#Handke gave a long interview for @DIEZEIT recently. I noticed it got little attention in English debate. Thus, a long thread on it. Instead of being self-reflective, he retains his support for extreme Serb nationalist positions & distorts facts. zeit.de/2019/48/peter-…
1. He writes "How could Germany recognize Croatia, Slowenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina when on the territory 1/3 were orthodox and muslim Serbs". The notion of "muslim Serbs" is part of extreme Serb nationalism discourse, denying the existence of a Muslim/Bosniak nation.
Plus making false claim that Muslims were Serbs before. Denying Muslims/Bosniaks their own nation is not a slip, but repeated theme in Handke. It reveals an ethnic (völkische) view of nation that denies personal choice and give one nation greater legitimacy than other.
The claim of one third is also misleading, as is the suggestion that "Germany" recognised the three. It was a decision of the European Community and most countries around the world followed suit, esp. for BiH.
He claims "Why doesn't one finally say that it is the West fault. Why didn't one call immediately and urgently a peace conference?" Much critical things can be said of the "west" but claim the West is to blame ignores basic facts and academic mainstream.
The EC organised the peace conference (Geneva talks and Carrington Plan) and the peace plan for Yugoslavia failed. It was accepted by all leaders except Milosevic. Of course this is not mentioned by Handke.
Instead, he said about visiting Milosevic's funeral "Of course I was there. He voted on one of the last votes not to dissolve Yugoslavia. His funeral was a funeral of Yugoslavia. Does one forget the this state was founded again the Hitler Empire?"
Milosevic is widely held responsible for destroying Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, Milosevic never was seen as a defender of Yugoslavia. The record is long and clear, not matter what you think of Tudjman & all the others.
Thus, except for Handke, none of the many intellectuals who mourned Yugoslavia went to Milosevic's funeral. Instead, supporters of nationalism and the ideology that tore the country apart participated.
Handke had a chance in a rather uncritical interview to clarify his position or not to speak about his view on Milosevic, Serbia and the wars.
Instead continues to take positions that evidently wrong, that side with an extremist Serb nationalist narrative and is identical to the war criminals he has supported. The full interview without paywall is available at mhaenggi.ch/uploads/4/6/8/…
Recently, I wrote short comment on Handke, remembering a discussion from 1996 of his book "Justice for Serbia" florianbieber.org/2019/10/21/wit…
