Papović: Continuation of Bjelaško-Chetnik politics

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) submitted an author's text by its member, historian Dragutin Papović - "Continuation of Bjelaško-Chetnik Policy".

We transmit the text in its entirety:

When fugitives from the Montenegrin sovereigntist bloc, gathered around the so-called URA civic movement, proudly crossed over to the Church of Serbia in 2020 and brought the classic Greater Serbian coalition – For the Future of Montenegro – to power, they justified themselves by saying that they were doing so for the sake of inclusion.

They confused the inclusion of Serbs, which is acceptable and necessary, with the inclusion of the Bjelaško-Chetnik ideology, which is unacceptable. As soon as the URA lost power, the implementation of such inclusion was taken over by the PES. Both political movements assured that the Bjelaško-Chetnik ideology of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro, which has been directed against Montenegrin statehood and nationality since its inception, is actually just political folklore and that the coalition For the Future of Montenegro will experience catharsis and a transformation from chauvinism to citizenship by coming to power. Six years have passed since then, and the New Serbian Democracy and the Democratic People's Party, the backbone of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro, persist in implementing their founding ideology, as evidenced by their latest moves.

The president of the NSD and the Chetnik voivode who illegally presides over the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, presented the party’s highest decoration, the “Marko Daković Order”, on 11 May to the historian, academician of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and former Serbian ambassador to Russia, Slavenko Terzić. Terzić is best known for stating that “the Montenegrin nation was forcibly imposed, by the will of the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia” and that “Montenegrin nationalism and separatism grew out of the old strategy of breaking up the Serbian ethnic, cultural and spiritual space”. He stated that this strategy originated from “the Vienna and Pest state offices and their satellite centres such as Zagreb... and from other centres, primarily Rome as the seat of the Roman Curia”.

The essence of Terzić's anti-scientific work is the promotion of the old clerical-nationalist thesis that the national Montenegrins were invented by the Vatican and the Comintern, with the help of Austria-Hungary, as part of an anti-Serbian conspiracy. At the time of the Litijaš movement, Terzić declared that Serbs and Montenegrins were one people and that "the project of creating a new Montenegrin identity is based on the violent denationalization of the Serbian people in Montenegro". The decoration of such an academician Terzić only once again demonstrated the anti-Montenegrin policy of the NSD, which incorrectly presents itself as New Serbian Democracy, but is in fact the Old Bjelaško-Chetnik tyranny.

Everyone who helped the ideological inclusion of Andrija Mandić at the head of the Assembly, and brought his cronies to ministerial positions and state companies, institutions and institutions, knew that Marko Daković, the "traditional and Njegoš's" Montenegro, sentenced Marko Daković to death for participating in the attempted terrorism and assassination of Prince Nikola in the Bomb Affair of 1907. In addition, Marko Daković was then declared a high traitor by a final verdict. Since he survived thanks to his escape and subsequent amnesty, Daković was elected as a member of the Executive People's Committee, which was only a local branch of the Serbian occupation authorities, at the so-called Podgorica Assembly, as a prominent white man (a supporter of the violent annexation of Montenegro to Serbia). Daković fought for the rest of his life for the achievements of the so-called Podgorica Assembly, i.e. for the erasure of Montenegrin statehood and identity. Such a Daković is a role model for the NSD and the coalition For the Future of Montenegro, which today, logically and predictably, implements the ideology of its role model, and one of the symbolic manifestations of that ideology is Mandić's imposition of the facade of the Zeta Banovina building as the logo of the Parliament of Montenegro.

After Andrija Mandrić apologized in front of the cameras in a mournful voice for his participation in creating divisions, some thought that this was a desired political turn and catharsis in his actions, and some that he had even converted to the Dalai Lama. However, as soon as he took the presidency of the Assembly, Mandić declared that his goal was the same, only the paths were different. This means that when he awards the "Order of Marko Dakovic" to the deniers of the Montenegrin nation, Mandić is communicating what his goal is, and when he goes to a reception on the occasion of Independence Day, Mandić is communicating that the path to that goal also includes some protocol inconveniences. His cunning is transparent.

Neither did Mandić change the party program, nor did he give up the "Order of Marko Daković", nor the Chetnik title and monument to Pavle Đurišić. Thus, the ideologically inclusive project of the civic movements URA and PES was reduced to bringing Andrija Mandić, a consistent implementer of the ideology of Marko Daković and Pavle Đurišić, to one of the three most important state functions.

Now Mandić and the Bjelaško-Chetnik gang are unhinderedly undermining the Montenegrin state and nation from positions of power. All over the world, adequate measures of political and legal restrictions are being implemented against such people, and only in Montenegro is political inclusion applied to such people. It is identical with the actions of the Democratic People's Party, which on May 12, with the help of other members of the For the Future of Zeta coalition, adopted a Declaration on the Annulment of the Decision on the Recognition of Kosovo in the Territory of the Zeta Municipality in the Zeta Municipal Assembly. Although this Declaration was mostly met with ridicule in the public, the destructive power of its anti-constitutionality cannot and should not be underestimated. According to the Constitution of Montenegro, the Government has exclusive jurisdiction in conducting foreign policy, so the adoption of this Declaration is an attack on the constitutional order and state structure.

The Declaration testifies to the clear intention of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro to conduct foreign policy outside the Constitution and the Government. Bearing in mind that the Declaration is not just a political pamphlet, but also an official act of local self-government, the Constitutional Court should make a decision on the unconstitutionality of this act as soon as possible. Does the President of the Constitutional Court, Snežana Armenko, who is a close relative of a high-ranking DNP official, have the professional capacity for such a move? If this is not the case, then it is clear that the practice has been introduced that municipalities in which the government is made up of a Bjelaško-Chetnik coalition can also introduce arbitrariness in other areas. The next step is the political and territorial association of such municipalities (saoization), i.e. the introduction to the destruction of the territorial integrity of Montenegro. It is clear that this Declaration is directly directed against the constitutional order of Montenegro and its territorial integrity, which, along with the negation of the Montenegrin state and national identity, is a characteristic of the Bjelaško-Chetnik ideology.

Regardless of the fact that the NSD is in power and the DNP is in opposition, their anti-Montenegrin political activities in the coalition For the Future of Montenegro are synchronized. This is a continuation of the implementation of the joint ideology of Marko Daković and Pavle Đurišić, with the blessing of the Church of Serbia and the patronage of the regime of Vladimir Putin and Aleksandar Vučić. In addition, this coalition has not yet recognized the results of the 2006 referendum and Montenegrin independence. On the contrary, it is doing everything possible to have the referendum result contested and annulled. This policy and ideology will not (self-)change, and its inclusion in power only gives it the opportunity to more efficiently destroy Montenegro and its society. If we take into account its anti-Montenegrin ideology and political practice, then it is obvious that the name of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro is a pure oxymoron. If this coalition continues to rule and grow stronger, then Montenegro can only remain without a future.