Croatian march over language clash could be a warning

The fact that 20000 Croats marched in Zagreb yesterday, in protest against a plan that would see the Cyrillic alphabet used by Serbs on signs in parts of Croatia, did not receive very much coverage in yesterday's press, amid the more pressing concerns of North Korea, the death of eleven children in a NATO strike in Afghanistan and further unrest in Egypt. However, the fact that this occurred is very significant for the Balkans, and suggests that all is still not well in this small but highly relevant corner of Europe.

Although the demands for bilingual signage in areas where a minority of one third or more of the population might not cause too much of an issue in other parts of Europe, for many Croatians it is a reminder of Serb dominance and the supremacist tendencies that led to the all-out Balkan wars of the 1990's. Although 20 years have passed, for this much passion to be ignited suggests that there are fears that there could be a backslide to the infighting and a push by the Serbians for increased autonomy and dominance in areas where Serbs are a significant minority. This would not be good for the country at all, and particularly not for Europe, as it would see conflict creep ever closer to Western Europe. As such, any decision on this matter should be carefully considered and not rushed into, with any possible dialogue that can occur to take place before any final decision is made.

It is perhaps surprising that language issues can be of such potent political relevance, given that Croatian and Serbian were at one point the same language. However, given that each state in the Balkans has now achieved it's own autonomy, autonomy has also been achieved for the languages involved, with Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and even Montenegrin all having constitutional movements in place that have established, or are attempting to establish themselves as individual languages. Although these languages are all still mutually intelligible, the fact that seemingly simply issues such as this can still cause tension is a warning that this autonomy is of high importance to the citizens themselves, and that all may not be well if tensions increase between the individual communities in question - one to watch? Definitely.

For another view on the politics of language, see:http://lostintranslation19872.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-politics-of-language.html