Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The memorandum on the situation of the Serbian nation in Yugoslavia, known as the SANU Memorandum, was a memorandum, which between 1982 and 1986 by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Serbian: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti; SANU ) was elaborated. This memorandum had a significant influence on the resurgence of nationalism in Serbia. The text should have been edited by the former member of the Academy and later President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Dobrica Cosic, but what this denied, but at the same time defended the memorandum.

Content

The 74 -page memorandum is primarily a critique of current economic and cultural developments of the Yugoslav system. It is in this case lamented the increasing fragmentation and regionalization of society and pointed to a lack of democratic structures. The Titoismus is considered " anti-Serb " doctrine, by which the Serbian nation had been deliberately weakened, which the other constituent republics would then exploited to their advantage. The memorandum called for an end to " discrimination of the Serbian people ."

In addition to the " economic discrimination against Serbia ," lamented one the "oppression of the Serbs in Croatia " and even spoke of " genocide of the Serbs in Kosovo." The term genocide or genocide was thus introduced as a battle cry in the innerjugoslawischen disputes.

Claiming that the Kosovo Albanians would commit genocide against the Serbs, the academy this population had assigned chiefly to blame for the gaps identified by their plight Serbia. The thesis has been underpinned by historical arguments that ranged far back into the history and long before the creation of the first Yugoslavia in 1918, had therefore nothing to do with the current crisis of the socialist system in Yugoslavia.

The authors asked finally, the " national and cultural integrity of the Serbian people, regardless of which republic or province they live " to ensure without explaining how this requirement is implemented.

Cultural reception

In the newspaper Večernje Novosti few excerpts of the memorandum were publicized and widely discussed by the public.

Intellectuals and politicians of the other peoples of Yugoslavia responded to the call of the Academy with their own national programs. Between the Republics An increasingly poisonous atmosphere spread. In the media and in literature Yugoslavia was always open wrote about " ethnicity" and " blood and soil " that the other nations were accused of getting louder, his own misery, unemployment, have caused the economic and social plight.