The chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Pobjeda Sonja Biserko, stated that Belgrade’s aim was for the largest percentage of citizens in Montenegro to identify as Serbs, referring to the population census there.
She noted that this was preceded by a propaganda machine led by the Serbian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Porfirije, as well as President Aleksandar Vučić and nearly all media outlets in Serbia and Montenegro.
“Montenegro is a secular state that has been subjected to intense clericalism since 2020. This has been imposed by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) under the direct control of Belgrade. Since the 1990s, Serbia has attempted to undermine Montenegrin identity and has never fundamentally accepted the separation of Montenegro. Due to a combination of circumstances, in 2020 pro-Serbian and pro-Russian parties took power, which sought to impose as much Serbian identity as possible by canceling everything that is Montenegrin,” she said.
According to Biserko, Serbia’s intentions are clear – to bring Montenegro back into its fold.
“Montenegro is a continuous priority for Serbian nationalism, and it is hard to believe that this will change anytime soon,” Biserko said.
“In the given geostrategic circumstances, Montenegro is a very important area, especially considering its access to the Adriatic Sea. Serbia certainly wants to go to the sea, which would give it much greater strategic significance. In this sense, everyone is on the same task – a number of historians (as the main propagandists), politicians, and the KOS, which is the main instrument of cross-border action.”
The latest population census in Montenegro shows that 41.1 percent of citizens identified as Montenegrin and 32.9 percent as Serb.
