I doubt that Joanikije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, did not invite the head of state Milatović to such an important gathering in Kuči. Last summer, the Church, namely, held a memorial service for the first president of the state after the introduction of multi-party politics, the late Momir Bulatović. I hope that the Serbian Orthodox Church will not perceive as heresy the impression that this was also a memorial service for the (Greater) Serbian politics of the 90s and the killing of Yugoslavia, because the organizer of the gathering himself, Metropolitan Joanikije, admitted that what he appreciated most about Momir was that he "preserved his image and the common state" rather than "money and patronage for its destruction."
The current head of state did not attend the memorial service for the first president, although, after taking office, in mid-2023, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Bulatović's death, he claimed, similar to the quoted Joaniki, that Momir "will be remembered as a politician consistent with his views, who did not sell his love for Montenegro for personal and family benefits...".
A year later, fortunately, we listened to an improved version of the president, Jakov 2.0, who understood that politicians "must behave more seriously" and make their decisions "responsibly and in the interest of the state of Montenegro". With these very words, the president commented in disappointment on the behavior of Mandić, Bečić and Spajić regarding the adoption of the Resolution on Jasenovac. Perhaps that is why, in those days, he skipped the memorial service in Kuči, leaving the metropolitan (Joanikije) and the announcer (Andrija) to pay tribute to Bulatović. As a "thinker who pondered planetary themes" (Mićović) and "one of the greatest historical figures of Montenegro" (Mandić).
Milatović knew in 2024 that such populism would be frivolous and irresponsible because the politics that Bulatović served from beginning to end had waged four wars, killed 200 people, displaced two million, and was ultimately tried in The Hague. Fortunately, Momir was only a witness there.
In addition to all that, the head of state had more important business to do at the end of June last year than the memorial service in Kuči. He had to first fly to Brussels, and then urgently call Zagreb, in order to communicate the irrefutable facts to both addresses, to Mišel and Milanović - that the Parliament had more important decisions to adopt than the Resolution on Jasenovac and that that document turned out to be a sad "political trade in both victims and crime".
Already today, in the spring of 2025, the President of the JM thinks about the aforementioned topics a little differently. Now we are looking at Jakov 2023 again, who deserves more praise for Momir as a "consistent and honorable statesman" than criticism of "frivolous and irresponsible politicians" who are causing us to quarrel with our neighbors.
This was also seen these days at the FPN forum, where the head of state re-composed last year's experience with the Jasenovac Resolution, but also, much worse and more dangerously, was very reserved in condemning the Montenegrin invasion of the Dubrovnik region in the early 90s. And all this in the company of the president of the then attacked and occupied country. Milatović was the first to remind FPN that in 2024 he was smart when he assessed the Jasenovac Resolution as "an unnecessary political goal that had no statesmanlike character", only to now add that he also has the same critical attitude towards "some bad statements coming from Croatia on the topic of the Lora camp". What is the "Momirov" relativization of responsibility according to which it turns out - Montenegro should be equally concerned about the irresponsibility and anti-state behavior of its leaders, as well as about the thoughtless or ill-intentioned statements of the foreign minister of a neighboring country!?
Going even further back to the basic version, the head of state goes with his answer to the most important question of the FPN forum - with what moves will Montenegro atone for the misdeeds of the 1990s?!
Milatović 2025, unlike Jakov 2024, now focuses on "our own mistakes, but also on others' mistakes". Which then leads him to the wrong conclusion that "there were no sinless people" in the 30s! In other words, our tanks and howitzers did reach Dubrovnik, burning, looting and killing the people of Konavle, Đukanović did exaggerate when he demanded that we "demarcate the border with the Croats for all time", and Momir did exaggerate with his calls for an "anti-fascist front against the crazed Ustasha", but Pero Poljanić, the then mayor of Dubrovnik, could have surrendered gracefully and not piled up 1991 thousand Zengi on the border with Montenegro! Which is what military commander Kadijević claimed to Momir, according to his later confession and remorse, in 700. And they, Momo and Milo, were naive and believed it! And raised tens of thousands of soldiers and volunteers to very quickly reach the Stradun! Because Konavle and the ancient city were defended by less than XNUMX people, Bulatović himself will admit in the late nineties.
According to today's Milatović, who is always ready to point out "our own mistakes as well as those of others", it turns out that we were wrong with the tens of thousands sent to Dubrovnik, but others were wrong too, in this specific case the Croats, with 700 defenders of their city and country!
However, there is one significant difference between Momir and Jakov, which is in favor of the first president of the new Montenegro. It is easier to believe Bulatović that in 1991 he was misled and pushed into war by the Russian agent Kadijević, than to accept today, 35 years later, the ignorance of the current head of state, who is dragging the recent past in order to flatter the worldview that pushed Montenegro into nationalism, the breakup of Yugoslavia and aggression against its neighbors! Justifying such a crime precisely with such relativizations of responsibility through statements that everyone is guilty and that there are no innocents!
If we add to the aforementioned Milatović's latest and sudden interest in another topic that dominated during the time of the unified DPS, namely the people of Golootočani, and their rehabilitation - then a clear picture emerges of the new course of the head of state, which irresistibly reminds us of the "consistent" policy and attitude of Momir Bulatović. All that is left is for Jakov to revise what he stated in 2024 regarding his national affiliation. "I am an ethnic Montenegrin," the head of state boasted back then, while today he could already, on this occasion, look up to Momir, who long ago learned from grandma Janica that our "name is Montenegrin and our surname is Serbian."
I don't know if Joanikije is planning a new memorial service for the common state of FRY, and Momir Bulatović as one of its founders, but if he wants to make Jakov happy, he could organize such a gathering to mark the ninth anniversary of the death of the last Prime Minister of FRY!
Which falls somewhere on the eve of the 2028 presidential elections. I can already see Milatović in the front row of the memorial service in Kuči, and everything that Joanikije said less than a year ago, presidential candidate JM could repeat then. And that Momir was a planetary thinker and that his image and the common state were the most important.
Because Milatović already thinks so. And he has timidly started selling to us.
Bonus video:
