Elements of spatial symbolism of Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica

Mitrovica

The case of Kosovska Mitrovica has long been known as a problem of ethnic divided city which is still today, almost two decades after the war in Kosovo and tohiji in 1999, still current. Division between Serbs and Albanians, inextricably linked to major social, political, demographic and the economic processes that have been going on in Kosovo and Metohija since the war onwards, it was the main reason I opted for implementation field research in this city. The aim of the research was an attempt perception of the everyday life of local Serbs in an environment that is crisis and tietnička, in circumstances that are due to security risks and unresolved institutional-legal status can be described as extraordinary. The above I approached this goal with the intention of contributing to the study of lodge of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija today and to get results that would could be useful not only from a scientific point of view, but also from a wider one, national point of view, as a contribution to a better understanding of the situation in divided Kosovska Mitrovica where the Serb population, in conditions international protectorate in Kosovo and Metohija and unilaterally independence by Albanians, their status and identity already belongs to the Republic of Serbia. I conducted the research on several occasions in the period from mid-2011 until the beginning of 2017, for a total duration of about nine months. Ethnographic I collected the material by the method of qualitative type, by observation researched phenomena, 1 by participating in them and conducting interviews with tanicima.2 The sample of respondents, formed mainly by Serbs, was medium size, 3 non-probabilistic type, 4 which means that it was not representative for the entire Serb population in Kosovska Mitrovica, from where di that on the basis of the results of research obtained on such a sample are not could make strict generalizations, nor draw unambiguous conclusions. The part of the research that I present in this paper refers to one of the most important aspects of the everyday life of the inhabitants of Kosovska Mitrovica in the period after the war in 1999, and that is the concept of space. About the importance of this aspect the fact that the division of Kosovska Mitrovica leads to concentration speaks for itself Serbs and Albanians on opposite sides of the Ibar River, in relation to which, as a border line, both parts of the city in which the whether marked as their own, abstracting them as entities associated with the determination

Kosovska Mitrovica: the phenomenon of a divided city

Kosovska Mitrovica was divided immediately after the end of the war in 1999, that is. after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement and the adoption of UN Resolution 1244, when, in parallel with the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo and Metohija and the introduction of an international protectorate on this territory, armed Albanian formations began to occupy and persecute Serbs and other non-Albanians. In order to defend themselves, the Serbs set up checkpoints in Kosovska Mitrovica north of the Ibar to prevent Albanians from crossing the river from the southern part of the city. The Albanian penetration was stopped, but the bridges in the city, especially the main bridge, instead of connecting became symbols of division, while Ibar became a physical but also a symbolic border line which, dividing Kosovska Mitrovica into two parts, simultaneously divided the central and southern part. Kosovo and Metohija, inhabited mostly by Albanians, from the area north of the river, inhabited mostly by Serbs (Janjić 2007, 137–138). who lived in that part of the city before the war, on their return to Kosovska Mitrovica, were forbidden access to their own homes (Derens 2009, 170). It is estimated that all Serbs, who numbered about 9,000.5 in the city before the war, moved to the north, where to date, including the nearby village of Suvi Do, there are a total of about 22,530.6 It is estimated that most of the 6,000 Roma who lived south of the Ibar until 1999 emigrated to central Serbia or part of the city from another foreign rivers (Rajčević 2008, 78). Apart from Serbs from the part of the city south of the Ibar, the Serb population from Pristina, Istok, Vushtrri, and other places south of the city municipality also moved to the area of ​​northern Kosovska Mitrovica. This immigration took place immediately after the war, but also after the March 2004 pogrom.7 It is estimated that of the approximately 22,530 Serbs living in northern Kosovska Mitrovica and the village of Suvi Do today, between 5,000 and 7,000 have immigrated from the wider areas of Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar. of their own ethnic identity. The identification process involved constructing space as its own through the use of symbols such as names streets and squares, monuments, national landmarks, religious buildings, etc.

 

Topographic map of northern Kosovska Mitrovica showing the position Bosniak neighborhoods and Three Solitaires and several main spatial points.

Everyday life of the inhabitants of divided Kosovska Mitrovica takes place in two parallel worlds - Serbian and Albanian. This applies to the city as a whole, where Serbs are separated from Albanians by the Ibar, but also to the part of the city north of this river, where in addition to the majority Serb population live about 4,900 Albanians, living in the city and in the villages of Suvi Do, Gusevac and Vinarce. 1,000 Bosniaks, 580 Gorani, 210 Turks, 200 Roma and 40 Ashkali.9 This part of the city has been ethnically probably the most heterogeneous part of Kosovo and Metohija since the 1999 war, with Serbs and Albanians living in it in a way that allows them to live. the spaces generally do not overlap, but lean against each other. The neighborhoods of Tri solitera and Bošnjačka mahala, which are located next to the Ibar, are a typical example of this mosaic, since they are inhabited by members of both groups, but so that Albanians gravitate mostly towards the southern, Albanian part of the city, while in the northern, Serbian part sunsets. The partition of Kosovska Mitrovica established not only the division of Kosovo and Metohija into the majority Albanian and majority Serbian part, but also the division of this areas between the institutional and legal systems of the international protectorate and the so-called Kosovo, Albanian authorities in Pristina on the one hand, and the Republic of Serbia on the other. Part of Kosovska Mitrovica north of the Ibar, on whose southern coast live about 90,000 Albanians (Janjić 2007, 137), Serbs represents the epicenter of resistance to inclusion in the Albanian, February 2008 self-proclaimed independent Kosovo, ie. the last barrier to preserving the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Serbia in this area. For Albanians, this part of the city is a "thorn in the side", ie the main obstacle to establishing control over its entire territory, but also an obstacle to the expansion of government to the area of ​​Kosovo and Metohija north of the Ibar.

The state of institutional and legal divisions in Kosovska Mitrovica it is one of the most complex issues of everyday life of the Serbian population in this city. As the majority people in Kosovo and Metohija north of the Ibar After the war in 1999, Serbs remained attached to the institutions of the Republic of Serbia in this area, seeing in them a guarantee of their survival, however, these institutions are, as allegedly illegal, or contrary to the UN resolution 1244, at the same time fell under strong international and Albanian pressure, and hence under the constant threat of abolition, which is among the Serbian caused a population of constant insecurity and concern about the uncertain future. Uncertainty has increased further since the start of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at "normalizing mutual relations", conducted under the auspices of the European

Union, and especially after the signing of the Brussels Agreement on 19 April 2013. year which provides for the inclusion of northern Kosovo and Metohija in the institutional and legal system of self-proclaimed independent Kosovo. With this the agreement envisages the establishment of the Association of Serbian Municipalities, 10 which would was under Pristina's control, which would entail disbandment "Parallel" Serbian structures, ie the closure of the institutions of the Republic Serbia in this area.

Theoretical bases of consideration of spatial symbolism Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica

Research of the symbolism of the space of everyday life of the inhabitants of Kosovo Mitrovica can be related to the theoretical concepts represented in the of the anthropology of space, as a part of urban anthropology, which from the fact that space is not just a backdrop for the study of culture, but its essential component, and by which it is implied that he is not alone raw physical world than primarily a social product with meanings that are socially conceived. In the above, in other words, it is considered that people can't even create anything before they find themselves in a certain space.ru, which is in fact primary for the construction of meaning and society. Close to this view is the concept of social space, which denotes the connection of an objective spatial framework in which social groups of living and subjective social space that is determined by individual by experiencing one's own socio-spatial environment. According to this concept, social relations and social practice are inseparable from it how man defines the space that inhabits and moves. They, son the one hand, they depend on the way in which a person socially produces di, in which the role is played by social, economic, ideological, technological factors, but also, on the other hand, from how he socially constructs it, ie. how he perceives it subjectively and what symbolic meaning he attributes to it, and as a result it can be found in the function of social processes of exchange, conflick or control (Low 1996, 861–862).

This interpretation of space refers to the concept of place, which is defined niche as a product of experience and a socially constructed phenomenon, ie. like a meaning attached to a location. A place is treated as a space which occurs at the level of identity, with its opposite space is understood as a set of localities that do not appear on the identity-level. Understood in this way, therefore, it provides a place for people a sense of identity connection with the soil, ie the idea of ​​rooting- in the native space, founded once and for all, which is not necessary to find out. It is always spatially organized in such a way that its symbols personal order expresses the identity of the group. It is a space that changes the economic, social, political and religious geography of the group and who must defend himself from external and internal threats in order to hold back identity meaning (Ože 2005, 43–45). 

The place is especially important for the identity of the group from the aspect of its role as a space of events. Under this term Vesna Vučinić means in the "space of collective activities", where the term event is defined as “A temporally and spatially well-defined collective activity that is organized on a specific occasion ”, which is of key importance for identity of local groups and communities (Vučinić 1999, 195). As stated the authors can distinguish the space of a social event and the space religious event, provided that social or religious events should be seen as activities that emphasize primarily one domain realities (the first social, and the second religious), but so that both and others “represent a total social phenomenon in the sense in which its meaning was determined by Marcel Moss ”(Vučinić 1999, 195). The identity aspect of a place is closely linked to the national context, where places are ideologically constructed in a certain space, and with a goal that people think of their countries as clearly limited, special and naturally given entities. This ideologizing of space is present

is especially in cities, as environments that due to its physical structure favor the dynamics of identity strategies, by using more symbolic resources, such as street and square names, monuments, architectural ra, etc. According to Srdjan Radović, this property of cities is due to their hove discursiveness, that is, that they emit the properties of a kind vocabulary that is not usually formed  spontaneously, but mostly under the influenceidentity policies of different social groups. According to the mentioned author, the city can be said to have qualities textuality, ie. that it ‘can be understood as a‘ text ’, that is, as a symbol Lika training ground where politics implements cultural and symbolic adaptations in accordance with the political and / or national imagination.

The transformation of the symbolic narrative often comes after the great ones socio-political changes, when authoritarian authorities seek to implement they know their identity policies in space. Modifying urban texture it is almost regular during or after war conflicts, which often result persecution and emigration of people of different ethnicities. A large number of European cities experienced ethnicization in the 19th and 20th centuries its toponymy, after the sudden or gradual disappearance of ethnic groups that lived in them. In recent times, examples of ethnic / national mastery of the system of city symbols are noticeable and in several cities of the former Yugoslavia, and are caused by ethnic beams that took place in this area in the 1990s.

Street and memorial symbolism of Serbs in Kosovo Mitrovica in the context of competitive identity policy versus Albanians.

A typical example of the transformation of city symbols in the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia took place in cities in Kosovo and Metohija, where in which period there were two complete ideological transformations. By abolishing provincial autonomy in 1989, many identity designations were abolished. which in the previous few decades represented a mixture of Serbian and Albanian symbols, which are constructed in the spirit of brotherhood and unity and ideologies of socialism. In Pristina in the 1990s, changed the names of many streets, in line with the new, national by the then authorities in Serbia: Ulica Bratstvo-jedinstvo became is King Milutin Street, Marshal Tito Street - Vidovdanska Street, Lola Ribara Street - Gavrila Principa Street, etc. Toponyms were also introduced that were associated with the new "national" geography ”, so names appeared among the names of Pristina streets obtained from places frequent in the public and media discourse of war in the 1990s: Jasenovačka Street, Vukovarska, Kninska, Ulica srpskih warrior, and another. In Prishtina, during this period, conducted and symbolic-memorial transformation, within which the main transformation took place within the University, the former center of rebellion Albanian students, where, after the transformation of this institution into a non-national, Serbian educational institution, monuments to Vuk were erected Karadzic, Petar Petrovic Njegos, while it started in the immediate vicinity with the construction of the Church of Christ the Savior. With the withdrawal of the Serbian authorities from Kosovo and Metohija and the arrival of NATO In 1999, almost all Serbs emigrated from Pristina. This is it marked a turn in the symbolic designation of this city, which led to his new ideological transformations, but now in the spirit of the politics of the new, Albanian authorities. Monuments to Vuk Karadzic and Petar Petrovic Njego- They were soon removed, and the construction of the Orthodox Church of Christ continued The Savior was suspended. Names of a large number streets from the previous period were soon changed, so that the Yugoslavska, especially Serbian names replaced by Albanian names. Streets and tr- gove got numerous personalities from Albanian history and culture, in what the figures from the most recent period, marked by the struggle for independence from Serbia. Among the city's toponyms were names from the ancient, mythologized past, so they are, with reference to identity which is associated with the heritage of the ancient Illyrians, in the names of the streets appeared the names of some Illyrian kings, but also the name of Alexander the Great who is according to some Albanian historians, he was on his mother's side of Illyrian origin (Vreme, September 27, 2012). An important place in the symbolic the transformation of Pristina also belonged to memorial engineering, within which monuments to important Albanians were erected. In center A large monument to Skenderbeg was erected in the city. theory is considered the most important person, responsible for the fight against conquerors in the 15th century. Monuments were also given to KLA fighters, above all Adem Jashari, the most famous commander of this armed formation, who there was also a square by its name, which was formerly called the Square of Brotherhood and Unity (Time, September 27, 2012). Like Pristina, other cities in Kosovo and Metohija passed in the stated period through the same spatial-ideological transformation. That is it also happened in Kosovska Mitrovica, where the names were changed in 1992 many streets from the previous, socialist era. Changing the name of the it was conducted in accordance with the official discourse of the Serbian authorities, as a result of which they street names replaced the ideology of Yugoslavia with messages from the Serbian nal content. Marshal Tito Street, which stretched as the main street in the middle of the city, it is divided into three parts, ie into three new streets: Ulica King Peter the First, Karađorđeva Street and Gavril Princip Street (Official beni glasnik RS, March 31, 1992). And the names of other streets, which indicated whether on personalities and dates from the ideological opus of socialist Yugoslavia, they were mostly changed according to the same pattern, so July 7th Street became Street Filip Višnjić, November 29 - Kneza Miloš, Edvard Kardelj - Svetog Sava, Moše Pijade - Tanaska Rajića, Miladin Popović - Kralja Milutina, etc. The names of many streets given by name have also been changed Albanians whose historical role fit into the socialist model of rights of peoples and nationalities. Ise Boljetinca Street was named Stari Vujadin Street, Dzavida Mitrovica - Pasiceva, Dzafera Ljilje - Milunka Savic, Koce Dzoze - Vase Carapica, Hivzija Sulejmanija - Cara Dušan, Muharem Bektešija - Hilandarska, and so on (Official Gazette snik RS, March 31, 1992). However, the names of the streets from the period before 1992, which date from the era of Yugoslav, socialist topography, are not changed in its entirety. Some names have remained the same, especially those that are associated with the struggle of the people of Kosovo and Metohija against foreign occupiers. Thus, signs with the names of Bora could still be seen on the city streets Vukmirović and Ramiz Sadiku, figures who are not only in Kosovo and tohija, but in the whole of the former Yugoslavia they figured as a symbol of brotherhood and unity in the fight against fascism. The names of the streets as well have been preserved are the Mining Company, the Ibar Detachment, the Kopaonik Detachment, and the Fourth Kosmet Detachment brigade, and the like (Official Gazette of RS, March 31, 1992).

As in Pristina, so in Kosovska Mitrovica after the 1999 war there is a change of street texts, but only in the part of the city south of the Ibar, which comes under Albanian control. Albanian streets have been returned to some streets names, removed in 1992, and all street names associated with Yugoslavia and Serbia were erased, and names were introduced instead related to Albanian history, culture and mythology. Former Street Marshal Tito, who in 1992 was on the stretch from the main bridge over the Ibar to the southern edge of the city renamed Karadjordjeva and Gavril Street Principa, is now named after Queen Teuta, an Illyrian ruler from of the third century BC. The names of Albanians were found on the street signs which were completely unknown to most Serbs, but also those in Serbian history remained well remembered, both as enemies and collaborators occupiers in the First and Second World Wars. The streets were given to Xhafer Deva, Quisling mayor of Kosovska Mitrovica under occupation of fascist Germany, Shaban Poluza, commander of ballistic detachments in World War II, etc. Numerous streets are also named after people who became famous in the fight against Serbia at the end of the 20th century, where it is most important a place given to KLA members killed in clashes with the Serbian army and the police, with one street bearing the name of this armed woman herself organizations.

The partition of Kosovska Mitrovica marked the beginning of the removal of everything Serbian from the southern part of the city. The Serbian language and alphabet were expelled, so be it they could no longer be found anywhere, not even in the names of streets, squares or new, nor in the names of any space, locality or object. City toponymy, therefore, was replaced not only by texts about Albanians, but also by alban language and script. The removal of Serbian symbolism also included devas-Serbian monuments, but also the destruction of the Serbian cemetery, as well burning of the Church of St. Sava on March 17, 2004, the only Orthodox until then places of worship throughout the city.

There is no need to delete even the slightest mention of the Serbian presence, however, it was caused not only by revanchism after the war, but also by the crisis nom, the unresolved situation that arose after the war, in which the Albanians in Kosovska Mitrovica on the very border line with Serbs, groups I dream in the city area north of the river. The desire to affirm the The self-proclaimed Albanian state was as present here as and in other cities on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar, although with the difference that due to the close proximity of the Serbs, it is in a certain measures were more pronounced. The richness of KLA iconography on the streets and trade but in southern Kosovska Mitrovica, namely, there is no rarity in the relationship to Pristina or Prizren, 11 where numerous landmarks can also be found erected in memory of the members of this formation, but what is metno is a more conspicuous emphasis on national symbolism, and most of all on places directly next to the Ibar, ie at the "border checkpoints" according to Serbs in the northern part of the city. Strictly Albanian symbols, such as red flag with a black double-headed eagle, in that sense they are significantly more widespread, in contrast to the labels of self-proclaimed independent Kosovo which occur much less frequently.

Albanian national flags can be found at every turn southern Kosovska Mitrovica, whether they were displayed in the memorial complexes, where, as a rule, they are located next to KLA monuments, or on buildings of various institutions, religious buildings, or on private houses or commercial buildings, where they can be seen in the shop window as companies, shops, etc. Flags of self-proclaimed independent Kosovo are highlighted only sporadically, mainly on official buildings. institutions of self-government and government.12 Albanian national symbols nor are they so much so that red flags with a double-headed black eagle are indispensable props when celebrating events from an individual’s life, such as births or weddings, which further underlines the importance of these features as popular, generally accepted for the purpose of identification with the ethnic community nothing of all Albanians, as opposed to the so-called markings. Kosovo statehood which, constructed on the model of European symbolism, among the majority of Albanian population are perceived only as imposed, artificial, but also as temporary solution.

The designation of Kosovska Mitrovica as Albanian does not occur only in the south. part of the city. It is also present in the area north of the Ibar, even earlier all in the Bosniak neighborhood, an ethnically mixed neighborhood, which in addition which is a residential area also applies to the shopping area. Inscriptions on al- in the Ban language are common here, while in several places, especially in lazima so-called. east bridge, 13 constantly displayed several flags with red background and a black double-headed eagle. In one of the streets in Bošnjačka maha- A monument to the fallen KLA fighters was once erected. fracture from this part of the city, and in mid-June 2014 at a street intersection in front of the so-called of the east bridge, in the very center of this quarter, was erected an improvised memorial to Adem Jashari. Raising this landmark arrived after the Serbs removed the barriers from the main city bridge. the bathtub they installed during the so-called July 2011 crisis, 14 respectively in response to the Serbian initiative to remove the barrier where a monument to Prince Lazar was erected on the north side of the bridge.15 Construction monument to the Serbian medieval ruler and mythical martyr in Ko- by the decision of the Serb self-government in northern Kosovska Mitrovica it was suspended even before it began, but the memorial the mandate of the KLA, according to which the crossroads where it was placed were taken name, left to stand.16 The Bosniak neighborhood is a kind of transitional zone between Ban and Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where the influence and them and others, but so that the symbolism of space is not so mixed or intertwined, already more partially distributed. That in practice means yes is part of this neighborhood closer to the main bridge over the Ibar, mostly Serbian, while is part of the so-called. the eastern bridge is mostly Albanian. The interspace, which makes several cross streets, with Liberation Street as the main one, conditionally it is said together, with the proviso that it is possible to distinguish parts within it streets that are Serbian and parts that are Albanian. This "distribution" neither is satisfied, since the Serbs are a Bosniak neighborhood they want to see as an integral part of the compact Serbian northern Kosovo Rovinj, as well as the Albanians, this part of the city is trying to niche homogenize and thus strengthen their position in the city area north of the Ibar.

The Bosniak neighborhood can be said to represent Kosovska Mitrovica in small, that is, that the situation in it reflects the overall situation in this observed from the aspect of conflicting interests and conflicting pros- torny ideologies. That this is the real arena of competitive policies testifies to the fact that in order to strengthen their presence, both in years after the division of the city, they resorted to various strategies, so the Serbs with the help of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, they erected several in the Bosniak neighborhood a building inhabited by dozens of Serb families displaced from areas of Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar. Some have moved here as well Serbian institutions, including the offices of the Coordination Center for Monuments to the Serbian Medieval Ruler and Mythical Sufferer in Ko- by the decision of the Serb self-government in northern Kosovska Mitrovica it was suspended even before it began, but the memorial the mandate of the KLA, according to which the crossroads where it was placed were taken name, left to stand.16 The Bosniak neighborhood is a kind of transitional zone between Ban and Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where the influence and them and others, but so that the symbolism of space is not so mixed or intertwined, already more partially distributed. That in practice means yes is part of this neighborhood closer to the main bridge over the Ibar, mostly Serbian, while is part of the so-called. the eastern bridge is mostly Albanian. The interspace, which makes several cross streets, with Liberation Street as the main one, conditionally it is said together, with the proviso that it is possible to distinguish parts within it streets that are Serbian and parts that are Albanian. This "distribution" neither is satisfied, since the Serbs are a Bosniak neighborhood they want to see as an integral part of the compact Serbian northern Kosovo Rovinj, as well as the Albanians, this part of the city is trying to niche homogenize and thus strengthen their position in the city area north of the Ibar.

The Bosniak neighborhood can be said to represent Kosovska Mitrovica in small, that is, that the situation in it reflects the overall situation in this observed from the aspect of conflicting interests and conflicting pros- torny ideologies. That this is the real arena of competitive policies testifies to the fact that in order to strengthen their presence, both in years after the division of the city, they resorted to various strategies, so the Serbs with the help of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, they erected several in the Bosniak neighborhood a building inhabited by dozens of Serb families displaced from areas of Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar. Some have moved here as well Serbian institutions, including the offices of the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija, ie. Ministries for Kosovo and Metohija.17 They are similar Albanians also worked, who also built numerous ones in the Bosniak neighborhood residential buildings, in addition to which they invested in strengthening their economic influence through the development of trade and other economic activities. While in the Bosniak neighborhood, the opposing policies of the pro- tor, which, among other things, are read in the opposite street topogra- fiji, since the Serbian street names from before the 1999 war were Albanians call by their names, 18 in the rest of northern Kosovska Mitrovica the situation is mostly unambiguous. Only Serbian is represented here symbolism, most noticeable by the numerous prominent Serbian tricolors practically everywhere, especially in the area in front of the main bridge over Ibra, from where you enter the northern part of the city from the south, and then along the entire central street, all the way to the exit from the city towards Zvečan. And street names in northern Kosovska Mitrovica exude the same, Serbian national national spirit, which means that with the “purified” Yugoslav ideo- the logic has remained unchanged since 1992. King Peter the First Street, former Marshal Tito, is the central and largest city street, doc other important streets include Kneza Miloša, Lola Ribara streets, Filip Višnjić, Kolašinska, and others. Several spatial elements of northern Kosovska Mitrovica after the division of the city received a new, important symbolism for the Serbs, and in accordance with recent, war legacy from the late 1990s. This refers primarily to the memorial fund, within which it is after In the war of 1999, several monuments dedicated to the victims of NATO were erected bombings and those killed in clashes with the KLA. The main monument neo is called the Monument of Truth. It is six meters high, with a dome on which has a cross with four icons of the White Angel, on which they are written the names of about 200 victims from the Kosovska Mitrovica district (Figure 2). The memorial of the dedication is connected with the symbolism of the suffering. but the Milić brothers, a native of Kosovska Mitrovica, twins who are like members of the Yugoslav Army were killed in April 1999. After this The square on which it was placed was named Trg braće Mi-

Trg braće Milić.

Monument of Truth near the main bridge over the Ibar.

As a symbol of Serbian suffering in the fight against NATO and the KLA, non-memorabilia have the role of a medium in nurturing collective memory among Serbs in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, but, at the same time, those they also act as important city localities, ie as important spatial markers in the consciousness of the population of this city. The Monument of Truth has been erected right next to the main bridge over the Ibar, while Trg braće Milić is located zi not far from the monument, so also near the main city bridge. If we take into account that the main bridge in the perceptions of Serbs is the main one point of Serbian-Albanian separation, then the symbolism of the position mentioned these memorabilia indicate precisely the function of ideological underlining spatial demarcation towards Albanians, perceived with meaning enemies, ie. guilty of the suffering of the Serb population in the 1999 war. years and after him.

An important spatial marker, associated with the symbolism of suffering, there is also a monument to the Russian consul Grigory Stepanovich Shcherbina, killed in Kosovska Mitrovica in 1903. A monument to this Russian diplomats, who in the history of Serbs have been attributed the role of protector of the Serbs people in Kosovo and Metohija at the time of Albanian autocracy at the transition from In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was first built in Kosovska Mitrovica in 1928. year, in the part of the city south of the Ibar, at the place where Shcherbina was mortally wounded. After the Second World War, the monument was transferred to two riste of the city museum, to make it after the war of 1999 and the arrival of the south Kosovska Mitrovica into Albanian hands Albanians in the same yard destroyed. A new monument was erected in 2007, this time in faithful part of the city, in circumstances that are for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, as residents of northern Kosovska Mitrovica often point out, the same as difficult as at the time when Shcherbina was consul. It's a monument erected in the heart of northern Kosovska Mitrovica, in the capital Square - Tgru Šumadija.

The place where the monument to Consul Shcherbina was erected is central, the most important gathering place for Serbs in northern Kosovo rovici. After the war in 1999, various public actions were practiced on it. activities, both social and religious, which is why Trg Šumadija can mark as the main venue of events in this part of the city. From social The events that take place at this place are distinguished by the so-called receptions. Serbian New Year, and from the religious events the celebration of the city's celebration of Mitrovdan, when the central streets of northern Kosovska Mitrovica are organized tija, after which the rite of cutting the feast cake is performed on Šumadija Square. Political gatherings are also held on Šumadija Square, most often connected with the protests of Serbs against the decisions of the tectorate or so-called Kosovo authorities in Pristina adopted to include of the north of Kosovo and Metohija in the so-called Kosovo's institutional and legal the system. One of the larger gatherings of this type was directed against the local elections provided for by the Brussels Agreement, and announced according to the laws of the so-called Kosovo authorities for 3 November 2013.

Sumadija Square, with a monument to the Russian consul Shcherbina, during the rite of breaking the feast cake on the day of the city feast Mitrovdan on November 8, 2014.

Sumadija Square, with a monument to the Russian consul Shcherbina, during protests against the holding of local elections called according to the laws of the so-called Kosovo authorities for 3 November 2013.

Symbolism of the Church of St. Dimitrija in context identification of northern Kosovska Mitrovica as a Serbian Orthodox city

The struggle for space in Kosovska Mitrovica is not limited to symbolic in what sense only to the ideologisation of street toponymy and memorial fund. The division of this city is complicated by the dichotomy of confessionals identity of Serbs and Albanians, as a result of which it came to Kosovska Mitrovica and to the direct clash of competitive religious ideologies they also opposed the means of symbolic construction of space. An overture to the attempt to appropriate Kosovo and Metohija by religious means symbolism happened in the decade before the war in 1999, when after period of socialism led to, on the one hand, the “justification” of Kosovo and Metohija, ie. to the renewal or advancement of monastic life in many monasteries, as well as the erection of new churches (Derens 2009, 167), on the other hand, until the establishment of the Islamic Community of Kosovo (Bashkësia Islame e Kosovës) and the construction of numerous mosques.19 The Serbian-Albanian conflict, such peacetime methods were radicalized, which period from 1998 to 2004 led to the demolition of numerous places of worship, as on the one hand, and on the other.20 Violence against sacral architecture did not bypass Kosovska Mitrovica, where in the war in 1999, the so-called Ja- mija on the Ibar, from the 18th century, the only mosque in the northern part of the city, demolished by Serb forces, while Isa Bey's mosque is in the southern part the city was severely damaged. In the March 2004 pogrom, Albanians devastated the Church of St. Sava, until then the only Orthodox church in the city, erected at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in an urban area south of the Ibar River. The removal of other people's buildings was accompanied by the construction of their own religious buildings. Across Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar, where traces of the former Serb skog and Orthodox presence almost completely erased, by 2011 Numerous mosques were built, the number of which, according to Serbian sources, is moving between 300 and 500 (Večernje novosti, August 16, 2011). According to Is- lam community of Kosovo, by the end of 2010 in the same area that's 155 new places of worship, with twenty more under construction in 2011, while 113 mosques, of about 220 destroyed or damaged in the war, have been rebuilt. In southern Kosovska Mitrovica, a decade after the division of the city, there were 17 mosque.21 In 2014, the construction of the Bajram Pasha mosque, the largest, was completed throughout Kosovo and Metohija, which was built on the site of the former, in the war damaged Isa Bey's mosque.22 Like the Albanians south of the Ibar and the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija have erected several of their religious buildings, namely the Church of St. Trinity in Zuba- Potok, the Church of St. Vasilije Ostroški in Leposavić, etc. New church it was also built in northern Kosovska Mitrovica. The place of construction of the election but it is so that the church is visible from all parts of the city, which means from both sides of the Ibar, and therefore from the Albanian part of the city south of the river. It is selected elevation just above Kosovska Mitrovica, in its northwest which, in the opinion of local Serbs, represents a location in whose there used to be a church from the medieval, non-monastic one nearby period, dedicated to St. Dimitrije Solunski, according to which, according to belief, and the city of Mitrovica itself was named. Construction of the new church began in 2001 and was completed in 2005. Podi- for this building, which in the style of construction resembles a medieval church the architecture of the Raska style group (Fig. 6), was found among the Serbs in the north Kosovska Mitrovica for a good reception, with the assessment that it was justified, but and a necessary move. This event was treated as an important act from the aspect of le grada, connected with the fact that the only Orthodox church (Church of St. Sava) remained in the part of Kosovska Mitrovica under the control of due to security risks, its availability to Serbs centered in the urban area north of the Ibar, was limited, so and completely denied. Representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church were the first to raise interpreted the new churches as a need arising from the situation divided into Albanian and Serbian parts of the city, which caused the impossibility that in the Church of St. All church-religious rites are regularly practiced. Like this The position was confirmed by the elders of the Church of St. Dimitrija, archpriest Milija Arsović, who personally, with great effort, contributed to the new one the church is erected.

Construction of the Church of St. Dimitrija is inextricably linked with the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church which Serbs in northern Kosovska Mitrovica perceive as one of the the ones they trust the most. The discourse of the respondents includes- research, the Church of St. Dimitrija was perceived just like that materialization of the presence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, ie as an important factor in preserving ethnic and religious identity of Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica. This religious the object, in addition, was ascribed the meaning of an important spatial marker which marks this part of the city as Orthodox and Serbian. In conceptions respondents, this further underlined the experience of the urban area true of the Ibar as a place of its own identity, which is on the "border line ”, in an ethnically divided city, confirms the presence of the Orthodox Serbian population.

Gathering of citizens of northern Kosovska Mitrovica in the gate of the Church of St. Dimitrija before the evening Christmas liturgy on January 6, 2014.

The painting Imagining northern Kosovska Mitrovica as Orthodox Serbian city, which belongs to Serbia, in the discourse of the respondents was inseparable from relations with Albanians, ie. from the state of the Serbian-Albanian conflict. In this sense, this city was not perceived only as an ideologized, abstract buried, in the sense of identity its own, Serbian space, but also as a real, a physical entity whose defense against Albanian expansion and inclusion in the resources of the Albanian, self-proclaimed independent Kosovo also enable survival Serbs, not only in the city area north of the Ibar, but in the whole area of ​​northern Kosovo and Metohija. Understood in this way, northern Kosovo Mitrovica had an even more significant dimension in the minds of the respondents, as it were the main stronghold of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, that is, as a kind a bulwark against the onslaught of Albanians south of the Ibar and the spread of reniteta so-called. Kosovo authorities in the area north of this river. Symbolism of the Church of St. Dimitrija as a signifier of the Orthodox, Serbian northern Kosovska Mitrovica comes to the fore especially in the context of innovation of certain religious holidays. The church with the church port then vlja as the main space of a religious event, ie. as a central place of practice ticking holiday rituals in which the Serbian population in this city collectively participates or which it collectively attends. The most visited a ritual of this type represents the public imposition of a church Christmas Eve day, which is in the gate of the Church of St. Dimitrija performs after Christmas Eve liturgy. This event is characterized by the characteristics of an important symbolic act because it contains the symbolism of individual and group identification with the Orthodox religious tradition, but also the symbolism of the ethnic identification. It is in the consciousness of the participants and the space in which it takes place marked as Orthodox and Serbian, which does not refer only to the church port, as a central place for practicing rituals, but also for the whole of northern Kosovo. to Mitrovica. According to Archpriest Milija Arsović, public ordering Christmas Eve was practiced even before 1999, in the gate of the Church of St. Save, to shortly after 2001, it was renovated, at a new location, in the place where the construction of the Church of St. Dimitrija.

Conclusion

The results presented in the paper show the dependence of the symbolic sign- space in Kosovska Mitrovica from social, political and democratic graphic processes that have been taking place in Kosovo and Metohija since the 1999 war again. The division of this city according to ethnic lines between Serbs and Albanians which, in practice, has led to a literal, physical dichotomy between areas north and south of the river Ibar, is copied to the symbolic flat, in terms of identity mastery of space, ie its ve constructions in the identity key. Spatial symbolism of Serbs, in that In this sense, it is inextricably linked to the needs of the Serbian population in this to confirm its ethnic and religious identity in the context of the conflict with the Albanians identity, but also to, due to the efforts of the Albanian side to control the whole of Kosovska Mitrovica under its control, and therefore its northern, Serbian part, to express territorial and any other attachment to the Republic of Serbia. The elements of the spatial symbolism of the Serbs presented in the paper cannot be mattresses regardless of the spatial symbolism of the Albanians, with whom from the aspect spatial identity policies are found in a relationship of direct interdependence and competitiveness. Nowhere in today's Kosovo and Metohija is this competitive activity does not come to the fore as in divided Kosovska Mitrovica, in which strategies of symbolic mastery of space can be followed no only between Serbs and Albanians on opposite sides of the Ibar, but also between Serbs and Albanians in the city area north of this river, where in several neighborhoods members of these two communities live next to each other. Character Ristic for these strategies is that they are conditioned by a broader socio-political political processes in Kosovo and Metohija, which is why they themselves show characteristics processuality, which means that they are characterized by dynamism, and that is what it is closely related to the dynamics of events and changes in the close-up. About the strategies of symbolic mastery of space in Kosovo Mitrovicë / Mitrovica can be seen as a type of “text” in which the “loaded” The latest events speak for themselves in a broader socio-political context caused by the implementation of the Brussels Agreement. It is with this agreement the removal of spatial barriers between southern and northern sovske Mitrovica, that is, reconnecting these two parts of the city into one whole, with the aim of integrating the entire urban area into a single one the system of self-proclaimed independent Kosovo. Realization of the stated goal began with the reconstruction of the main city bridge at the end of 2015, which meant opening this facility to traffic, with expansion existing access roads, both from the south and from the north side of the Ibar. The response of the Serbs, who reluctantly agreed to the reconstruction, seeing in it the threat that the Albanians, after the opening of the bridge over the river au- he could cross the cars unhindered, he was such that they were on their side Ibra instead of the road started the construction of the pedestrian zone.24 The answer is was similar in a symbolic sense. While the opening of the main one has been announced the city bridge, according to the expectations of the Albanians, should have indicated circulating the sovereignty of Pristina over the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, the Serbs raised and on Vidovdan 2016 solemnly unveiled a large monument to Prince Lazarus. The monument was erected on Šumadija Square, which is what it is this square took on a new name - Prince Lazar Square. The symbolism of this act, by which a monumental figure was erected in the heart of northern Kosovska Mitrovica Serbian medieval ruler, was clear, and that was to send a message to the Albanian on the other hand, that despite the efforts of Pristina, this part of the city put it under his control and continue to remain Serbian.

Credit Aleksandar Pavlović

Institute for Serbian Culture - Prishtina / Leposavić