Place as identity- identity as place

Every nation has some mythology, but when you overdo it, then it’s dangerous (Sonja Biserko 19.07.17)

Kosovo has been a major ideological and political instrument in Serbian history. The Battle of Kosovo Polje is the epic that has moulded Serbian national and ethnic identity more than any other event and makes it both an event, but also a place, of paramount importance. The events that took place there provide a coherent narrative from past to present; the problems Serbs are facing today can be explained by and seen in the light of the disastrous defeat they experienced then (White 1996, p. 46). There is great instrumental value in the use of allusions to this epic battle and the narrative of battle is one that can serve to explain the misfortunes and the suffering of Serbs today.

Two things emerge specifically from my interviews; the first, that there is an essentialist understanding of Kosovo as constituting identity, and that Kosovo, or the loss of Kosovo, is used as a manifestation of the trials and tribulations they are experiencing today.

We are for national identities, because it is what’s basic inside of us. It’s not just some nationalism or something; it’s just the way we live, the way we relate to each other. (…) Of course, I mean Kosovo and Metohija are inseparable part of Serbia. First of all. (Katarina 09.11.17).

Zavetnici is a newly established movement which has participated in local, regional and parliamentary elections. Katarina, one of the founders, states they are a euro-sceptic party, do not support European Union integration and advocate closer ties to Russia. One of the main platforms of Zavetnici is the reintegration of Kosovo into Serbia, they do not acknowledge Kosovo’s independence and as such this statement may seem rather obvious. However, what this quote shows, is the emphasis that is placed on the inseparability of Kosovo to Serbia; it is a natural and essential part of the history, the geography and the people. Similarly, the

football supporters, all emphasised to me that they were nationalists and they loved their country, but who they were, where their history began, everything had to do with Kosovo.

Kosovo is not only the heart of Serbia, it is where all Serbian history begins (Marko, 09.07.17).

It’s not just our territory, it’s our existence, our essence. (Bojan, 09.07.17).

As noted by Penrose (2002), almost all nationalists hold the homeland as the geographical dimension of the nation and view their nation as a natural and primordial division of humanity. Furthermore, a common sense understanding of their nation is rooted in an essentialist categorical understanding of Self, rooted in an interpretation of the homeland, in this case both Serbia and Kosovo, as the natural geographic dimension of being. Evidently then, the meaning and significance attached to Kosovo as territory and history falls well under the rubric of ethnoscapes as defined by Smith (1999). Kosovo has become an intrinsic part of the character, history and destiny of the Serbs, and as will be shown, becomes a place that provides both an explanation for the suffering they feel they have encountered and are encountering still.

In Antonsich’s study of the ways in which place intervene in the construction of Self two major categories of referents are revealed; personal and social. Personal referents refer to an individual’s personal relations, memories of past life and experiences and present practices.

from the subject who experiences them. Social referents shape the “specific ‘identity’ of a given geographic space: history, traditions, culture, language, institutions, (character of) people, landscape features, economic activities” (2010, p. 124). By use of such referents, a clear identity of place with identifying features may emerge. Place then may be transformed into an identity marker in and of itself which further triggers discourses of self-identification and social categorisation; the claim of belonging to a social group and the way one is

perceived as member of a specific group.

Kosovo is where our country was born; people and everything. You know that we say that it is the cradle of our everything. It has not only spiritual value but also economic. (…) When we founded Zavetnici, we was on the barricades in Kosovo and Metohija when they imposed this false border. (Zavetnici 09.11.17).

Metohija is the name of one of the regions in Kosovo; the name derives from the word

“metoh”, which means Orthodox ground, most notably from the presence of Orthodox churches, and is consistently used by nationalists to emphasise Serb Orthodox origins in Kosovo. As this quote illustrates, the use of the term false border further serves to

delegitimise Kosovo as an independent country. The complete refusal of acknowledging the secession of Kosovo from Serbian territory is justified by asserting its illegitimacy and implicitly, by reference to the Serb historical legacy.

As part of the identity construction that was pursued in the 90s, that was premised on Kosovo and Serbia’s unjust position in the Yugoslav Federation, Biserko notes, following the

different republics’ independence;

We did not acknowledge reality of region, we don’t apparently accept this new reality, these borders. (19.07.17)

There is clearly a strong sense of place attachment for Serbs to Kosovo; an emotional affective bond that is created between people and place (Antonsich 2010). It also seems evident that this sense of attachment or belonging is portrayed as natural, which makes the loss of this territory in some sense, a loss of identity. When relationships between people and territories are conceptualised as natural, biological or symbiotic, the territory is also seen as

boundaries of belonging and territory is thus destroyed. Boundaries, as Newman and Paasi (1998, p. 187) show, are equally social, political and discursive constructs, with meanings that are historically contingent and part of the production and institutionalisation of territory and territoriality. Even though boundaries may be more or less arbitrary lines of division, they also have “deep, symbolic, cultural, historical and religious, often contested, meanings for social communities”.

Our people are barely living in existence there. You know. They are in enclaves, hardly existing. They don’t like Serbs over there. Less and less there are Serbs there. The Muslims are driving us out. Our people are suffering over there. But it’s our land. That’s ours, it’s Serbian, it will never be theirs. (Bojan, 09.07.17).

Having been robbed of their land has left the remaining people who live there to be

subordinated and, as this quote emphasises, barely existing. The narrative of suffering that is noted here, is one that, as will be discussed later, has greatly shaped contemporary identity.

By means of transference, everything that occurs to Serbs in Kosovo occurs to all Serbs.

You know, when they take your churches and your monasteries and your whole history, then you have nothing. When they kill your language, over there, your culture and everything.

[Then] you practically don’t exist. And that’s what they want actually. Kosovo Albanians just want to falsify that history. (Katarina, 09.11.17).

Kosovo has, as a specific place not only inherent features, but provides a means of establishing belonging and identity. It fulfils the social referents in such that a specific identity of place emerges which is in turn internalised and becomes an identity marker, that establishes self-identification; an understanding of Self, and self-categorisation, that

delineates one group from the other. In this case, a clear demarcation between the Muslim Albanians and the Orthodox Serbs. Following from the battle of Kosovo Polje, which was a battle between the Muslim Turks and the Orthodox Serbs, the narrative is continued and manages to construct a story of suffering that can be traced back to the initial battle, which is emphasised from then till today, as a battle between religious groups. The defeat they

suffered then, at the hands of the Muslims, reinforces the suffering they are experiencing today, again at the hands of the Muslims.