As most people with TV know - two weeks ago Kosovo declared independence from Serbia after a long struggle for autonomy. The rush of images that I scrolled through online all had two things in common - lots of emotions and flags. Last week in Vienna we saw the same thing, and yes it was concerning Kosovo. Yet the flags were Serbian, the emotions volatile, and few were in favor of an independent Kosovo. Fortunately for us we passed by the protests before it got violent... which it did later in the evening. Although we haven't seem such protests against Kosovo in Slovakia, the feelings are here (at least amongst politicians). Slovakia and a score of other nations are refusing to recognize Kosovo. This snubbing of Statehood has more to do with internal struggles with minorities seeking political autonomy. Accepting Kosovo is to accept an international precedent. Each rejecting nation (Spain, Slovakia, Russia, etc) has their own specific issues, so it's hard to make any generalizations. For Slovaks it's an issue with the southern region (Nitra county) which has a high % of ethnic Hungarians. My understanding is that most from this group are not seeking autonomy from Slovakia, but there are some very zealous Hungarian minority politicians in the Slovak government who do have this agenda. In my opinion it's not an issue of a marginalized group being denied basic democratic rights, but yet weapon for nationalist extremist to open old wounds. Historian Stefan Sutaj recently was quoted in Tyzden concerning Slovak-Hungarian relations, that the two nations should focus on their shared culture/experiences instead of "inflaming passions by arguing over who hit the other more often, and harder." I agree.
Unfortunately, Kosovo (and it's immediate neighbors) have a history of bringing out the worst in most of us. Hopefully history does not repeat itself this time around.
Vienna, Sunday Feb.24th:
