FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
His father Srdian and his uncle are from the controversial village of Zveçan, where he is practically a hero. The heart of Serbian nationalism also beats here.
"All the Serbs shout: "We will never give up Kosovo/ It has always been ours, it has remained ours for centuries/ O Kosovo, Kosovo, my beloved land/ The land of the great Kreshniks Llazar and Milosh".
End of January 2022. Novak Djokovic is vacationing in Budva, Montenegro. He just came out of one of the worst moments of his life. After flying to Australia to play the first Grand Slam of the season, he was jailed after showing up without the required Covid vaccination, and was eventually expelled. There would be a lot to think about in the hotel restaurant waiting for him. Instead, he sings the folk song that epitomizes Serbian sentiment for Kosovo and leads the chorus by waving his napkin.
Even last night his mural in Rahovec was defaced by some exponents of the Albanian minority. This happens every time a spark ignites the ethnic issue in the north of Kosovo. In February, a can of white paint was thrown over the painting commissioned seven years ago by an artist from Belgrade. It was immediately restored. Now a sprayer is used to draw a scribble on the face of the sample. Next time who knows. The latest humiliation is not a direct consequence of his statements about Kosovo, the heart of Serbia, made at Roland Garros, and then repeated with conviction despite the rebuke from the French government and the request for disqualification from the Kosovo tennis federation. Rather, it is a conditioned reflex.
Nationalist rhetoric feeds on symbols and the Serbian champion has become a flag that is waved under the noses of the Albanian minority. The number of sacred letters dedicated to him on the streets of northern Kosovo are definitely not a tribute to his sporting feats, but a way to mark the territory. While the inscription under one of his posters hanging on the board of the election bulletin of Zveçan says: "Here is Nole, here is Serbia".
Father Srdjan and his uncle were born in Zveçan, which is not only the city of clashes where 34 soldiers of the NATO mission were injured, but the capital of irredentism with a Serbian majority that does not recognize Kosovo as an autonomous state. Most of his family lived here for thirty years. In these difficult places, he is at home.
What Djokovic thinks about the dispute with Kosovo has never been a mystery. Indeed, this is the reason for the flourishing of murals celebrating his exploits, we counted at least a dozen in the area between Mitrovica and Zvecan. After February 17, 2008, when Pristina declared its independence, he led a protest demonstration in Belgrade, which ended with the attack on the American embassy. Shortly after that, he visited "his" Zvecan./ Corriere della Sera
Lini një Përgjigje