Between Trauma and Transformation: Serbia’s Evolving Attachment to Kosovo
Between Trauma and Transformation: Serbia’s Evolving Attachment to Kosovo

Summary/Abstract: Serbia’s policy regarding Kosovo is constrained and bounded by decades of propaganda, which have stoked constructed memories of the past so that Serbs think of the Battle of Kosovo of 1389 as a hugely important historical event and experience collective political trauma when they reflect on the loss of Kosovo. Thus, although more than 90% of the population of Kosovo is Albanian and want to maintain the independence of their republic, against a mere 2.3% that are Serbs (according to the 2024 census in Kosovo), the Serbian political establishment has continued to insist that Serbia has an “eternal” right to rule Kosovo. The Kosovo myth, in which the 1389 Battle of Kosovo is just one component, albeit the central symbolic one in intergenerationally transmitted trauma, is both limiting and, for the regime, empowering, insofar as it promotes a degree of political homogenization, thereby constraining the political opposition. However, while some commentators write as if Serbs thought alike when it comes to Kosovo, survey data show a different picture, confirming that some Serbs are against this dominant narrative, and may even agree with articulate liberal advocates of recognition of Kosovo’s independence and promote a reassessment of the dominant narrative. The latter’s alternative narrative opens the possibility for Serbia to chart a different political course in the future.

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