The extremism of the Kosovo-Metohija area as an obstacle to dialogue

Abstract

The period after the 1990s wars was marked by many difficulties in relations between states established by the dissolution of the former SFRY, and one of the most significant obstacles to the relaxation of interstate, interethnic and interconfessional relations is the fact that extremism in these areas persists even in the advanced third decade since the end of the war conflicts. The example of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, in the context of the survival of various varieties of political violence, is certainly considered one of the most blatant in the otherwise "too rich" milieu of the Balkans in these types of violence. Starting from the hypothesis that the strong extremism of the area of the southern Serbian province represents a serious obstacle to dialogue, the paper analyses some of the most dominant forms of political violence in Kosovo and Metohija, such as extremism inspired by religious and ethno-nationalist narratives, according to the knowledge about variability and development, identity and diversity, opposites and contradictions. The emphasis is placed on their mutual relation in the context of superimposing characteristics, as well as the way in which they are incriminatingly incorporated into the complex dialogue about the final status of the southern Serbian province.