on Aug 28th, 2006
Arkan: a Serbian patriot or…?
Unlike Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic whose names were mentioned often during one of those popcorn political interrogations I had for the Bosniaks, I never heard of Arkan. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t talk politics all the time, when I have time I listened to Turbo folk. But don’t tell the Bosniaks since they will make fun of my choice of music. For many Bosniaks, Turbo folk associated with those Serbians who once raped, them, figuratively and literally.
“You know why we hate Turbo folk?” One kid tried to explain to me. “The most famous Turbo folk singer, Ceca was the wife of a Serb general who murdered us.” From her wiki page, I discovered “Arkan.” I am not going to discuss details about his life since such information is everywhere on the internet. What more interested to me is how skewed and strange human perception and interpretation can be. For many Serbians, this world-recognized war criminal was a national hero.
I had no doubt in my mind he inspired his followers and gained their supports for his ill-fated mission to defend his country which he claimed he “lovedâ€. Ignore the undiplomatic and uncivilized language in his speech; one can feel a lot of charisma from this man. I believe this guy truly loved Serbia and Orthodox faith, albeit in a twisted way. Too bad, by loving his own, he turned into a bigot: “…all Muslims are WILD DOGS. This is the war between us and the WILD DOG…”
What a waste! These radical Serbians could have done a lot of good for Serbia instead of dragging their country’s name to the mud and ravaging neighboring ones at the same time. But what is more utterly incomprehensible? Arkan can not exist and flourish WITHOUT the support of the people–a lot of them.
Technorati Tags: balkan, bosnia, politics, radical, serbia, video, war
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Arkan was a great Serb. The greatest tragedy of our people is that today’s hero is tomorrows “criminal†When he fought for freedom we all knew his methods were militarily unorthodox we still loved him. When it was over and he had gained both money and fame through his “work’ we were jealous and hated him This is why Serbs will destroy themselves as a people We cannot get over the envy we have of our leaders to lend support to them to achieve, not death but greatness. May God rest his Soul. May we rmember him as a Hero
thanks very much for the comment. you’re probably the first who speaks for the Serbian side, which I really appreciate. I have always wanted to expand my view points. If you follow my blog closely, you’ll notice that my circle are Bosniaks and Croats/Croatians and am somewhat bias toward them.
However, to justify your claim, can you explain to me why Arkan was and is still a hero when he slaughtered many innoccent Bosniak civilians? And you probably know about his attitude toward the Muslims. I can give that he love his country and his people, Serbia and Serbians, but still there are many other ways to protect them.
Fuck, both of you!
Lux, YOU have just confirmed everything they said about radical Serbs like you (i guess you are a Serb). You can’t even bother to read the entire post or I wonder whether you’re capable enough to UNDERSTAND the message in the post. I’m very careful in my language about Arkan.
Yup yup, what can I say about the one who can only utter the ‘FUCK’. The language reminds me of something. Ah, the same tone use by this great patriot Serb of yours, Arkan.
You sorry excuse for a human being make a bad name for your entire country and your people, the Serbs.
Have a very good day as you need it.
[…] Turbo folk: I played "Tako Mlada," a Turbo folk song for Marko with the intention of teasing him. As I thought, he grinned his face and didn’t like it as it reminded him of the war. His reason was very similar to what my Bosniak students told me. During the war, Turbo folk was played a lot by Serbian forces as the most famous of all, Ceca, was Arkan’s wife. I didn’t let him off that easy because although I stopped the song, I continued torturing the poor guy with my miserable off-key Turbo folk tune: "… chico balada, moja biografija oh oh oh oh oh…" | | | | […]
[…] Turbo folk: I played “Tako Mlada,” a Turbo folk song for Marko with the intention of teasing him. As I thought, he grinned his face and didn’t like it as it reminded him of the war. His reason was very similar to what my Bosniak students told me. During the war, Turbo folk was played a lot by Serbian forces as the most famous of all, Ceca, was Arkan’s wife. (Arkan was a popular and high-ranked Serb military leader.) I didn’t let him off that easy because although I stopped the song, I continued torturing the poor guy with my miserable off-key Turbo folk tune: “… chico balada, moja biografija oh oh oh oh oh…” […]
I am a Serb and I am embarrassed that Arkan was a Serb. I am not the only Serb who feels this way, my Serbian friends do too. He was a criminal and it is so sad that our country fell so low that this is the kind of person who ended up with power. I am ashamed for all of us for letting our country (and by this I mean Yugoslavia) fall into something so horrible when the life we once had was so good and we all lived in peace. Tribal warfare is backward, we are all backward for letting this happen. It set back the clock instead of propelling us forward with other advanced countries. None of us gain anything from hatred, we make our own lives worse. And in the end it’s a myth that we are so different. When you go abroad you realize how much Serbs, Bosniaks and Croatians are actually alike.