Djokovic said Kosovo is the ‘heart of Serbia’ — what is this Balkan story of contesting national claims and deep ethnic divide?

French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told Djokovic that his comments were “not appropriate” and that there needed to be the “principle of neutrality for the field of play”.

Djokovic responded: “Of course I’m aware that a lot of people would disagree, but it is what it is. It’s something that I stand for. So that’s all.”

Radio France Internationale quoted the current World No. 3 in ATP rankings as telling Serbian media: “Kosovo is our cradle, our stronghold, centre of the most important things for our country… There are many reasons why I wrote that on the camera.”

Why was Djokovic criticised by some for his comments on Kosovo?

The French tennis federation (FFT), which organises the tournament, told Reuters that there were “no official Grand Slam rules on what players can or cannot say”, and it would not, therefore, “be making any statement or taking any stance on this matter”.

However, the player received criticism from several quarters for what he said. But why?

Djokovic belongs to Serbia, a landlocked country in eastern Europe that shares borders with, among other countries, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, and he is perhaps the world’s best-known Serbian.

Kosovo is a region that lies to Serbia’s southwest, sharing borders with North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s statehood.

Serbia, on the map of Europe. (Wikimedia commons)

Map showing Serbia, Kosovo and their neighbouring countries. (Google Maps screengrab)

The current round of violence took place after ethnic Serbs — who are a minority in Kosovo but are in a majority in northern Kosovo — tried to prevent Albanian mayors taking charge in local councils. The Albanians took control of the councils after Serbs boycotted local elections in Kosovo’s north in April. Results of the elections, which saw a turnout of less that 3.5%, were rejected by the Serbs as a sham.

Northern Kosovo has seen frequent tensions that have their roots in the larger ethnic and political divide between the ethnic Serbs and the Albanians.

What was the Kosovo conflict about?

Serbs and Albanians are ethnicities who have been living in this region for centuries. Serbs are Eastern Orthodox Christians, while the Albanians in Kosovo are majority Muslims. Other ethnic groups, such as the Bosnians and the Turks, are minority populations. Serbs are in the majority in Serbia while Albanians are in the majority in the Kosovo region.

For many Serbians, the Kosovo region, as Djokovic said, is the “heart” of its national and religious identity — and home to numerous cherished mediaeval Serb Orthodox Christian monasteries. Serbian nationalists view the 1389 Battle of Kosovo between the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic and the Ottoman Sultan Murad Hudavendigar as a defining moment in their national struggle.

On the other hand, Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians view Kosovo as belonging to them, and accuse Serbia of occupation and repression.

What happened during the 1998-99 war between Kosovo and Serbia?

From 1945, after the end of World War II, until 1992, the area in the Balkans comprising present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, was one country, officially known as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), or simply Yugoslavia, with its capital at Belgrade, which is now the capital of Serbia.

As part of Yugoslavia, the republic of Serbia included the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Within Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina held the status of autonomous provinces.

In the early 1990s, as the USSR collapsed, Yugoslavia followed — and each of these republics broke away to become independent countries, beginning with Slovenia in 1991. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a United Nations court of law that dealt with war crimes committed during this time, noted that coinciding with the collapse of communism and resurgent nationalism in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Yugoslavia experienced a period of intense political and economic crisis.

“Central government weakened while militant nationalism grew apace. Political leaders used nationalist rhetoric to erode a common Yugoslav identity and fuel fear and mistrust among different ethnic groups,” it said.

Ethnic Albanian rebels launched a rebellion under the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998 to rid the country of Serbian rule. Serbia’s brutal response under President Slobodan Milošević prompted an intervention by NATO in 1999, which forced Serbia to cede control to international peacekeepers.

NATO then carried out a 78-day-long campaign of air strikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia. In response, Serb forces further intensified the persecution of the Kosovo Albanian civilians, having accused them earlier of changing the demography of their nation.

Ultimately, Milošević agreed to withdraw his troops and police from the province of Kosovo. Some 750,000 Albanian refugees came back home, and about 100,000 Serbs — roughly half the province’s Serb population — fled in fear of reprisals.

In June 1999, Serbia agreed to the international administration of Kosovo with the final status of the province still unresolved. Several Serb leaders, including Milošević, were indicted by the UN’s war crimes tribunal for their role in the war.

What has been the status of Kosovo since then?

While Kosovo declared independence in 2008, Serbia still considers it to be an integral part of Serbian territory. Countries such as India, China, and Russia do not recognise Kosovo as a separate country, while the US, the majority of EU countries, Japan and Australia do so.

Djokovic’s comments can be situated in the larger context of the recognition and status of Kosovo, and the deep ethnic fault lines in the region. He has referred to the war earlier too, and said in a CBS documentary of his memories as a child, “We were waking up every single night at 2 am or 3 am for two and a half months because of the bombings.”

Djokovic, who was born in 1987 and was a pre-teen at the time of the war, has also spoken about training with fellow Serbian player Ana Ivanovic in an empty swimming pool that was converted into a tennis court at the time. When air raid sirens would warn of an impending bombing, they would halt their practice and take cover, he had said.

At the end of his match on Monday, he said, “I empathize with all people, but the situation with Kosovo is a precedent in international law.” He called Kosovo,“our hearthstone, our stronghold,” and said, “Our most important monasteries are there.”