Tennis player Novak Djokovic has shone in yet another controversy after winning his first match at the Roland Garros tournament on Monday. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. No to violence,” he wrote on a television camera after beating American of Serbian descent Aleksandar Kovacevic.
At stake is the situation in northern Kosovo, the scene of days-long clashes between members of the International Force for Kosovo (KFOR), led by NATO, and Serb protesters calling for the departure of four Albanian mayors, elected in April, from the region.
Later, during a press conference, the tennis player explained to Serbian journalists. “As a public figure, but also as the son of a man born in Kosovo, I feel an additional responsibility to try to express my support for our people and for Serbia as a whole. It’s the least I can do. I I am not a politician and I do not intend to enter into a debate,” he said.
Novak Djokovic wrote “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence” after his victory at Roland Garros today pic.twitter.com/75fSplaVZZ
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 29, 2023
This is not the first time Djokovic has spoken out about Kosovo. In January 2008, when he won the Australian Open for the first time, he declared that “Kosovo is Serbia”.
The message the Serbian tennis player wrote into the camera could violate Roland Garros’ code of ethics, which prohibits political or religious positioning. “I don’t know if they’re going to punish me,” he confessed.
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) acknowledged in a statement that “debates about international news are sometimes part of tournaments, that’s understandable”, without commenting on a possible penalty.
However, French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told broadcaster France 2 that Djokovic’s message was “clearly not appropriate”.
“There is a principle of neutrality on the playing field. When messages about the defense of human rights are broadcast, messages that unite people around universal values, an athlete is free to express them. But in this case it was a message very activist , very political. Athletes should not get involved, especially in the current circumstances, and this should not happen again,” said the minister, who is a former chairman of the FFT.
Lukas Macek, a researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute of Political Science in Paris, told AFP that “Djokovic’s statement comes as no surprise”. “Novak is someone who maintains ties with some Serbian nationalist circles and his positions in this regard are frequent. But the issue of Kosovo, even for very moderate Serbs, is still a wound, a delicate and painful subject,” he explained.
On the night from Monday to Tuesday, a mural with Djokovic’s face on a building in Orahovac, a small town in southwest Koscovo where hundreds of Serbs and Albanians live, was vandalized.
Albanian separatists from Kosovo destroyed a mural of the world’s best Serbian tennis player Novak Djoković in Orahovac. Albanians are a disgrace to civilization. They do everything with the support of NATO. pic.twitter.com/jdnzZsqfgl
– Ljiljana G. (@Lilana99017612) May 30, 2023
Serbia has never recognized the independence declared by the former province in 2008, and tensions between Belgrade and Pristina regularly rise. About 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, about a third of whom live in the north of the territory.
The two countries are negotiating the normalization of their relations under a new EU plan, backed by Washington, in a process often punctuated by clashes.
Source: DN
