yugoslavias implosion

The Brioni Plenum was the first showdown between liberals and the
republics, on one side, and conservative forces opposed to the decentralization
of power, on the other. Albanians viewed these changes as
a sign of their impending liberation; although Albanians continued
to be regarded as an alien element, 1966 marked the birth of Albanian
political life in Yugoslavia. Albanian emancipation proceeded with
great speed. A university was established at Pristina, and Albanian
nationalism was sparked in the quest for ever-greater equality in the
federation. Yet, there was little dialogue about the rising nationalism
and almost no discussion of it between the Serbs and Albanians.
The Yugoslav state genuinely acknowledged the rights of Albanians
for the first time in 1966. The recognition of these rights caused
growing frustration among Serbian nationalists, who believed
that concessions to the Albanians were part of a plot against Serbia.
In May 1968, the fourteenth session of the Central Committee
of the League of Communists of Serbia was held in Belgrade to
debate national equality. Historian Jovan Marjanović and author
Dobrica Ćosić pointed to manifestations of nationalism in Kosovo,
to “Albano-centrism and separatist tendencies,” and to “widespread
anti-Serb sentiments among Albanians.” Ćosić stressed that there
was widespread concern in Serbia about the “increasingly strained
relations between Albanians and Serbs, a feeling of insecurity among
Serbs and Montenegrins, a tendency among professionals to leave
Kosovo and Metohija, an inequality before the courts of law and disregard
for the law, and blackmailing in the name of one’s national
affiliation.” Although he was irritated in particular by the increasing
“sovereignty of Kosovo,” he also criticized “Vojvodinan autonomism,”
especially “Hungarian nationalism and segregation.” 334
Marjanović censured the “senselessness of the proclamation
of a Muslim nation in Yugoslavia,” a symposium on Montenegrin
national culture, and the “demands of bureaucratic nationalists
334 Borba, May 31, 1968 .
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