Heads of State, Parliament and Government Jakov Milatovic, Andrija Mandic (New Serbian Democracy) and Milojko Spajic (Europe Now Movement) are still silent about the statement of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Joanikia that he is a Chetnik commander and a war criminal Pavle Djurišić was "a great hero of invincible character".
Yesterday, they did not answer questions from "Vijesti" about how they view the messages of the head of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (MCP) of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), and whether they consider them historical revisionism and condemn them.
Milatović, Mandić and Spajić are considered politicians close to the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Joanikije served a liturgy on Saturday, May 3, at the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Lijevče Polje, in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity of Republika Srpska (RS), where he said that Đurišić's heroism in the battle there "can be compared to the heroism of Pavle Orlović", and that, "attacked by combined enemy forces", he "suffered a temporary defeat".
"He lost a good part of his army, the greatest and most beautiful heroes who can be compared to Miloš Obilić, Kosančić Ivan, Toplice Milan", right here, in a place called Razboj, and our bloody thug life has lasted for centuries, since Kosovo, the field of blood...", he announced.
"Đurišić is the personification of violence and collaboration"
Historian employed at the Archives of Serbs in Zagreb Milan Radanović He told "Vijesti" that Joaniki's statement represents an unacceptable rehabilitation of a historical figure who played a very negative role during World War II in Yugoslavia and Montenegro, and whose mention even today causes resentment among many residents of Montenegro, but also beyond.
Pavle Đurišić is still, according to him, the personification of Chetnik violence and collaboration. Radanović says that he did not become this way as a victim of propaganda from the victorious side, "that is, his bad reputation is not the result of some fabricated black legend", but, he notes, is an echo of the extremely violent campaigns that the Chetniks conducted under Đurišić's command, especially in January and February 1943.
"Namely, during that period, Đurišić's Chetniks carried out violent raids on most Muslim villages in the Bijelo Polje district, and almost all Muslim villages in the Pljevlja and Priboj districts. During these raids, the local population was indiscriminately killed in all the settlements they raided, all those villages were looted and burned, and all or almost all of the Muslim population that did not flee was killed without mercy. Many victims were killed in an extremely cruel way: through torture, collective burning, and many women were raped. The vast majority of victims in these raids by Đurišić's Chetniks were women and children. The lists of victims in those three districts contain the names of several hundred children up to one or two years old," the source said.
Radanović explains that many Muslim families lost multiple members, often five, six or more members of the household, and that Đurišić is most responsible for these atrocities "because there is no doubt that he ordered them."
"Since they occurred in all the places where his men made incursions, during both operations (both during the January and February operations) and since during February 1943 in the Pljevlja and Priboj districts (and in the border villages in the neighboring Bosnian districts) the same thing that happened in the Bijelo Polje district in January 1943 was repeated," he notes.
Perović: He said that all crimes should be investigated
The MCP did not respond to "Vijesti" about Joanikije's view of Đurišić's cooperation with the occupying forces in World War II.
Priest of the MCP Gojko Perovic he said yesterday, speaking about Joaniki's statement, that the media "transmit and emphasize problematic and ambiguous things, while bypassing the beautiful ones."
"He also spoke about Chetnik crimes, about the need to investigate all crimes," he told "Pobjeda".
In the Berane village of Gornje Zaostro in 2002, a pedestal was erected to Đurišić, and in 2013, a memorial complex, but both were demolished shortly after being erected. The so-called Voivodeship Council of the United Ravna Gora Movement launched an initiative in 2017 to erect monuments to Đurišić in Berane and Zaostro, and in 2019, he is the current Deputy Prime Minister. Budimir Aleksic (New Serbian Democracy), and then a member of parliament, called Dragoslav Šćekić (Socialist People's Party), at that moment the first man of Berane, that the municipality erect a monument to the Chetnik duke.
In August 2022, the Bishop of Budimlje-Nikšić Methods He held a memorial service in Zaostra for Đurišić and the leader of the Chetnik movement. Dragoljub Mihailović.
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Joanikije also said at the liturgy in Lijevče Polje that in the battle in that place "the great hero Pavle Đurišić" found himself in a difficult position, because "at that moment he had the people, the weak, the sick and the wounded, on one side", and on the other Sekula Drljević, "with whom he should negotiate".
"All the suffering of the people fell on his shoulders... Sekula Drljević persuaded such a hero to enter into negotiations, because there was no other way to defeat Pavle. He would have fought no matter how much he had, even with his wings cut off and despite the many losses of his army, but he thought that he would save the people, the weak, women, children and the elderly at all costs...", he stated.
Milan Radanović says that Joaniki's statement is a continuation of similar statements by senior representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro regarding their interpretation of World War II. He reminds us that similar statements were made by the previous metropolitan, Amphilophia, as well as the current bishop of Budimlje-Nikšić.
"The Chetniks are their historical favorites, regardless of the indelibly bloody mark they left in history and regardless of the shameful mark of collaboration. Such statements cause damage not only to Montenegrin society, which is burdened by various political and, especially sensitive, identity divisions, but also to the church itself," the interlocutor states.
PES would not talk about "divisions", Democrats about the positions of religious communities
Most of the ruling parties close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Europe Now Movement (PES), New Serbian Democracy and the Democratic People's Party, did not respond to "Vijesti" on how they interpret Ioanniki's statement, or whether they condemn it and consider it revisionism.
President of the PES Women's Association Jovana Dragović She stated yesterday in the show "Colors of the Morning" on Television Vijesti that "the divisions into Partisans and Chetniks after 80 years can only suit those who ruled on those divisions for 30 years."
The Democrats told Vijesti that they do not comment on the positions of religious communities, adding that they have not done so before. They said that this is a matter of MCP autonomy, and that they "deeply respect the principle of separation of religious and state structures."
"As a political entity, we have never spoken positively about any individual from different time periods, ideological, religious, political, national parties, to whom any crime is attributed. Montenegro does not need a hierarchy of victims or perpetrators. It needs the truth, expressed with one yardstick, for everyone," they said.
The Socialist People's Party (SNP) told the newspaper that they did not want to comment on Ioanniki's statement.
The strongest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Socialists, condemned Joaniki's glorification of Đurišić, stating that it was "an insult to the victims of fascism" and a continuation of attempts to rewrite history.
The message from the Civic Movement URA was on a similar note, while the Bosniak Party MP Kenana Strujić Harbić stated that the ideology that tries to "make role models and heroes out of villains is poor, unscrupulous, immoral and doomed to failure."
President of the Social Democratic Party Ivan Vujović He said that he is "the biggest promoter of the criminal ideology of ethnic cleansing, along with Draža", for Joanikij he is a hero, and from the Party of European Progress the former prime minister Duško Marković pointed out that celebrating Đurišić is "a direct attack on the constitutional order."
Radanović: Plenty of evidence of Đurišić's responsibility for crimes
Milan Radanović said that, in addition to the violent campaigns of January and February 1943, some documents of Chetnik origin also testify to Đurišić's command responsibility.
"For example, on February 8, 1943, Đurišić issued an order to the commanders of Chetnik units in the field, which contained the following sentence: 'Draw the attention of the officers to the security of the Drina River, and in addition issue an order for individual units to patrol the surrounding terrain and destroy all Muslim population they encounter,'" the source states.
He further states that on February 11, 1943, Đurišić issued an order to the commanders of all JVuO (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland) units that took part in the February operation entitled "Cleaning and organizing the occupied territory in the final action". In the introductory part of the order, Đurišić, according to Radanović, emphasizes that he issued the order, among other things, "in order to carry out the organization in that territory and destroy the last remnants of Muslims".
"In the continuation of the document, Đurišić repeats a similar formulation: 'To make the most energetic effort to completely cleanse all occupied territories of Muslims as soon as possible.' Both documents are kept in the Military Archives in Belgrade and are well-known in historiography. Shortly after Đurišić's second order, troops under his command returned from Podrinje to the Priboj and Pljevlja districts and began raids on villages that they had passed by in the initial part of the operation, but they also began the pursuit of Muslim civilian escapees. In these circumstances, outside of combat operations, the largest number of Muslims were killed in the Priboj district during February 1943," the interlocutor notes.
He states that, since he was investigating Chetnik crimes in the Priboj district during the February operation, in some villages a triple-digit number of residents were killed, which, he notes, meant a permanent demographic catastrophe for some of those villages.
"The villages were also economically destroyed because they were looted and burned. Their residents returned to their homeland only after the war ended," he adds.
Radanović also recalls the "well-known" Đurišić report to Draža from February 13, 1943, "which some pro-Chetnik historians and researchers have unsuccessfully tried to dispute". In that report, says Radanović, Đurišić states the following: "During the operations, the complete destruction of the Muslim population was undertaken, regardless of gender and age. Victims. Our total victims were 22 dead, two of whom were in an accident, and 32 wounded. On the Muslim side, about 1.200 fighters and up to 8.000 other victims: women, the elderly and children."
"Although the numbers of those killed are exaggerated compared to the real number, this document represents confirmation of Đurišić's command responsibility for that terrible and well-planned crime. Đurišić sent a similar report, with more realistic numbers of killed Muslims, to Mihailović after the end of the January operation in the Bijelo Polje district. Both of these documents also point to the responsibility of General Mihailović," the historian underlines.
He states that another important element of Pavle Đurišić's negative historical role is his military collaboration with the Italian and German occupiers. This, he claims, is well documented in Italian and German sources, and he adds that a number of historians have written about it, based on "occupation provenance sources", starting with Radoje Pajović and up to, more recently, Milutin Živković.
According to him, that segment of Đurišić's biography and historical responsibility is not denied even by those who carry out his historical and social rehabilitation, "although they almost always trivialize the collaboration with the Italians and ignore the collaboration with the Germans."
"Forces under Đurišić's command were supplied with weapons, ammunition, war equipment and other supplies by the occupiers for the majority of the war - for the purposes of waging the fight against the partisan movement. This not only committed the ethical violation of cooperating with the occupier who committed atrocities against the population of Montenegro and Yugoslavia - some of the most brutal crimes of the Italian and German occupiers on the territory of Yugoslavia took place precisely in Montenegro - but also enabled the occupier to remain in a strategically important area for as long as possible," Radanović concludes.
Veljković: A person with character would not cooperate with the occupier
Belgrade-based religious analyst Vladimir Veljković assessed Joaniki's statement as revisionist, saying that it is not clear why Đurišić is a "hero", when, he claims, it should be known that he did not distinguish himself in the fight against the occupiers, but against members of other nations and the national liberation movement.
"A person with character would certainly not cooperate with the occupier, nor would he commit war crimes, as Đurišić did," he told "Vijesti".
When asked why messages like Joaniki's and similar ones continue to come from the Serbian Orthodox Church, Veljković replied that "anti-communism serves as a justification for cooperation between the clergy and the new classes that possess power and finances."
"Many temples were built with dubiously acquired capital. And that didn't happen during the communist era," Veljković said.
Cleansing of "Ustaše" and "evil communist thoughts"
The statement about Pavle Đurišić is one of a series of controversial ones made by Joanikije in the last few years.
Shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the head of the MCP claimed that these events were "the result of godlessness" and that Montenegro was designed to be a "little Ukraine."
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In July of that year, he announced that Montenegro should be cleansed of "Ustaše" and "evil communist thought," and that "many similarities can be found" between communists and Nazis...
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