A series of xenophobic incidents against Turkish citizens in several Montenegrin cities has shown that the lessons from one of the more tragic events of the 1990s on the territory of Montenegro - the persecution of Roma from Danilovgrad - have not been learned.
According to documents from the United Nations (UN) Committee on Torture's decision on the "Danilovgrad" case from November 2002, on April 14, 1995, the Danilovgrad police were reported at around 22 p.m. that two Roma minors had allegedly raped a minor. P. B, after which the police entered the then Roma settlement of Božova Glavica around midnight, searched a number of houses and detained all the young Roma who happened to be in the settlement.
At that time, about 200 locals gathered in front of the police station, demanding that the Danilovgrad Municipal Assembly (MA) make a decision to expel the Roma from the town, threatening to “exterminate” the Roma and burn their houses. According to the published documents, between four and five in the morning, two Roma boys confessed under duress to raping SB (it has never been established that the Roma minors raped SB).
The police then released the remaining arrested Roma, telling them that they and their families must flee Danilovgrad immediately, as there was a risk of lynching. At the same time, according to the UN, a police officer Ljubo Radovic and inspector Branko Micanovic They told the remaining Roma in the settlement to leave Danilovgrad immediately, as "no one can guarantee their safety or provide them with protection."
At around 8:00 AM on April 15, a group of locals stormed into a Roma settlement and began destroying it - houses and barracks were burned, valuables were looted, and livestock were killed. According to UN documents, while the Roma pogrom was taking place, Danilovgrad police were watching the entire event, “gently trying” to convince some of the attackers to calm down until the Municipal Council made a decision on expulsion.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," wrote Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana in 1905.
A few days later, the remains of the Roma settlement were completely removed, erasing every trace of the existence of Roma in Danilovgrad, while the Police Academy was built on the site of the burned settlement - without any sign of what had happened there.
The Institute for Education told "Vijesti" that the events in Danilovgrad are not taught in the curriculum at any level of education.
"According to data from the Institute for Education, this topic was not found in the curricula and was not covered in the plans as a separate thematic unit," they said.
The crowd seeking "justice"
That Montenegro does not learn from its own past was demonstrated three decades later, when citizens, just like in 1995, began to enforce "justice" on their own, from the streets, through violence and intimidation, playing the police in front of their eyes.
On the night of October 25, the police were notified of a fight in the Podgorica neighborhood of Zabjelo, in which a man was stabbed. M. J. (25). A day later, a group of Zabjelo citizens attempted to physically “get even” with three Turkish citizens, who then barricaded themselves in a casino in the settlement. The group gathered in front of the casino chanted inappropriately against the Turks, but the police still managed to remove them from the building, detaining two of them. The same night, the police carried out raids and arrested another 45 Turkish citizens.
This was followed by a series of xenophobic incidents across the country - in Podgorica, Bar and Herceg Novi, premises owned by Turkish citizens were demolished, a car owned by Turks was set on fire, "people's patrols" were organized to "look for Turks" in Podgorica's neighborhoods (under police escort), and protests in front of the Government building called for the expulsion of Turks from Montenegro.
In connection with the attack on MJ, the police initially arrested one Turkish and one Azerbaijani citizen and ordered them to be detained, but it was later determined that they were at their accommodation at the time of the incident. Explaining why they were detained, the Police Directorate (PD) stated that MJ had recognized them as the attackers. Two Azerbaijani citizens were subsequently arrested for the attack. The government quickly succumbed to the xenophobic atmosphere in the country, and two days after the incident, it temporarily introduced visas for Turkish citizens.
In the first case - Roma, citizens of Montenegro, a minority people, in the second - citizens of Turkey, with, mostly, temporary residence in the country. Common to both - the mass that wants "justice", not caring about institutions. In the first case - it succeeded in its evil plan, practically subjugating the police. In the second, the situation calmed down, but the "rampage" reminded of the event in Danilovgrad.
However, some progress has been made. No one has been prosecuted for the destruction of the Roma settlement and the persecution of its inhabitants, although there was evidence and statements from the participants, while a suspect was arrested for setting fire to a car belonging to a Turkish citizen, eight people were detained for spreading national and religious hatred and violence, several people were arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack on Turks with baseball bats... However, those suspected of demolishing the premises have not yet been released.
Berisha: Laws have changed, but not awareness
Executive Director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Walk with Us” Elvis Berisha was forced to flee Danilovgrad with his family as a child in 1995. He told "Vijesti" yesterday that, unfortunately, it seems that society has not learned enough.
“I say this not only as someone who deals with human rights, but also as a child who had to flee Danilovgrad with his family in 1995, while our houses were burning, and those who were supposed to protect us - were silent and watched. The police and firefighters were protecting the surrounding houses at the time, while ours were disappearing in flames. The then mayor (Milorad Kadić"(...) supported citizens who called for lynching with his inflammatory statements," he said.
He estimates that thirty years later, the same patterns can be witnessed again - "when an incident occurs, the first thing people look for is collective guilt and an atmosphere of lynching is created."
"Recent events with Turkish citizens show that we have not fundamentally faced the past, but are only suppressing it until new hatred erupts. Laws have changed, but not awareness. Until institutions show that all hatred is unacceptable, and that violence against minorities is treated as seriously as against anyone else, we cannot talk about progress - but about repeating mistakes," the interlocutor states.
According to him, Montenegrin society often only pretends to be emancipated - on paper it is tolerant, democratic and European, but in practice it reacts the same as thirty years ago - with emotion, prejudice and fear of "others".
Berisha said that the state has laws, strategies and action plans, but that emancipation is not measured by documents, but by the behavior of people and institutions in moments of crisis.
"When the police do not react in time, when politicians make inflammatory statements, or when the media incite panic - this shows that formal progress is not enough. If we want true emancipation, we must stop faking it. It takes education, responsibility and courage to admit that systemic discrimination still exists. Only when we accept this can we talk about change - and not the illusion of change," he said.
On the eve of the incident in the Podgorica settlement of Zabjelo, some politicians from the ruling parties publicly presented incorrect information that there were 110.000 Turks in Montenegro, stating that this was a "serious number for a small country like ours."
The day after the incident, the Ministry of Interior announced that as of September 30, 2025, 13.308 Turkish citizens held temporary residence permits or temporary residence and work permits, while 87 people from that country had been granted permanent residence in Montenegro.
The police announced this, as they said, "bearing in mind that arbitrary and incorrect interpretations of data on the number of Turkish citizens residing in Montenegro have recently been appearing in the public."
Prelević: Important decision by the UN committee
Legal representative of Danilovgrad Roma, lawyer Dragan Prelevic, told "Vijesti" that the event in Danilovgrad falls at the time of the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"It was the beginning of the summer of 1995, when various other incidents motivated by this national intolerance were taking place in the Danilovgrad area, among the more famous being the attack and eviction of the Muslim Laličić family, after multiple attacks," he said.
He stated that it was a "very dangerous" time, and that the mood of the police and the entire state apparatus was "nationalistic and full of hatred" towards all minorities, especially Muslims and Roma.
He stated that in such an atmosphere, the entire Roma settlement in Danilovgrad was burned down and that all the Roma from that town simply had to flee. He stated that for several months they hid in the suburbs of Podgorica, in the forests on the outskirts towards Tuzi, because they were still being persecuted.
"These so-called people's patrols came, looking for them... Everything was motivated by an incident between minors, who were 14-15 years old. The girl reported, or rather her parents reported, an alleged rape, which was never reliably established. However, what happened was that several hundred people gathered and burned down Roma houses in the presence of the police," Prelević added.
He explained that the persecuted Roma managed to save themselves, and that they contacted him after a few months, and that legal proceedings that were possible at the time were then initiated.
"The proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica dragged on, it was an obvious delay in the proceedings, until we brought this matter before the UN Committee against Torture and in 2002 we managed to obtain a very significant decision from that committee, which for the first time established inhumane treatment and humiliating inaction, because the state did not protect these people, and they had to. The police were present, but they only looked after their cars," the source points out.
“Ku Klux Klan style”
Prelević said that the UN committee was very explicit that damages must be compensated, and that, taking into account that body's decision, a settlement of 985.000 marks was reached with the government.
"That was a significant amount, no compensation of that magnitude had ever been achieved before. I honestly associate that with the fact that the injured Roma had strong support from the liberal media in Montenegro, non-governmental organizations, etc.... That case was quite present in the public, and on the other hand, the year 2000 was the year of the beginning of the Roma Decade in the United Nations," he said.
He said that he doubted that such compensation would have been paid if it had not been for the Committee's decision, but that the Montenegrin government at the time was already fighting for independence and international legitimacy, so such a decision could not have been ignored.
According to him, the Danilovgrad Roma were not nomads, but had lived in Danilovgrad for decades, and about a dozen of them worked in municipal and communal services.
"They were immediately fired because they didn't come to work a few days after their neighborhood was burned down, and we never managed to get them back to work. So that was one segment, the state was very insistent that they lose their jobs because they didn't come to work when their houses were burned down," he said, adding that the entire narrative was in the style of the "Ku Klux Klan" - an American racist organization with an ideology of white supremacy.
Prelević assessed that the persecution of the Danilovgrad Roma, however, had an epilogue in which human rights violations and state responsibility were established.
"... The state ended up paying some compensation and providing some kind of satisfaction, even though in reality they (the Roma) were completely uprooted from their lives," he added.
No one answered.
According to documents from the UN Committee Against Torture decision, although the police did nothing to stop the destruction of the Roma settlement, they did ensure that the fire did not spread to surrounding buildings. The police and the investigating judge of the Danilovgrad Basic Court later prepared a report on the site investigation regarding the damage caused by the participants in the pogrom.
The decision states that official police documents, as well as statements from a number of police officers and witnesses, indicate that the following participated in the destruction of the Roma settlement: Veselin Popović, Dragisa Makocevic, Gojko Popović, Bosko Mitrovic, Joksim Bobičić, Darko Janjusevic, Vlatko Cacic i Radojica Makočević.
It is also added that there is evidence that the police officers Miladin Dragas, Rajko Radulović, Dragan Burić, Djordje Stankovic i Vuk Radovic were present during the violence, but did nothing or at least not enough to protect the Roma residents and their property.
As stated in UN documents, on April 17, 1995, the police detained 20 people for questioning, and a statement by Veselin Popović was also quoted:
"... And after that I noticed a flame in one of the barracks, which led me to conclude that people had started setting the barracks on fire, so I found a few pieces of sponge which I lit with a lighter I had with me and threw them at two barracks, one of which caught fire."
Popović was then remanded in custody, and the prosecution initiated proceedings against him.
The decision also states that on 22 June 1995, the investigating judge of the Danilovgrad Court questioned police officer Miladin Dragaš, and that on that occasion he stated, contrary to the official report he (Dragaš) made on 16 April 1995, that he had not seen anyone throwing any incendiary devices, and that he could not recognize any of the persons involved.
At the end of January 1996, the prosecutor's office in Podgorica dropped the criminal prosecution of Popović due to "lack of evidence", and on February 8, 1996, the investigation was suspended.
The UN decision stated that the Danilovgrad Roma, after being evicted from their homes and having their property completely destroyed, fled to the outskirts of Podgorica, where during the first weeks after the incident, they hid in parks and abandoned buildings.
"They learned from local Roma, who supplied them with basic food products, that groups of enraged non-Roma men were searching for them in the Roma suburbs of Podgorica. The expelled Danilovgrad Roma continue to live in Podgorica in dire poverty, in makeshift shelters or abandoned buildings, forced to work at the Podgorica landfill or beg to survive," the document states.
Berisha: Responsible government does not react impulsively
Elvis Berisha said that he was particularly concerned about the "diplomatic gaffe" that followed the incident in the Podgorica settlement of Zabjelo, when the government decided to abolish the visa-free regime for Turkish citizens.
"Such a decision is hasty, unjust and contrary to the basic principles of justice and international relations. You cannot punish an entire community for the actions of a few individuals - this is precisely the logic that led to the expulsion of Roma from Danilovgrad in 1995," he said.
He said that responsible authorities do not react impulsively, but rather calm the situation, sending a message of reason and respect for the rights of every person, regardless of nationality or religion.
He added that the media is an equally important problem, saying that "in this situation, they have given too much space to xenophobic and inflammatory statements."
"Instead of contributing to calming tensions and protecting the public interest, some media outlets have incited prejudice and fear with their headlines and reports. That is not freedom of the media, that is abuse of influence," he stated.
Berisha said that freedom also carries responsibility, and that the media must be aware that every word has consequences, especially when society is already "burning with intolerance."
Bonus video:
