The anti-Kosovo backlash that has occurred in recent days is founded in irrational thinking. The idea that the Canadian government could somehow benefit from refusing to acknowledge an independent Kosovo, or would suffer for opposing that such a state ought to exist, is as illogical as it is unrealistic.
In attempting to prevent international diplomatic recognition of the newborn Republic of Kosovo, the Serbian government and its international allies have put forth the “secession precedent” argument: that recognizing Kosovo’s independence will lead to the independence of approximately every aspiring nation- state in the world, including Quebec. This argument stems from the triumph of ideology over reality, of an opinion held with much emotion and little thought. It blinds one to the facts of Kosovo’s situation, how it differs from the other countries on the wannabe seccessionist list, and the illegitimacy of Serbia’s claim to Kosovo.
Just as all countries are unique, so are all secession movements. They share the same desire for independence and their own identity—nothing more. To claim that all national independence movements are “the same” as Kosovo, that they are illegitimate, ignores the legitimacy of national independence movements entirely; as if the map of the world has never been changed, or that no country has ever rightfully broken from another in the past.
By this logic, the United States should still be under the control of the British Crown, and Serbia should by right be a province of the Ottoman Empire. To argue that Kosovo’s independence would lead to Quebec’s is not merely falseto- facts, but downright absurd. Kosovo is not Quebec. The differences between the territories are many, but most pertinent is that Quebec, unlike Kosovo, is a very large, prosperous and influential part of a larger polity, and Kosovo is not. In 1999, while the Canadian government was led by a Québécois Prime Minister, the Serbian government murdered Kosovars while simultaneously driving them from their homes. Even if the Serbian state did have a right to govern the Kosovars, its attempt to eradicate a population nine years ago is a clear indicator that they have no interest in doing so justly.
Serbs who oppose the secession are concerned with the land of Kosovo itself, not its people. The land has deep spiritual and cultural significance to Serbian Orthodox Christians, but individuals have more rights than states or churches. Serbs have, and should have, every right to visit Kosovo and worship freely there. But a divine mandate or appeal to history cannot overrule the mandate of a citizenry united in a just and democratic cause.
