SPC supports Chetniks, priests at Ravnogorac gathering

The Ravnogorski Chetnik movement, whose members spread Serbian nationalism and hatred towards other peoples, gathered on March 13 this year in Višegrad to mark the anniversary of the arrest of Chetnik general Draža Mihajlović, which sparked strong reactions in the country from Bosniaks and Croats, as well as from all those who view the glorification of Draža as spreading hatred, writes the Patria news agency. 

The movement, which has a multi-decade tradition, responsible for many crimes during World War II, as well as during the last Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, still has supporters in BiH and Serbia.

A non-governmental organization is also registered that keeps the cult of Chetnikism and Chetnik leader Mihajlović alive.
On dozens of Facebook pages of the Ravnogorski Chetnik movement from BiH, Serbia, Montenegro..., photographs can be seen in which priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church show support for supporters of one of the most notorious movements of the last hundred years.

The Ravnogorski Chetnik movement in BiH has municipal committees in Višegrad, Ugljevik, Zvornik... In Serbia, this organization has municipal committees in Jagodina, Valjevo, Kragujevac, Svilajnac...

Practically, Chetnikism is nurtured in those cities of BiH and Serbia where the most horrific crimes against non-Serb populations were committed during the wars.

Almost all sources that can be found on internet search engines state that Chetnikism is a Greater Serbian nationalist movement, originally formed in Macedonia during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, in the period from the turn of the 19th century to the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.

The story of the Chetniks in the area of the former Yugoslavia begins in 1903. Belgrade physician Milorad Gođevac forms the first Chetnik unit, which is immediately transferred to Macedonia as a terrorist unit in the fight against the Ottomans, in areas with a mixed Orthodox and Muslim population under Ottoman rule.

The official goal is the protection of Serbs from Bulgarian komitas, who, according to official Serbia, were forcing the Serbian population to declare themselves as Bulgarians.

The Chetniks fought under the command of vojvodas. They wore national Šumadija costumes/clothing or simple outfits made of coarse cloth, bandoliers with ammunition across their chests, while a pistol, stick bombs, and a double-edged knife hung from their belts. The cap was most often a šubara with a cross. Their brutal and bloodthirsty actions in the fight against the Ottomans and Bulgarians from 1903 to 1908 influenced the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army to use them in carrying out the most difficult tasks in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, and in World War I.

After World War I, a Chetnik is a member of a Serbian, nationally oriented paramilitary organization, which fights for Serbian land without other peoples. More precisely, the goal of this movement is the extermination of Bosniaks, Albanians, Macedonians, Croats, and other peoples in the Balkan region.

After the rapid collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, paramilitary units emerged in Serbia and other areas with a majority Serbian population, which took the name Chetniks.

They were founded by members of pre-war Chetnik associations, officers of the defeated army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and local peasants frightened by the change of government or refugees from Ustasha persecutions.

Thus, several Chetnik movements were created. The most important is the Ravnogorski movement, led by Dragoljub (Draža) Mihailović.

The Chetniks, initially conceived as a resistance movement, soon take on a quisling character. Their main enemy becomes the People's Liberation Movement led by the communists. Occasional Chetnik actions against the Germans and to help the Western Allies (rescuing pilots) are marginal compared to actions against the People's Liberation Movement, in which they cooperate with the occupying forces, and even with the forces of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

Draža Mihailović suffers a complete military and political defeat in 1943–1944 in the competition with the partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito. King Petar himself finally renounced him in August 1944 and gave legitimacy to the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Various Chetnik units were destroyed in battles with the partisans or the NDH army, or captured by the Western Allies while fleeing to the West at the end of the war, then extradited and killed.

Chetnik movements began to gain momentum after Slobodan Milošević came to the head of the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1989, while they began to operate openly in 1990 in the areas of Serbia, Montenegro, and BiH.

The National Assembly of Serbia in 2004 passed a law that equalized the rights of members of Chetnik units with partisan fighters, including the right to a war veteran's pension.

Analysts believe that due to the crimes they committed, the Chetnik movement should be classified as a genocidal movement banned like the Nazis and Ustashas, and that the glorification of nationalist movements and the display of nationalist symbols should be prohibited and punishable, as is the case in all European countries. Such laws were also adopted by Croatia, as one of the prerequisites for joining the European Union. However, this is not the case in Serbia, writes Patria.