BELGRADE CONSIDERS THIS STEP ACT OF TREASON
AZG Armenian Daily
24/05/2006
Montenegro Declares Independence
In the course of the May 21 independence referendum, the citizens
of Montenegro voted for separation from Serbia, securing 55,4 %
of votes. According to the country’s prime minister, the number of
liberal citizens who voted for the separation surpassed that of those
who were more conservative by 45 thousand.
It’s worth mentioning that the country’s population is 650 thousand.
In particular, mainly the West supports the idea of Montenegro’s
independence. The Western forces try to weaken Serbia, one of the
former Yugoslav republics.
Serbia’s access to the Adriatic Sea was secured through Montenegro. The
latter has its own government, the tax system and uses Euro as a
national currency.
When NATO began bombing Yugoslavia in 1999, the leader of Montenegro
Jokanovic stated that his republic didn’t participate in the events
in Kosovo and stopped any relations with Serbia.
Montenegro has already been an independent state in the end of the
World War I but later the Socialist Serbia became the most trustworthy
ally for this country. Today, Jukanovic keeps stating that the
independence will have positive impact on Montenegro’s economy and
will contribute to its membership to EU.
According to BBC, 86% of Montenegro’s citizens who had the right to
vote participated in the referendum.
Meanwhile, the France-Presse draws the attention to the fact that the
peoples of Serbia and Montenegro both speak Serbian. Moreover they
have common historical, cultural and religious roots. The disputes
around the independence issue of the country have divided the people
of Montenegro in two parties. The experts state that that will be hard
to reconcile these parties. While in Belgrade they consider Podgorica
‘s strive for independence as an act of treason.
Javier Solana, EU Coordinator for Foreign Policy, stated that “EU will
take into account the results of Montenegro’s independence referendum.”