German historical revisionism in the Balkans at the turn of the 21st century

Islam, and recruited into the elite Ottoman military force known as
the Janissaries. He made an exemplary career for himself and in 1565 he
became the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. According to one of
his contemporaries, learned German chronicler and Evangelical theo-
logian Stefan Gerlach from Tubingen who served in Constantinople
from 1573-1578, Mehmed-pasha Sokolović is responsible for the fact the
Serbian language (the shtokavian, exclusively Serbian variant) was at the
time one of the official languages at the Ottoman Sultan’s court.
Needless to say that the Turkish historical sources from that period
make no mention of any sort of “Bosnian” or “Bosniak” language
being used at court.
Stefan Gerlach further documents that Mehmed-pasha Sokolović
succeeded in initiating the renovation of the Serbian Orthodox Patri-
archate of Peć, and that the first Patriarch after renovation was one of his
close family members (Gerlach writes: “brother”) Makarije Sokolović.
If, then, this forcibly converted Serb is for Smail Balić and his sup-
porters a “Bosnian Grand Vizier” and member of “a historic Bosniak
nation”, then it is legitimate to pose the following question: how is it
that Balić did not consequently also conclude that one of the Patri-
archs of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Makarije Sokolović (close rela-
tive and likely the brother of the “Bosniak” Grand Vizier Mehmed-pa-
sha Sokolović), was likewise a “member of a historic Bosniak nation”?
The possible answer to this riddle can be found in Balić’s thesis; for
him Serbs are simply “barbarians (...) unpredictable (...) arrogant (...)
retarded (...) primitive Dinaric peoples” who he says are “demonizing
and exclusive in their worldview and ready to commit anti-civilization
deeds...”, while “Bosniaks are of an urban character, moral, predis-
posed to order and peace...”.
Thus, for the promoters of a “negotiated” Bosniak nation at the
end of the 20th century a Grand Vizier and co-ruler of the Ottoman
Empire in the 16th century who came from a Serbian background
(Mehmed-pasha Sokolović) was deemed worthy of being redefined
into a Bosniak. However, it by no means seems appropriate for his
close relative and likely his brother, Makarije Sokolović, to also be a
part of the “urban, moral, peaceful and happy Bosniak nation” and at
the same time be at the head of the Christian Orthodox Church of the
“barbarian and retarded, anti-civilizational and demonizing” Serbs.
With this in mind, I will permit myself the following view in re-
lation to these “scientifically proven claims” by the promoters of the
“historic Bosniak nation”:
This issue and its interpretation does not rely on speculative
models of thought such as those associated with philosophy, where the
classical paradox of the famed ancient Greek thinker Epimenedes of
Crete “does a liar lie when he says he is a liar?” is rightly considered an
achievement of the (speculative element) of the human spirit. No, here
we are talking about history and science, and while historical science
also allows for authors to interpret reliable and verified sources, it does
not allow for rhetorical manipulations and blatant contradictions.
In conclusion, I want to put the logical soundness of the argumen-
tation, analysis, and conclusions made by Smail Balić and his support-
ers to one very simple test:
If every single person who was born during any period in history
within the geographical region of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina is
a “member of a historic Bosniak nation”, then the following question
is also legitimate: was Constantine the Great a member of the Serbian
nation because he was born in what is today the Serbian city of Niš?
And was Moses a member of the Egyptian nation because he was born
in the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, today known as Luxor?
In this particular part of his text, in which he is concerned with
the defamatory and dehumanizing redefinition of the Serbs as a
people, Smail Balić clearly borrows the vocabulary of the promot-
ers and propagandists of the genocidal Independent State of Croatia
(1941-1945), including “barbarians (...) unpredictable (...) retarded (...)
primitive Dinaric peoples” who are “demonizing and exclusive in their
worldview and ready to commit anti-civilization deeds....”
However, he also adopts one essential ideological assertion of the
genocidal Croatian State (1941-1945) with his unsubstantiated claim
that “Serbs first came to Bosnia only between the 16th and 19th centur-
ies, along with the Turks.”
Clearly, Balić found this platitude about “late-comer Serb vermin”
in Bosnia and Herzegovina useful for his own political and ideological
project. His vocabulary is not the vocabulary of science, but rather of
singular nationalist politics, extremist fringe ideology, and vile and
fiery propaganda. In this he is doing a disservice to the interest group
he serves and the ultimate desire of this interest group to gain accept-
ance as an important political actor in contemporary Bosnia and Her-
zegovina.
The scientific and historical truth is that Mehmed-pasha Sokolović
was an Orthodox Christian Serb who was taken from his family as a
child by Turkish forces, forced to convert to Islam, and later became an
extremely important military leader and statesman within the Otto-
man Empire.
Thus, he belongs to both the Serbian and the Turkish historic-
al, cultural, and religious heritage, even though the role he played in
Turkish history was forced on him by the Ottoman State (“blood tax”).
His biography bears witness that he accepted the fate that was thrust
upon him, even though there are clear, reliable and difficult to deny
indications that he never forgot or neglected his roots, his ethnic back-
ground, and the religion of his ancestors. Seeing as how the ancestors
of contemporary Bosnian Muslims or, according to their own under-
standing, the contemporary (negotiated) Bosniak nation, at one time
or another – willingly or by force – converted to Islam and in time ac-
cepted the Ottoman system of values, it is the legitimate right of their
modern descendents to consider Mehmed-pasha Sokolović a part of
their history, and their cultural and religious tradition.
This perspective about a common or at least interconnected herit-
age – and not the arbitrary and exclusive appropriation into a newly
constructed national identity – would be an important step on the
road to truth, consensus, community, or at the very least a civil mutual
relationship. It is difficult to imagine that there will be a consensus be-
tween Greece and the “negotiated” Macedonian nation in our lifetime
as long as the Macedonians continue down the road of confrontation,
arbitrary redefining of history, and of appropriating Greek conqueror
Alexander the Great. Or a consensus between Greece and ethnic Al-
banians, who are heading down the road of confrontation and as part
of their “Illyrian Myth” are redefining the same Alexander the Great
into an Illyrian-Albanian Iskender.
There are many more such cases, such as the case of “solely and ex-
clusively Albanian hero George Kastrioti,” who should otherwise – as
a result of his noble birth to Serbian mother Vojislava and father Jovan
– be a bridge of understanding between Albanians and Serbs. His real
name was Đurađ Kastriot(ić), his father was an important benefactor
of the Serbian Orthodox Monastery Hilandar on Mount Athos, and
his brother Repoš is buried there (D. Lučić 2007).
Đurađ Kastriot(ić) Iskander-beg was initially taken as a hostage
by the Ottoman State. After converting to Islam and accepting a post
in the Turkish military he escaped and returned to his homeland, in
modern-day central Albania, converted back to Christianity and for
almost thirty years led successful military campaigns of resistance
against Ottoman assaults. He led the local Albanian tribes into battle
with him. However, his descendents in time converted to Islam and
were Albanianized, and he was subsequently styled and ethnically re-
defined as an “Albanian freedom fighter against the Turks.”
And what can we say about the tireless attempts by Croatians to
redefine Serbian genius of the century, Nikola Tesla, into “one of the
greatest Croatian scientists” of all time? This despite that fact that Tesla
was undeniably born into a Serbian family and was even the son of
a Serbian Orthodox priest. This is all the more inappropriate given
that the previous Croatian State 1941-1945 committed mass genocide
against his people while Tesla was still alive, including the brutal kill-
ings of over 500 Serbian civilians and Tesla’s former neighbours in and
around Tesla’s hometown of Smiljan.
And as far as Serbian priests go, Tesla’s own father being one of
them, what about the fact that the Independent State of Croatia exiled
hundreds and killed 187 Serbian Orthodox Priests, along with 30
monks and 2 religion teachers? Among the inhumanely murdered
were several bishops (V. Umeljić 2004).
In his conclusions, Smail Balić and his supporters repeat the mis-
takes of all those who share the same view as members of other “nego-
tiated” nations and attempt to verbally, consistently, and as loudly as
possible redefine history (attempting to usurp control over definitions),
readily ignoring the fact that while science does not exclude the inter-
pretation of historical sources, it does not allow them to be deliberately
inverted into the opposite of what they actually are.