"Kosovo is Serbia" in
Polish stickers in the city center of
Poznan,
Poland.
"Kosovo is Serbia" (
Serbian: Косово је Србија, Kosovo je Srbija) is a slogan that has been used in
Serbia since the 1980s, later popularized as a reaction to
Kosovo's
2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.
History
The slogan was used by a crowd in Serbia in a funeral following the 1987
Paraćin massacre.
Following Kosovo's
declaration of independence on 17 February 2008 by Kosovar Albanian members of the Legislative Assembly,[1] this was the marquee slogan used in the Belgrade demonstrations against it.[2] The slogan has been used by a series of
protests, and by the
Serbian Government.[3]
The slogan has appeared on T-shirts and in graffiti and was placed on the websites of Kosovar institutions by hackers in 2009. The slogan is used by Serbs across the world.[4]
Protests
2008 Serbia protests, at the intersection on the way to the
Cathedral of Saint Sava on February 21, 2008 in BelgradePosters supporting Kosovo as a part of Serbia at the Prešov Down-town Railway Stop in SlovakiaKosovo is Serbia graffiti on the
Berlin Wall
A
Kosovo je Srbija rally organised by the Serbian government was held on 21 February 2008 in
Belgrade in front of the Parliament, with around 200,000[5][6]–500,000[7] people attending. The US Embassy was set on fire by a small group of protesters.[8] A small protest also occurred in London[9] and 5,000 protesters demonstrated in
Mitrovica the following day.[5] Kosovo police were injured during a protest by 150 war veterans at a border crossing on 25 February.[10]
Violent protests using the slogan occurred in
Montenegro after the government recognised the independence of Kosovo in October 2008.[11]
Notable uses
In March 2008, American-born
Serbian swimmer
Milorad Čavić won the European championship in the 50 m butterfly, setting the new European record, a result briefly quashed when the European Swimming Federation (LEN) disqualified the swimmer for wearing a T-shirt at the medals ceremony that read “Kosovo is Serbia” in
Serbian.[12]
On January 15, 2017, Serbian authorities
sent a train[13] from Belgrade destined for Kosovo, painted with the slogan and iconography inside, which was stopped at the border by Kosovar officials as it was considered to be provocative.
Aleksandar Vučić ordered the train to be stopped at
Raška as he believed the rail had been mined.[14] The new train was intended for peace relations but was instead used by
Tomislav Nikolić to the "brink of conflict", according to Kosovar officials.[15]
In 2000, more than 50 websites, including those of Adidas and Manchester United, were hacked with the message Kosovo je Srbija.[18]
Additionally, the slogan has been used frequently across online spaces, becoming somewhat of an
Internet meme satirizing hypernationalism.
Reception
Historians as
Noel Malcolm and Andrea R. Nagy commented on the slogan. Malcolm claimed that "Kosovo was not the cradle of Serbia as it was held by Serbs only centuries after they invaded the Balkans and then only for 250 years before the Ottoman occupation". Kosovo was conquered by the
Kingdom of Serbia in 1912 and became part of Yugoslavia in 1918.[19] Nagy states that In some sense this slogan is true, "but notes that Kosovo was administered by Serbia for only a short period".[20]