Friday, January 6 - It is Christmas Day, one of the rare times of the year when the appearance of church dignitaries in the secular media is not only appropriate but also quite regular.
Is this real, I caught myself reading the beginning of Metropolitan Joaniki's Christmas epistle with trepidation. I've kind of missed him these past five months, since the Basic Treaty pacified both him and his Serbian Orthodox Church.
I was carried away by the melodious sermon, I didn't even register that it was already midnight...
And then all available pyrotechnics exploded on Zabjelo...
* * *
Saturday, January 7 - My picture of the pacified Metropolitan Ioaniki went to the lagum, halfway through the letter. The man returned to the factory settings and started talking about the "crusading history... on which the spiritual being of Montenegro is founded."
Well done, I guess he meant the Christian part of her foundations, he will consider other important parts of her spiritual being in the sequel...
Unfortunately, it didn't. And not only did he reduce the entire Christian part of the foundation to Orthodoxy, but he also attributed the entire Orthodox spiritual tradition to one people.
- The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro will continue to be with its people in the future, as it has been so far - the metropolitan decided in the singular.
That the Serbian Church considers only Serbs to be its people is understood both from its name and from the laws of its home state.
And that's fine, and that's the way it should be.
However, it is not right to mean Orthodoxy only to Saints and to mean Serbs and Montenegrins.
For this occasion, it was understood that the late Metropolitan Amfilochia should be mentioned in the epistle.
There was room in it for the long-deceased Serbian patriarch and for the living Bishop of Kosovo, but not for the Archbishop of Cetinje, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Exarch of the Holy Throne of Pec, on the throne of the Metropolitan Zeta of Montenegro and the Littoral from 1990 to 2020.
Even the symbolic coincidence that Metropolitan Amfilohije was born on Christmas did not motivate his successor to at least mention his name in the Christmas message.
Amfilochius' legacy was not even possible because it was not heard even when the SPC deleted it as if it had never existed.
After his death, the Episcopal Council in Montenegro was abolished in one day, then the common name of all dioceses - the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, as well as all of Amphiloch's titles except the metropolitan one.
If they could, they would have abolished it during their lifetime, as early as 2006. Because of the attempt to, as he himself said, "adjust the status of Miitropolia to the new circumstances after the restoration of state independence".
That's probably why the Orthodox High School got the name "Sveti Sava". If the omission of the prefix "Serbia" would not even accidentally revive the memory of the legacy of Metropolitan Amfilohi.
Or, God forbid, encouraged believers to ask why that school does not bear his name...
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Sunday, January 8 - It is not even known how the inspired authors came up with the latest version of "Oj svijetla majska zoro", but it really is a poster...
I admit, I felt a kind of warmth around my heart, when the mass of believing Serbian people boasted of their status in Montenegro:
"You are the only one for freedom, / You are the rest of the Serbian race"...
What are you - are you...
* * *
Monday, January 9 - Those Montenegrin leaders who violated the Constitution of Montenegro at least four times between the two birthdays of Christ came to defend the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Aside from the fact that the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina violated both their Constitution and our Constitution - not only four times in one, but two whole years - by inappropriately interfering in the internal affairs of Montenegro and by inadmissibly insulting its former, and especially the current, Prime Minister.
Today's story is also open from the end of the thin. It goes without saying that ministers from Montenegro, or any other country, have no place at any meeting, on any occasion, in any part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or any other country, if that country considers it at all inappropriate, let alone a violation of the Constitution .
I understand that the note of protest to Prime Minister Dritan Abazović was not, as required by interstate protocol, sent by his colleague Zoran Tegeltija, who represents Republika Srpska in the Council of Ministers, but by his deputy Bisera Turković from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I also understand her harsh warning that "this act can absolutely damage interstate relations"... As well as the announcement that she will be satisfied if Prime Minister Abazović says "I am not behind it"...
And he said, but it didn't satisfy me. And that is precisely because of the country whose minister Bisera Turković is, and especially because of the majority population of the entity he comes from.
The 27th year has passed since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, and neither this Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor any before it, saw fit not to warn, but only to ask at least one question to one of the eight Montenegrin governments.
How much is Montenegro to blame for the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because of which one part of it now not only "celebrates an unconstitutional holiday", but "tends to secede"...
That holiday was founded exactly 30 years ago, on January 9, 1993. On that day, the Council for Harmonization of Views on State Policy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia met.
Prime Minister Đukanović said "that over time the conditions will be created for Republika Srpska to join Montenegro, Serbia and Republika Srpska Krajina".
That's what the transcripts from the session say.
And what does Đukanović say next?
- In the state-building sense, we have an almost optimal result in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When I say "almost optimal result", then I guess it is not disputed that we are satisfied with the territories we hold there. It is almost optimal due to the fact that we have not yet realized the ultimate goal - to make it an integral part of the common state!
He presented the details of how to achieve that ultimate goal four years later.
- Don't let Momir Bulatović protect Serbia from me! The government that I lead had to help the Serbian people in Herzegovina and Republika Srpska for years, secretly from Slobodan Milošević and Momir Bulatović, when they decisively and heartlessly lowered the ramp - Đukanović was proud of his contribution to the fight to kill Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Serbian entity has been grateful to him for years, the help to the Army of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić was also discussed in Strasbourg, before the European Court of Human Rights.
- I can't forget the help that Milo Đukanović and his government gave to the RS Army and the Serbian people, and that in the moments when Slobodan Milošević imposed sanctions on us - testified ten years ago Momčilo Mandić.
He was so grateful that he also provided topographical details.
- The fuel for our tanks, which fought from Foča, through Srebrenica to Bihać and beyond, was sent by Milo Đukanović. Who knows what would have happened to Republika Srpska if that help had not been there - the former RS justice minister testified under oath.
But the military government has been repeating for decades that Montenegro did not participate in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all?
In vain, the grateful war minister of the Serbian entity denied that lie as well.
- We must not forget the volunteers who were encouraged and equipped by the Government of Montenegro. Nor that our brothers from Nikšić helped in the liberation of Foča, and the people of Pljevlja together with the mayor of the municipality liberated Goražde!
In Foca, before the war, Bosniaks made up half of the 35.000 inhabitants. Now there are ten percent of the total of 18.000.
So much for the "liberation" for which Montenegro is responsible.
And about BiH's silence on that topic.
And about the then inhabitants of Montenegro.
Of which, more than a quarter of a century ago, less than a quarter condemned the mass "visit" of Montenegrin warriors to the Bosniaks and the genocide against them, after which the entity called the RS was formed.
And now they are massively scandalized over the peacetime participation of two ministers in the celebration of the holiday, which was also attended by the Head of State of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That participation, lest it be forgotten, followed only after the congratulations of the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, addressed to "His Excellency Mr. Milorad Dodik"...
By the way, to the entity president, to whom I hereby express my great gratitude for promptly disclosing the congratulation...
* * *
Tuesday, January 10 - It was announced, but a month late, what the officials of the Democratic Front said at the session of the Committee of the Serbian Parliament for Diaspora and Serbs in the region.
And that's good, the truth - whatever it may be - is better known late than never.
And this one is very bad for DF. If Nebojša Medojević intends to continue to be proud of the civic character of his movement, and Milan Knežević, Predrag Bulatović and others of the partisan tradition of their families.
It is very dangerous for Montenegro. Because it gives a wind at the back of the rare and weak Montenegrin nationalists who do not accept the fact that for 30 years Montenegro is not "the state of Montenegrins and others who live in it", but of all its citizens...
And for all Serbs in Montenegro, it is - catastrophic. When the strongest ruling coalition tells them that their home country is Serbia, it means that the Serbian people are applying for the status of a national minority in Montenegro...
When the views of Serbian officials that "our people in Montenegro are abroad" are silenced, then this not only means not recognizing its state status, but also recognizing the status of refugees from Serbia for all Serbs in Montenegro...
Wasn't that the intention?
I believe, but the representatives of Serbs from Krajina certainly did not have bad intentions when they asked for support from the Serbian regime in 1991.
Even the representatives of the Serbs from Kosovo did not intend to get Hashim Tachi and Aljbin Kurti instead of Azem Vlasi and Kaćuša Jašari, let alone Ramuš Haradinaj...
But, with good intentions, the road that no one in Montenegro wishes for anyone is often paved...
Bonus video:
