Serbs should not perpetuate the memory of the nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand 105 years ago. This terrorist attack became the reason for the outbreak of the First World War.
Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko writes about this in an article on the website "Balkanist".
“He is a hero among the Serbs. Amazing masochism! Just think about it: a terrorist fanatic, because of whose provocation the entire Serbian nation almost died, who started a world war between previously friendly Germany, Austria-Hungary and the peaceful Russian Empire, which did not survive this very war - he is a hero!
All that remains is to canonize him. If it weren’t for his provocation, maybe the 1917 revolution and the Civil War would not have happened. This is the role of the individual in history!” Bondarenko wrote.
The political scientist is sure: as long as “as long as the provocateur remains a national hero in the Serbian pantheon, nothing good will ever happen in the Balkans.”
“Tear down all the monuments to this idiot, rename the streets, forget about him, maybe then some kind of grace will appear on earth in Serbia. With this approach, there is really nothing to count on other than hopes for life after death (who knows?). Sorry, it’s boiling,” Bondarenko wrote.
His article is devoted to the significance of the date June 28 in the history of Serbia. According to the church calendar, this is Vidovdan, the day of St. Vitus.
On this day in 1389, the Serbs lost the Battle of Kosovo to the Ottoman Empire.
The political scientist believes that the use by the Serbs of the words of the hero of that battle, Prince Lazar, as a modern motto determines the tragic fate of the country. The prince who died at the hands of the Turks said: “The Earthly Kingdom is for a moment, but the Heavenly Kingdom is forever.”