Ethnic conflict in the so-called Presevo Valley. The role of the Orhodox Christianity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to determine the role of the Orthodox Christianity in the ethnic Serbian- Albanian conflict in the so-called Presevo Valley. This conflict between ethnically and religiously divided societies escalated to a military phase at the turn of the 20th century. The data on the role of the Orthodox Christianity in the conflict and the perception of its characteristics by local Serbs was acquired through the field research conducted in September 2011. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section includes a general description of the Serbian-Albanian conflict in the so-called Presevo Valley; the second part consists of a theoretical framework of the role of religion in ethnic conflicts; the third section contains a field research methodology; and the fourth, main part consists of the analysis of the field data. The analysis of the acquired data was organised in four thematic streams: (a) the defensive character of the Orthodox religion, (b) the Serbian Orthodox Church as a national and religious institution, (c) the perception of local and newcomer Muslims, (d) the perception of the role of religion and other factors in the local ethnic conflict. The conclusion coming from this article is that the religion plays a negligible role in the discussed conflict which was mostly influenced by economic and ideological factors. However, religion can be cleverly instrumentalised in a conflict. Additionally, on the Serbian side, there is visible an increased victimisation discourse (where Serbs are the victims) containing both national and religious motives.