Montenegro

Montenegro is a small southern European nation situated in the Balkans along the Adriatic coast, named after the black basalt-tinged mountains that dominate its landscape. Montenegro has a unique historical identity. Unlike their neighbors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo, the Montenegrins were largely successful in thwarting substantial Ottoman influence from [Page 822]the 13th century onward, when the Ottomans began to advance on the Balkans. This has had the effect of uninterrupted Eastern Orthodox influence, to the point of the area having been ruled by the regional bishops of Cetinje for 300 years from 1516 to 1815 (while paying tribute to Istanbul) and by a secular government from 1815 to 1918. After World War I, Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia in its multiple incarnations, with varying degrees of contentment over the arrangement, first under the Pan-Slavic state of Yugoslavia, then under the communist state of Yugoslavia, then in 1992 in the post–Cold War state known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which consisted of Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo), then in 2002 as a federation of independent states with a combined military and foreign service known as Serbia and Montenegro, and most recently in 2006, autonomously as Montenegro. Montenegrins have traditionally felt an affinity for their Serbian neighbors mainly due to their common ethnicity and religious identity and have retained union with them until recently. The break was predominantly over increased Serbian nationalistic rhetoric and action, mostly under the tutelage of Slobodan Milošević. This has had the effect of making many Montenegrins nervous about their partner in the federation and suspicious of its activity on behalf of both nations. The bonds are strong between the two despite the recent schism, as both are Slavic and Eastern Orthodox countries. Montenegro has joined Slovenia in escaping the religious and ethnic bloodshed that has been the price of independence in the region since the fall of communist rule. Montenegro is staunchly Eastern Orthodox, with estimates ranging from 85% to 95% of the population. There are small minorities of Bosniaks (Muslim) and Albanians (Orthodox, Catholic, and Sunnī Muslim), yet the country's religious identity is thoroughly dominated by the Orthodox Church.

If Kosovo is the birthplace of Serbian Orthodoxy in regional Slavic mythology, Montenegro is its preserver. After the defeat of the Albanian and Slavic forces at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Slavic Christian culture and its various aristocratic lines were preserved in the remote monasteries of Montenegro. There has been dissatisfaction in recent years within the Orthodox community that has given rise to the proclamation of the Montenegro Orthodox Church (MOC) in 1993, claiming that the Montenegrin diocese operated autonomously prior to World War I. As it stands, Montenegro remains under the Autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church, which has denounced the MOC as heretical and schismatic. The Serbian Patriarchate maintains control of the majority of Montenegro's church property and the official appointments of bishops and priests; the MOC, on the other hand, has been unable to gain control over the ever-important Cetinje monasteries despite several attempts to do so.

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