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| Milan Protic |
In an interview with the Serbian media, Nova.rs, he stressed that "Kosovo has its territory, people and governments independent of Serbia, and this is the price of the policies of Tito and Milosevic".
Protic said that the president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Vladimir Kostic, who recently expressed a similar position in public, told the truth.
"With this attitude, Kostic proved that he is a man who thinks with his head and comes to his conclusions independently, regardless of how the environment will react to him and what prejudices are expressed in public. Second, he told the truth. "We all know it is true, but many do not want to hear it, but put their heads in the sand because they do not want to face the facts," he said.
Protic stressed that Kostic did not present his judgment, but stated the factual situation of the case.
"In this respect, I can go further than him, but here we are talking about the truthfulness, originality, courage, individualism of a man who is in a very sensitive and important position in this country. And he, in spite of this, has enough courage and personal integrity to express such an attitude and not to be afraid of what the reactions will be and how many poisonous arrows will be directed by him, while, on the other hand, there is no one "He is ready to defend it," said Protic.
He added that today Serbia is paying the price of the wrong policy led by Slobodan Milosevic.
"This is the price of Tito and Milosevic's policies. We are paying for it today. Tito allowed and enabled the creation of a limited territory in Kosovo, creating an autonomous zone, and then a province. Even then, Kosovo was practically and essentially separated from Serbia and all power was given to the Albanians there. It was already clear at the time that it was separated from Serbia and would not return. Milosevic then tried to retake it by force, but failed, which became an additional argument against Serbia's right that "Kosovo continues to be treated as its territory. In our consciousness, this medieval experience of that part of our country is neither territorial nor common," he said.
Protic says that the "Covenant of Kosovo", that is, "the experience of our being, our existence, our history, has nothing to do with the material".
"Other nations have lost their significant parts, and we ourselves have lived without that Kosovo for many centuries. It came back to us in 1912, but we never had the opportunity to fully integrate it. That is why Kosovo remained our experience of the past and national identity, and not just territory. Kosovo has become a difficult problem, unsolvable for us. We as a people and a state lose only in that war that was previously lost. It is no longer a question of whether we will save Kosovo, but whether we will save Serbia. We do not have people for this territory either," he said.
According to him, the problem is becoming much deeper than the issue of Kosovo itself.
"Not to mention then what is happening in Mitrovica, which is a hotbed of crime and violence… We keep our people there, those unfortunate children, in barbed wire as some hostages of the Serbian idea. What future do these children have? How can people in Serbia see a clear conscience, the troubles in which they grow up? What kind of future awaits them and what can they expect from life, surrounded by Albanians, on barbed wire, with some poor and improvised schools where they study there. Will it be their soul? "Why is this being done?" Said Protic.
Serbian Chief Academician Vladimir Kostic said recently that "someone should tell these people that Kosovo is no longer de facto or de jure in our hands" and that at the moment, "the only political wisdom is how to leave Kosovo with dignity ”.
A group of 93 so-called Serb intellectuals had sent an open letter to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts demanding that its president, Vladimir Kostic, resign over his statements that “Kosovo has not been and will not be ours ”.
But in the wake of criticism and harsh attacks on Kostic, he was sided with by Serbian politician Nebojsa Zelenovic.