Serbian Synod to Fight for Serbian Culture

The Synod of the Serb Orthodox Church says that the situation with the Serbian national written language, the Cyrillic alphabet, is threatening. Serbian clergy addressed the Serbian community with an appeal to preserve their native written language. The appeal says that the Cyrillic alphabet is disappearing from the public and cultural life in Serbia and Montenegro. Only a few newspapers, including those owned by the clergy, of a total number of over 800 are printed in Cyrillic, at the time when the rest are issued in the Roman letters. As for the Serbian Internet, the number of sources in Cyrillic is even less. Komentar.net– Glas Desnice - is one of the few sources devoted to the Serbian identity. This online source strictly criticizes the policies of Serbian and Yugoslav authorities.

RIA Novosti informs that Serbia currently fears the replacement of the Cyrillic language with Roman letters. The Serbian Academy of Science and Culture and several other organizations are conducting protests in connection with this problem. A national committee for the protection of the Cyrillic alphabet has been set up in the republic.

The synod of the Serb Orthodox Church refuses the idea that Yugoslavia’s desire to incorporate in Europe “implies the rejection of Serbian national and cultural characteristics.” Indeed, EU members “don’t reject their national self-determination, culture, and language; on the contrary, they pay even more attention to developing them and enriching European culture.” PRAVDA.Ru has recently reported on the language problem in Serbia. It was reported that deputies of the parliament had submitted a draft “Declaration on the protection of the Cyrillic alphabet." Deputies stressed that, if Serbian society rejects its own written language, this means that it “won’t preserve its cultural values, traditions, and national identity.” Professor Risto Trajkovic, one of the authors of the declaration, says: “The nation is identified by its traditions, written, and spoken languages. Serbian traditions and customs are becoming more and more obsolete; there are many borrowed words in the language; the Serbian written language and literature are disappearing. Together with them, the Serbian nation is dying out and is fading away from the political scene. The replacing of our written language to the Roman alphabet is also the result of a universal tendency: globalization.” The Serbian political party National Movement "Obraz" is currently conducting a special online action in support of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: https://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/16/48447.html

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