the Mongol attack that Russians continue to reference it.

Seeing clearly the importance history is this region of the world we must keep in mind that the Battle of Kosovo is no less significant to the Serbs than the Tatar invasion is for the Russians. While history does not determine the present or the future, it plays a far greater role in these societies than it does in the west. So great in fact that it is hard for us to really understand history’s significance for these people.

Keeping this understanding of history in mind we may continue with our brief historical overview. Next we will consider the importance of Kosovo to the Serbian people.

Kosovo is the heartland of Serbia: the focus of statehood, religion, and culture. Thousands of churches and monasteries were built there and it is the seat of the Patriarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church. There are four Patriarchy seats in the Orthodox Church: one in Russia, one in Greece, one in Syria, and one in Kosovo. Each Patriarch is the head of his respective church; no one has authority above him. For the Serbs the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church is vested with the same authority and respect as the Catholics treat the Pope. Kosovo, the seat of their church, is just as holy as the Vatican to Catholics and Jerusalem to the Jews.

Think of how the Jews would feel if the Palestinians, with the backing of the international community, drove them out of Jerusalem and proceeded to desecrate their holy sights. Think of the outrage there would be in the Catholic community if members of another religion expelled the Bishop of Rome from the Vatican and destroyed St. Peter’s Cathedral. Both cases would mark a significant loss to both peoples. When considering the Serbian loss of Kosovo we must keep these analogies in mind. Kosovo is no less significant to the Serbs than Jerusalem to the Jews and the Vatican to the Catholics. It represents a loss of the greatest magnitude.

After the loss of 1389, Kosovo became the light at the end of the tunnel for the Serbs: someday Serbia would reclaim it and celebrate a return to freedom and greatness. Kosovo became the central driving force behind the numerous Serbian rebellions throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule.

Not only did the Serbs lose Kosovo, they lost their political liberty as well. For the Serbs the year 1389 became synonymous with a loss of freedom and brutal enslavement at the hands of an ethnically and religiously alien people, the Turks.

The administration of the Ottoman Empire grouped people together on the basis of religion. Believing that they had to conquer people to show them the strength (and thereby the truth) of Islam, the Turks refused to offer Jews and Christians equal rights. This inequality of treatment led to brutal exploitation. Serbian woman were routinely forced into prostitution, and the Ottoman’s imposed an atrocious blood tax on the Christians of the Balkans. This child levy, known as devširme, involved the taking of Balkan children away from their parents to be raised in the Islamic/Turkish culture of Istanbul.

This harsh oppression led to constant uprisings, which were met with brutal reprisals. In 1804 there was one such large uprising. The Sultan responded with a Jihad and won. To deter future rebellions he slaughtered many men and sold woman and kids into slavery. He also employed routine searches, beatings, and torture to keep the native population in check.

In The Brothers Karamazov Ivan and Alyosha discuss the oppression of the Serbs by the Ottomans. Ivan says he heard of Turks nailing people by their ears to fences and leaving them there overnight, only to hang them in the morning. Further, these same Turks outraged countless women, murdered innocent men, and burned villages wholesale in order to prevent an uprising. Ivan concludes by saying that when we classify this behavior as beastly, we insult the animal world for only man is cruel enough to think of these things.

The centuries of Ottoman oppression finally came to an end when the Allies defeated the Ottoman Empire in World War One. Serbia gained its independence for but a moment; within a generation it was subsumed into communist Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia broke apart at the end of the twentieth century. During this time Serbia had a civil war in which NATO chose to intervene. This event set the groundwork for the partition of Kosovo from Serbia, so it must be treated with some depth.