The tricolor that Milan Knezevic demonstrated yesterday in the Parliament and whose display was requested by his Democratic People's Party (DNP), is a legally protected historical symbol - the Montenegrin national, ceremonial flag from the beginning of the 20th century.
This follows from the response of the Ministry of Culture and Media to a query from "Vijesti" about the appearance of protected historical symbols of Montenegro, after the National Museum and the State Archives provided them with information about it.
The DNP's proposal to include their request to display the tricolor on the agenda of yesterday's parliamentary session did not receive the necessary support (21 MPs were in favor, 23 against, 13 abstained). The DNP initiative was supported, in addition to the MPs of that party, by representatives of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD), the Democrats, and the Socialist People's Party (SNP).
Knežević's party, in its proposal to amend the Law on State Symbols and Statehood Day, requested, among other things, that the "national flag", red-blue-white, be permanently flown on the building of the highest legislative house and the residence of the head of state, and that it be flown on Statehood Day and other national holidays, as well as that the flag be flown at half-mast on days of mourning determined by the Government.
The regulation, the amendments to which were requested by the DNP, stipulates that the state and military symbols of the Principality and Kingdom of Montenegro, the symbols of the People's Republic and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro, and the symbols of the Republic of Montenegro enjoy protection, as do the current state symbols (Article 28). However, the law does not precisely define whether, and if so, how, when, and where, these flags may be displayed.
Knežević presented the flag that the DNP is requesting for the first time yesterday. Until then, the leader and officials of the party had not publicly announced which flag they wanted to propose, and in previous years they had repeatedly used, as experts the newspaper previously spoke to called it, a "contemporary interpretation" of the flag of the Kingdom of Montenegro.
It was precisely because of the use of these versions of the flag that "Vijesti" requested from the ministry at the beginning of February, when the DNP submitted a proposal for amendments to the Law on State Symbols and Statehood Day for parliamentary procedure. Tamara Vujović (Democrats) clarification on which historic flags are protected by law and what they look like.
The Ministry responded to the editorial board yesterday, providing photographs of legally protected historical flags, with the exception of those from the period of the Republic of Montenegro (1992-2006). However, it was noted that the National Museum (which provided the Ministry with the flags and their descriptions) keeps in its collections a certain number of flags from the period of the Principality and Kingdom of Montenegro, as well as the period of the People's Republic and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.
Tricolors and banners
In addition to the national, ceremonial flag from the beginning of the 20th century - which, as the National Museum told "Vijesti" two years ago, was most often used for decoration during special ceremonies, such as the proclamation of the Kingdom in 1910 - the editorial office received four more tricolor flags. These are the flag of the Supreme Commander of the King Nikola Petrovic Njegos, a naval flag from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the state flag of the Montenegrin Government in Exile from 1916, as well as the flag of the People's/Socialist Republic of Montenegro.
The Ministry of Culture emphasized that the Principality and Kingdom of Montenegro used multiple types of flags, some often as both a state and a military symbol, including alai-barjakas and other variations that differ in design details.
The banner of the Supreme Commander King Nikola is a red-blue-white flag of rectangular shape, bordered on three sides by a gold cord with fringes. In the middle of the flag is the Montenegrin coat of arms - a double-headed eagle with yellow beaks and claws. In his right hand he holds a scepter, and in his left a blue shar (a ball with a cross) with a yellow chain. On the eagle's chest, in a red shield, bordered in yellow, are the initials "HI" (Nikola Prvi).
The naval flag, as stated in the information submitted by the National Museum to the Ministry, is rectangular in shape and was red-blue-white, but the middle field has completely faded, so traces of the blue color are only visible under the applied decoration.
The flag of the Government in Exile in 1916 (after the capitulation from Austria-Hungary in World War I) is red-blue-white with the Montenegrin coat of arms - a double-headed white eagle with a red shield on its chest and a green base. The shield features a lion in motion.
The flag of the People's, or Socialist Republic of Montenegro is red-blue-white with a red five-pointed star in the middle.
Along with photographs of the tricolor flags, "Vijesti" was also provided with those of the Prince's alai-banner. Danilo Petrovic Njegos, the company flag of the Montenegrin army from the Great War period (1876-1878), the company flag of the army from 1862 to 1916, the Montenegrin court flag from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the battalion flag from the same period.
The banner of Prince Danilo is almost square in shape, bordered on three sides by a cord with gold fringes. On a dark red field, sewn onto a light red background, is the coat of arms of Black Mountain - a double-headed eagle with the gold initials “Д. I.” (Danilo the First) on its chest, a gold scepter in its right hand and a dark blue pattern with a gold clasp in its left claw. The flag, as explained by the National Museum, was most likely created in 1858.
The company flag of the Montenegrin army from the Great War period is rectangular in shape, with a bright red field sewn by hand across the width from two pieces of cloth - in the middle of the field is a Maltese cross with the initials "HI", and the entire field is riddled with bullets.
On the other hand, the company flag from 1862 to 1916 is almost square in shape, with the red field sewn by machine, while in the middle is a Maltese cross sewn by hand.
The court flag, as stated in the information of the National Museum, is rectangular in shape, with a red field sewn by machine from three pieces of cloth, bordered by a wide white border. In the middle of the field is sewn the Montenegrin coat of arms (a double-headed white eagle with feathers painted black).
The battalion flag is rectangular in shape, with a red field sewn together by machine in two pieces and bordered on four sides by a wide white border. In the middle of the field is a white eagle with painted brown feathers. On the eagle's chest is a white shield with a painted red border and the initials "HI" sewn on.
Legal loophole
Three years ago, when tricolor flags with the coat of arms of the Petrović Njegoš dynasty, as well as other historical symbols of Montenegro, began to appear in the offices of some municipal officials from the NSD, “Vijesti” wrote that their placement was not precisely defined, because only one article of the Law on State Symbols and the Statehood Day of Montenegro (Article 28) is dedicated to this. It stipulates that these symbols enjoy the same protection as the current state symbols, and the lawyers with whom the editorial team contacted at the time interpreted what this meant differently.
Then the lawyer listed Dalibor Kavarić, close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, said that he believes this means that it can be displayed with the Montenegrin state flag and that there are no prohibitions, while some of the lawyers with whom "Vijesti" spoke, but who did not want to speak officially because the topic of symbols visibly polarizes the Montenegrin public, explained that this article only refers to the fact that historical symbols may not be burned, torn, etc.
Head of the Democrats Parliamentary Club Boris Bogdanovic yesterday announced that the law protects Montenegrin historical symbols, but that it does not clearly define when, where and how they can be displayed. He stated that the regulation “adopted during the former regime”, in Article 28, clearly protected historical symbols, including all Montenegrin tricolors, in the same way as current state symbols are protected, but that a “serious legal gap” remained.
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Milan Knežević said yesterday that the tricolor is bothering those who want to forget the Vojislavljevićs, Balšićs, and Petrovićs, while the head of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party of Socialists Andrija Nikolić assessed that yesterday in parliament it was not about the initiative to introduce the tricolor, but about the "divorce lawsuit" of the coalition "For the Future of Montenegro", which consists of the NSD and the DNP.
The Europe Now Movement, whose majority of MPs abstained from putting the DNP proposal on the agenda, and a few were against it, said yesterday, ahead of the session, that identity issues should be addressed after all obligations from the "European agenda" have been fulfilled.
Bogišić did not write the 1905 Constitution.
Knežević claimed in parliament yesterday that the flag, which he called the "state (national) flag of the Kingdom of Montenegro", was standardized Valtazar Bogišić in the Constitution of 1905.
However, Bogišić did not write the 1905 Constitution, but rather did it Stevan Curcic.
Also, the highest legal act from the beginning of the 20th century did not define the flag in any form, but the coat of arms and the national colors - red, blue, and white - were.
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