Serbia: Serbs Leaving Sandzak

IWPR ^ | 26 July 02 | IWPR Staff

[Dragonfly]

More trouble in the Balkans. Will NATO come to the rescue again?

[DestroyEraseImprove]

Looks like a repeat of Kosovo....

Serbs leaving like in Kosovo in the 40's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's ....

Deja vu!?

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[Consort]

Serbia	Sandzak

[Dragonfly]

You're right. I wonder if the media will pick this up the same way they did with Kosovo.

[Banat]

I despise the term Sandzak. The area is called Rashka. The SDA they're talking about here is the very same SDA headed by the muslim fundamentalist Izetbegovich.

Serbia should repopulate Rashka the way Israelis do it - loads of kibbutzes, tax free life, weapons made available to every Serbian family, state subsidies for those who wish to move there, etc...

[Banat]

"Sandzak" has no coat of arms.

[Consort]

"Sandzak" has no coat of arms.

Maybe it does. Check here.

[Banat]

That is no coat of arms. God knows who came up with it. In Serbia, only the State (of Serbia) and Serbian Cities/Municipalities (Opshtinas) have CoAs.

[Voronin]

Your coat of arms thing. I notice that one half has the fleur-de-lis - this appears to be identical to what the Bosnian Moslems adopted in 1991(?), so it would seem that there is no real historical precedence for the Sandzak 'coat of arms'.

VRN

[Voronin]

"the reasons for Serb departures are economic but one certainly shouldn't overlook other reasons linked to the actions of the SDA."

It kind of reminds me of the expliantion used for those Serbs who were threateaned into leaving Kosovo back in the 60s. Those Serbs I know in Montnegro that were forced out back then would find this 'familiar'.

VRN

[Consort]

The coat of arms is a Sandzak Separatist symbol and was/is unofficial (as of June 1999) unless the separatists took/take power.

[Banat]

That is what I am talking about... Unofficial = illegal. There are no regions in Serbia and thus no regional CoAs.

[Consort]

Unofficial = illegal.

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Unofficial does not equal illegal. Every country has official and unofficial flags and symbols.

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There are no regions in Serbia...

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The regions of Serbia include: Vojvodina (Novi Sad), Central Serbia (Kraljevo), Western Serbia (Uzice), Northeastern Serbia (Smederevska Palanka), Eastern Serbia (Knjazevac), South Serbia (Leskovac), Sandzak (Novi Pazar).

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...and thus no regional CoAs.

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The above Coat of Arms is, at present, unofficial but it is recognized and accepted by Serbians regardless of what we think.

[Banat]

Unofficial does not equal illegal. Every country has official and unofficial flags and symbols.

Serbia does not.

The regions of Serbia include: Vojvodina (Novi Sad), Central Serbia (Kraljevo), Western Serbia (Uzice), Northeastern Serbia (Smederevska Palanka), Eastern Serbia (Knjazevac), South Serbia (Leskovac), Sandzak (Novi Pazar).

Those are GEOGRAPHICAL, not administrative regions. It's like saying the Appalachians or the Midwest or the Death Valley. Of all these "regions", only Vojvodina is an administrative unit (Autonomous Province of Vojvodina) of the Republic of Serbia. Also, there is no mention of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia - another administrative unit of the Republic. Neither of the two mentioned Provinces has a CoA because the Constitution says they can't have it. Yugoslavia has its CoA, and so do Serbia and Montenegro as the republics that make up (the federal republic of) Yugoslavia.

The above Coat of Arms is, at present, unofficial but it is recognized and accepted by Serbians regardless of what we think.

Well, I am Serbian and I say you are wrong. It is not 'unofficial', it is illegal because the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia doesn't allow for any "regional" CoAs.

[Consort]

Well, as many as 67% of the Serbian people have their opinion about the Coat of Arms.
Proposed Regions:

[Banat]

"Well, as many as 67% of the Serbian people have their opinion about the Coat of Arms."

You can't be serious. "67% of the Serbian people"?!? So, I guess the population of "Sandzak" is 6.7 million, right?

Do you even know what/where "Sandzak" is? It doesn't "border Serbia and Montenegro". It is a phantom region made up of 10 municipalities - 5 of which are in the Republic of Serbia and 5 in the Republic of Montenegro. Needless to say, neither the government in Podgoritsa, nor the one in Belgrade recognises it. Only the local muslim fundamentalists do.

As far as the Proposal for the new Constitution, you don't have to remind me of its contents - I am a member of the party that proposed it and I'm quite familiar with it. The Proposal is not the Constitution. I don't know where you got the idea that it was. Serbia has its Constitution, which was proclaimed in 1990 and which will be in force until a new one is drafted and adopted.

[Consort]

OK, there ain't no Sandzak and there ain't no Coat of Arms. You got me convinced.