On Saturday, January 29, 2022 at 1:24:29 PM UTC+1, Tony Wailey wrote:

On Monday, March 26, 2012 at 5:39:27 PM UTC+1, TT wrote:

Novak Djokovic, the dangerous Serbian nationalist.
In his latest, widely read online mailbag, Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim wrote, “Ask yourself: What's the worst thing you could say about Djokovic in 2011? He once used a controversial egg contraption? He faded in the fall? His parents stopped showing up
wearing those super cool T-shirts? Just a standout year in every sense.”

I have something worse to say than the trivial examples Wertheim uses to build up his straw man. Djokovic is not a big-hearted patriot, but a dangerous nationalist whose actions are governed by his family's narrow personal interests. Here is my evidence:

In the interview he gave the German magazine, Spiegel Online, on Ocober
7, 2011, Djokovic said he did not regret the inflammatory remarks he
made about Kosovo in a Belgrade meeting which resulted in an attack on German, Bosnian, Croatian , and American embassies (the latter of which the Serbian crowd tried to set on fire). His claim is that "we are
seeking justice but cannot get it." Justice, according to Djokovic,
means not recognizing Kosovo as an independent country but forcing its predominantly Albanian and Muslim population to continue to accept
Serbian rule because Djokovic's father is from there. Also because there are Orthdox Christian monasteries in the northern part, which according
to Djokovic makes Kosova "the birthplace of Serbian culture” (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,790484-2,00.html ).

First of all, although the majority of Albanian people, like the Bosnian people, converted to Islam under the five hundred year rule of the
Ottoman Empire (unlike the Serbs and other Slavic nations which remained Orthodox Christian), the Albanian people together with the Greeks are
the only two native people of the Balkans. The Slavic people did not immigrate into the Balkans until the seventh century A.D. When the
Balkan nations declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire in
the beginning of the twentieth century, Kosova was given to Serbia by
the European power players because of Serbia’s ethnic and religious ties with Russia. Any claim that Kosovar Albanians are remnants of the
Ottoman occupation (as even one of my better educated Russian friends thought before he decided to do his research on the matter) is
revisionist history. All one has to do is read any impartial history
book. Here's one: http://www.amazon.com/Palgrave-Concise-Historical-Atlas-Balkans/dp/031223970X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Secondly, while Djokovic and the Spiegel reporter spend a lot of time commiserating over how "scared" twelve year old Djokovic was during the NATO bombing and the death of his tennis teacher's sister (who died when
a wall crumbled at what must have been a relatively advanced age), they barely mention the reason for the NATO bombing. That reason has been chronicled in various international reports. Here is only one of many (with one of countless chilling pictures that prove it): http://projects.jou.ufl.edu/ktrammell/project2/ethnicity/balkans1.htm .

During the Serbian massacres in Kosovo, more than 1.5 million people
were banished from their homes and forced to live in squalor like
animals. I remember one (American) television report in particular about
a woman who had lost her mental faculties after being forced to abandon her children and leave them in harm’s way. In another, a grown man could not speak and was embarrassed when he couldn’t stop from crying after recalling what he had witnessed in his village. Over 3, 000 people, men, women, and children, were killed in cold blood for being Albanian and Muslim. The Serbian government neither acknowledged nor stopped its
active killings until the Serbian army was stopped by the NATO bombing
of Belgrade (which did not target civilians although a few civilians became casualties). Djokovic was struggling to keep playing tennis. Albanian Kosovars were struggling to keep their families alilve. The Kosovo massacre was the culmination of years of ethnic and religious discrimination. This is why the Albanian Kosovars refuse to accept
Serbian rule.

Even the bravest Serbian writers have not admitted to the atrocities committed by Serbs in Kosova and have focused instead on the atrocities committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/opinion/06Kandic.html To date, Serbia has not apologized or acknowledged the ethnic cleansing of Albanian Kosovars.
It is true that some Kosovo Liberation Army units and generals tried to avenge the killings of Kosovar Albanians by killing innocent Serbian civilians. They should and have been brought to trial in Hague. It is
also true that the Kosovo government has not acknowledged nor apologized for the atrocities committed on Serbian civilians by Kosovo Liberation Army forces. They should do both. However, Serbian war criminals overwhelmingly outnumber Albanian Kosovar criminals and the number of Albanian Kosovar victims is far, far greater than that of Serbian victims.

Djokovic is intentionally emphasizing only Serbian suffering while refusing to acknowledge Serbian crimes. Furthermore, he is using his super-star status to fan the flames of Serbian nationalism, the Serbian hatred of Kosovar Albanians and Serbia’s claims over a land that has historically been and is currently predominantly populated by Albanian Kosovars. And he’s doing it in the name of his religion, taking advantage of anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe. One chilling reminder of that sentiment came in July of this year in Norway, when the Christian fundamentalist Anders Breivik killed over seventy people related to the ruling party for being too tolerant of Muslims. In his five thousand
page manifesto, Breivik specifically targeted Albanian Kosovars for
being Muslim (http://m.theage.com.au/world/manifesto-reveals-killers-longheld-hatreds-20110725-1hw4j.html?page=1).

A patriot is someone who stands up for his or her country when it is wronged. A nationalist is someone who stands up for his or country when
it wrongs others. One is noble, the other is vile.

Personally, although I am born and raised in Albania, I am not from
Kosovo and , like most Albanians from Albania I know, I think of the two countries as separate people who have developed different cultures in
the past one hundred years. I think that Northern Kosovo should be ceded to Serbia, not because Serbia has any historical or cultural claim to
it, but because it is currently populated mostly by Serbs who as an
ethnic minority may be discriminated against the same way Albanian Kosovars were discriminated against by the Serbian government. Moreover, my own father, Faik Shehi, was a political prisoner who was convicted
for praising the regime of Tito, the Yugoslav communist leader. He spent some of his childhood in Kosovo before World War II and always insisting on defending the Serbians he met there who were kind to him. Unlike Djokovic, I have no personal investment in this matter.

Djokovic’s public persona is calculated to manipulate international opinion in favor of Serbian claims to the whole region of Kosovo and he has done a very good job at putting up a good, deceiving front. Serbian nationalists are having a field day with his dominance on the tennis courts. Unfortunately Kosovar Albanians have no internationally
prominent public figure to give voice to their stories. Just as unfortunately, none of the many tennis writers who have spent a lot of pixels and ink writing about the Serbian players training difficulties
has investigated Djokovic's political agenda and to what end he has used his power in Serbia. But his dominance won’t last forever, and even if it did, might does not make right. The majority of Kosovo is the
rightful territory of Albanian Kosovars, even if they are Muslims. They survived ruthless Serbian oppression and persecution and they deserve to live and worship freely in their own land.

http://monikashehi.blogspot.com/2011/12/novak-djokovic-dangerous-serbian.html

Great Article TT, I thoroughly accept what I have always suspected, it took the Australian Fiasco to make me look alittle closer, the clue was in all the supporters draped in Serbian nationalist regalia. Theirs is not a happy history post the break up

of Yugoslavia.
What a bunch of crap. First of all you "forgot" to mention that Serbs were majority in Kosovo until late 19th century, that they were constantly persecuted by Ottomans and Albanians. that they left almost 2000 churches, castles and other cultural
heritage behind them (4 of them are under UNESCO world heritage protection) build mostly during Nemanjic dynasty (SO YES SERBS DO HAVE CULTURAL HISTORY IN KOSOVO) and 150 of them are now burned by Albanians, that most of the Albanians moved to Kosovo
only because they were running from Hoxa regime and were invited by Tito, that rioting started in the 80-ies with reported crimes made by Albanians in Kosovo against almost every non Albanian population not just Serbs, that crimes resumed after 2004 and
especially are escalating now during Kurti regime, where even children are getting attacked and shoot, and also let´s not forget that most countries do not recognise Kosovo as a independent country, countries like India, China, Spain, Russia and so on.
Leaving a very questionable position of Kosovo as a future member of UN, especially since some of major world powers will continue blocking it. As for Djokovic everything you wrote is false. Djokovic is a Serbian patriot, who considers Kosovo as part of
Serbia. Just because he has different opinion than you does not make him a extreme nationalist and other crap you wrote. And as for oppression Albanians were a oppressive factor for a long time and are a oppressive factor right now. So as long you
continue to make ethnic cleansing, blocking other people to live freely especially in North Kosovo, continue to write revisionist history (you are a typical example). there will be no peace. By the way in 2012 Djokovic`s family received death treats from
Albanian mafia during Wimbledon tournament. So much about peaceful Albanians.

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