Mit i tabu

In May, a Kosovo public service journalist received a second reprimand for using the term „Metohija“, which was interpreted as spreading racial and religious...

Postoje velike razlike u značenju termina Metohija kada ga upotrebljavaju državni zvaničnici Srbije, različite grupe Srba iz centralne Srbije i kada to čine Srbi koji danas žive na Kosovu. Za većinu Srba iz centralne Srbije to je način da iskažu državni suverenitet. Za Srbe sa Kosova, međutim, to je pitanje identiteta, simbolički dokaz da nisu uljezi na zemlji na kojoj žive generacijama. Proganjanje reči Metohija za njih je simbol kontinuiranih pokušaja brisanja srpskog identiteta Kosova, kao što su na primer uporni pokušaji da se srpska kulturna baština preimenuje u vizantijsku. Upotreba reči Metohija je simbolički dokaz da su svoji na svome, da nisu „uljezi“, jer zna se šta se sa uljezima radi.

While following the discussion on the meaning of the name “Metohija,” especially with the recent articles by Petar Ristanović and Agon Maliqi, I felt the need to examine this issue in the broader context of the position of Serbian Orthodox heritage in the region, since the word Metohija and its historical meaning is not a product of recent history. It is rather part of a centuries-old cultural and spiritual tradition, which has been unjustly targeted by political calculations and media manipulation. This is best seen in the recent reaction of the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the book "Christian Heritage in Kosovo and Metohija,” published by the US-based Sebastian Press, which was judged to be a “chauvinist book” without any basis or justification, one which allegedly promotes “ethnic cleansing and territorial claims”

Ime Metohija i Srpska pravoslavna baština u kontekstu odnosa Srba i Albanaca u regionu

In May, a Kosovo public service journalist received a second reprimand for using the term „Metohija“, which was interpreted as spreading racial and religious...

U maju je novinarka javnog servisa Kosova dobila drugu opomenu zbog korišćenja termina „Metohija“ što je u protumačeno kao "širenje rasne i verske netrpeljivosti",...

Nomen est omen: The Albanian-Serb territorial dispute is also a 50 plus years semantics battle

Nomen est omen: Sukob Albanaca i Srba oko teritorije se već više od pola veka vodi i na polju semantike

Recently, a Kosovo public service journalist received a second reprimand for using the term „Metohija“, which was interpreted as spreading racial and religious intolerance,...

Nedavno je novinarka javnog servisa Kosova dobila drugu opomenu zbog korišćenja termina „Metohija“ što je protumačeno kao širenje rasne i verske netrpeljivosti, kao i neprimereno ponašanje unutar RTK. Ovo je samo jedna u nizu sličnih situacija u kojoj reč „Metohija“ decenijama dominantno polarizuje Srbe i Albance, a izostanak javne rasprave o tome učinio je da je sam pojam postao tabu tema i nije jedina reč koja utiče na nerazumevanja dva naroda. U želji da podstaknemo javnu raspravu, KoSSev će u narednom periodu objaviti seriju autorskih tekstova o ovom pitanju.

As Petrit Imami writes in the book "Serbs and Albanians through Centuries," there was a conflict between Albanian quisling-nationalists and anti-fascists during World War II. In response to the abuse of the Prizren League in 1878, in the newspaper KPJ Sloboda (1943), Fadil Hoxha announced: "The peoples of Kosovo and Metohija will organize a conference, perhaps not in Prizren, which will hold more importance than the one in 1878. (Imami, 2016: 469).” This Bujan conference, created as a response to the Second Prizren League, was later contested in CPY circles mostly due to the following sentence: "Kosovo and Dukagjin/Metohija is an area mostly inhabited by the Shiptar people, who today, as always, want to unite with Shipnija (470).”

Nedavno je novinarka javnog servisa Kosova dobila drugu opomenu zbog korišćenja termina "Metohija" što je protumačeno kao širenje rasne i verske netrpeljivosti, kao i...