DuÃ
¡an T. Batakovià(; 23 April 1957 â 27 June 2017) was a Serbian historian and diplomat. His specialty was modern and contemporary Serbian and Balkan history as well as French-Serbian relations. The last post he held was that of Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Biography
Batakoviàgraduated with a degree in history from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1982. He earned an M.A. in history from the same institution (1988). He received his Ph.D. in history from the in 1997 with the thesis La France et la formation de la démocratie parlementaire en Serbie 1830âÂÂ1914 (France and the Formation of Parliamentary Democracy in Serbia, 1830âÂÂ1914).
Batakoviàis a specialist for nineteenth- and twentieth-century Balkan history, as well as for the French-Serbian relations. He has written and published extensively on the modern and contemporary history of Serbia, in particular Kosovo and AlbaniaâÂÂSerbia relations, focusing on nationalism, and the origins of religious and ethnic strife. Another area of his research is the impact of communism on the contemporary history of Serbia, Yugoslavia and the Balkans. Batakoviàwrites in Serbian, English and French and his bibliography includes dozens of historical monographs, edited volumes and more than a hundred articles published in various languages.
Batakoviàis also the author of the historical TV documentary Crveno doba (The Red Epoch), which aired on Serbia's public broadcaster, RTS, in 2004. Combining testimonies of witnesses with historic narrative the film was the first to open the question of the crimes of the communist Yugoslav authorities (the "red terror") against their political and class enemies in post-World War II Serbia and Montenegro (1944âÂÂ1947).
In October 2005 BatakoviÃÂ became Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and editor-in-chief of the Institute's annual Balcanica journal as well as of its Special editions. In October 2008 he was elected president of the Serbian Committee of AIESEE (Association Internationale d'Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen).
In 2006, a study by Frederick Anscombe looked at issues surrounding scholarship on Kosovo which noted that in the 1980s and 1990s DuÃ
¡an Batakoviàpublished works written from a nationalist perspective on Kosovo, that gained generous support. Of those were works such as The Kosovo Chronicles (1992) and Kosovo, la spirale de la haine (1993) and in all several of those works have been translated into other languages.
Parallel to his academic life, BatakoviÃÂ also pursued a career in politics and diplomacy. As the president of the Council for Democratic Changes in Serbia (a pro-democracy NGO), he campaigned against Slobodan MiloÃ
¡eviÃÂ. He advocated for cantonisation of Kosovo as the solution to the Kosovo crisis in the late 1990s.
From 2001 to 2005 he served as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) to the Hellenic Republic. In July 2005 he became Advisor for political issues to the President of Serbia Boris TadiÃÂ. In that capacity he became a member, in November 2005, of the Serbian negotiating team at the UN-sponsored talks on the future status of the province of Kosovo in Vienna. He was a head of the Serbian Delegation at the International Court of Justice, regarding the advisory opinion on Kosovo status (2009âÂÂ2011).
In 2010 BatakoviÃÂ was elected fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
BatakoviÃÂ was appointed Ambassador of Serbia to Canada in July 2007 and Ambassador of Serbia in Paris, France in January 2009, where he took office in March 2009 and completed his mandate in December 2012.
BatakoviÃÂ was reelected Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in February 2013.
Awards and reception
His decorations include:
Works
- DeÃÂansko pitanje (The DeÃÂani Question), Belgrade: Historical Institute-Prosveta 1989. (second updated edition: Belgrade: ÃÂigoja Ã
¡tampa 2007), 355 p.
- Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1850âÂÂ1912 (Contemporaries on Kosovo and Metohija 1850âÂÂ1912), Belgrade: Srpska knjiÃ
¾evna zadruga 1989.
- Kolubarska bitka (The Battle of Kolubara 1914), Belgrade: Litera 1989 (with N. B. PopoviÃÂ). 210 p.
- Kosovo i Metohija u srpskoj istoriji (Kosovo and Metohia in Serbian History), Belgrade: Srpska knjiÃ
¾evna zadruga 1989, (co-author); German translation: Kosovo und Metochien in der serbischen Geschichte, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1989 (co-author; four chapters); French translation: Le Kosovo-Metohija dans l'histoire serbe, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1990 (co-author, four chapters).
- Kosovo i Metohija u srpsko-arbanaÃ
¡kim odnosima (Kosovo and Metohija in Serb-Albanian Relations), PriÃ
¡tina: Jedinstvo 1991. . (2nd updated edition: ÃÂigoja Ã
¡tampa, Belgrade 2006.) 391 ÃÂ.
- La Yougoslavie : nations, religions, idéologies, Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1994.
- The Serbs and Their National Interest, N. Von Ragenfeld-Feldman & D. T. Batakovic (eds.), San Francisco & Belgrade 1997, 140 p.
- Cronica de la Kosovo, prefaÃ
£Ã de academician Dan Berindei; Buçuresti: Editura biblioteca bucurestilor 1999, 207 p.
- Kosovo i Metohija. Istorija i ideologija, (Kosovo and Metohija: History and Ideology), Belgrade: HriÃ
¡ÃÂanska misao 1998. (2nd updated edition: Belgrade: ÃÂigoja Ã
¡tampa 2006). 469 p.
- ÃÂþòð øÃÂÃÂþÃÂøÃÂð ÃÂÃÂÿÃÂúþó ýðÃÂþôð (A New History of the Serbian People), Belgrade: NaÃ
¡ Dom 2000 (co-authors: A. FotiÃÂ, M. St. ProtiÃÂ, N. SamardÃ
¾iÃÂ); Second updated edition: Belgrade 2002, ; Korean translation: Seoul 2001, ;
- Kosovo. Un conflit sans fin? Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 2008. 322 p.
- Kosovo And Metohija. Living in the Enclave (with added multimedia content and original documents) D. T. BatakoviÃÂ (ed.), Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade 2008. (cd-rom)
- La Serbie et la France : une alliance atypique. Les relations politiques, économiques et culturelles,1870-1940 D. T. Batakovià(dir.), Institut des ÃÂtudes Balkaniques, Académie serbe des Sciences et des Arts, Belgrade 2010. 613.p.
- ÃÂþÃÂþòþ ø ÃÂõÃÂþÃÂ
øà: øÃÂÃÂþÃÂøàø øôõþûþóøÃÂ, ÿõÃÂõòþô àÃÂõÃÂñÃÂúþóþ ÃÂ. ÃÂþúþÃÂþòøÃÂ, ÃÂúðÃÂõÃÂøýñÃÂÃÂó : ÃÂ÷ôðÃÂõûÃÂÃÂÃÂòþ ãÃÂðûÃÂÃÂúþóþ ÃÂýøòõÃÂÃÂøÃÂõÃÂð, 2014, 399 p.
- Minorities in the Balkans. State Policy and Inter-Ethnic Relations (1804âÂÂ2004) D. T. Batakovià(ed.), Belgrade, Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2011, 364 p.
- Serbia's Kosovo Drama. A Historical Perspective, Belgrade, ÃÂigoja Ã
 tampa, 2012, 369 p.
- Qeveria serbe dhe Esat Pashe Toptani, e perktheu nga anglishtja Maklen Misha, Tirane, Botimet IDK, [2012], 70 p.
- Les sources françaises de la democratie serbe (1804âÂÂ1914), Paris, CNRS Editions, 2013, 570 p.
- The Foreign Policy of Serbia (1844âÂÂ1867). Ilija GaraÃ
¡anin's NaÃÂertanije, Institute for Balkan Studies SASA, Belgrade 2014, 308 p.
- Serbia in the Great War. Anglo-Saxon Testimonies and Historical Analysis. Edited by DuÃ
¡an T. BatakoviÃÂ, Belgrade: National Library of Serbia 2015, 374 p.
- Srbija i Balkan. Albanija, Bugarska, GrÃÂka 1914âÂÂ1918 (Serbia and the Balkans: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece 1914âÂÂ1918), Prometej-RTS, Novi Sad-Belgrade 2016, 572 ÃÂ.
- DeÃ
¡ifrovanje proÃ
¡losti. Pisci, svedoci, pojave (Deciphering the Past. Witnesses, Writers, Phenomenons), ÃÂigoja Ã
¡tampa, Belgrade 2016, 436 ÃÂ.
- Zlatna nit postojanja, Catena Mundi, Belgrade, 2018, 348 p.
References
Sources
- Zeljan Ã
 uster, Historical Dictionary of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, The Scarecrow Press, Landham & London 1999, p. 43
- Sima M. ÃÂirkoviÃÂ, Rade MihaljÃÂiÃÂ (ed.), Enciklopedija srpske istoriografije, Knowledge, Belgrade 1997, p. 273
- Slobodan Georgijev, âÂÂDusan Batakovic: A Historian of the PresentâÂÂ, Balkan Insight, Dec. 2009
External links