Interview conducted by : Nicolas Faure

Dragana Trifković is a Serbian journalist and director of the Centre for Strategic Research in Belgrade.

We interviewed her for the French media Résistance Républicaine.
Nicolas Faure: Ms Trifkovic, can you tell us more about your personal career in politics and your current situation?

If we are talking about my work in political parties, I was a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia, whose leader was Vojislav Kostunica, the former president of Serbia. It was a center-right party whose values related to the combination of democratic and national ones. After the change of leadership, in my opinion, this party lost its identity and there were certain disagreements about the views on further work, which led to our separation. After that, I was an advisor to the leader of the parliamentary group for international relations and security in the Serbian Parliament, and I headed the Committee for International Affairs in another political party until 2020, when I decided to resign from this position. After leaving the Democratic Party of Serbia, I founded the People’s Movement “United for Serbia” with a group of like-minded people, but due to a series of unfavorable circumstances, it remained inactive. Therefore, since 2020, I have been focusing on my work in the non-governmental organization Center for Geostrategic Studies, which I have been leading for the last ten years. This Center is based in Belgrade, but it has an international character, because it gathers collaborators from many other countries, such as the USA, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, DR Congo, Brazil, India, Syria, Armenia, Ireland, Slovenia, Argentina, Egypt, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain and others. Currently, the Center has about sixty associates in various specialties such as security, law, international relations, economics, culture, religion, etc. Personally, in addition to leading the Center, I am mainly focused on the development of international relations through “people’s diplomacy”, as well as on conflict zones. Since Serbia has a long history of opposition to the world powers, which have intensively fomented conflicts in recent decades, I thought it would be useful to share my knowledge and experience with other war-affected people.

What are the main problems Serbia is facing? What solutions do you advocate?

Serbia has been facing numerous problems, especially since the collapse of Yugoslavia. The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 has left long-term consequences for Serbia, as well as the previous wars that were fought on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, economic sanctions, international pressure, media demonization, and so on. Middle-aged people are confronted with problems and their consequences almost all their lives, which is really not easy to bear. Especially because of the feeling of injustice. Unfortunately, in other European countries, from the 1990s until today, there was generally no opportunity to discuss it on an equal basis and without prejudice, except with people who could understand what we were talking about. A negative image of Serbia and Serbs was created, which overshadowed even our history. But let’s hope that in the future there will be an opportunity to change this situation. The monopoly of mainstream media and mainstream politics has been broken, which I consider a great success. Apart from the general points I mentioned, I think that the Kosovo issue is one of the most important problems we are facing, which is again a consequence of the NATO bombing. Now we can hear from certain American politicians that the main goal of the bombing of Serbia was the installation of an American military base in Kosovo and Metohija. Jeffrey Sachs spoke about this recently. I believe that the Kosovo problem cannot be solved by violent means, which also implies a violation of international law, the valid UN Security Council Resolution 1244. Therefore, I am in favor of returning the resolution of this issue to the UN, because Brussels (through the “Brussels Dialogue” format of Belgrade and Pristina) has neither the capacity nor the authority to assume such a role. In the light of current geopolitical events, where many European countries are facing an economic, political, social, cultural and spiritual crisis, Serbia, due to its acquired immunity, is not exposed to the current negative processes to that extent.

Is immigration a problem for Serbia as it is for Europe as a whole, and why?

Serbia does not have such a problem with immigration as many European countries that have seen large numbers of immigrants in recent years. For many European countries, especially those with a colonial past, this is the second wave of large-scale migration. “Economic” migrants, whose resettlement is not related to the post-colonial period or war conflicts, should certainly be taken into account. The reason why Serbia is not a destination for immigrants is economic. Although many immigrants passed through Serbia on the Balkan route, few stayed. The majority of immigrants were motivated to move to other European countries because of the perspective of the future, economic well-being, social distribution, which they did not see in Serbia. Our country has not yet solved the problem of Serbian refugees who moved to central Serbia from other parts of the former Yugoslavia, and many of them still live in collective centers.

At the beginning of the UN Security Council session in September 2022, as the director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies, you compared the weapons used on the battlefield during the war in Yugoslavia with the weapons used in the war in Ukraine.

Can you confirm whether you still hold this position and, if so, what steps could be taken to stop this murderous war?

I firmly believe that the events of the war in the former Yugoslavia have many parallels with the conflict that is being waged on the territory of Ukraine, especially in terms of the influence of external forces, both in creating the conflict and in arming those parties to the conflict that they consider to be “allies” in achieving their geopolitical goals. The same can be said about the numerous conflicts in the Middle East. The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine is the result of the NATO members’ long-term disregard for the threat to Russia’s national security and their disregard for numerous international agreements reached after the “Cold War,” including the violation of the promise made to the Russians that NATO would not expand eastward after the collapse of the USSR. As time passes, the background of this war and the role of certain international political structures that do not want the situation to calm down, even though they see that it will lead to the defeat of their positions, are becoming more and more clear. Particularly dangerous are the intentions to provoke conflicts in other regions near Russia’s borders and even to draw other European countries into the Ukrainian conflict. I think that it is impossible to solve the Ukrainian conflict, as well as other related conflicts, without neutralizing the threat emanating from those power centers that are guided by the doctrine of “clash of civilizations”. In order to neutralize them, it is necessary to dismantle all the mechanisms they use to create conflicts, from media manipulation, organizing coups d’état, training terrorist groups, organizing special operations, subversive actions through controlled political and intellectual elites, abuse of non-governmental organizations, infiltration of security and intelligence agencies of other countries, etc. In order to neutralize them, it is also necessary to dismantle all the mechanisms they use to create conflicts.

You have been attacked by certain media in Serbia and abroad. All over the Internet, the mainstream press is claiming that you work for Russian intelligence. Is this true?

Do you feel discriminated by the Serbian press?

I think you know examples in many other European countries where public figures who think for themselves and are not part of the mainstream are persecuted in various ways. In the past, this was mainly done by labeling dissidents and discrediting the media on the basis of fabricated accusations, and now many European countries, as well as the U.S., have begun to take other more restrictive measures, such as searches and arrests, indictments, blocking of bank accounts, and so on. All of this is completely contrary to the proclaimed values of freedom of speech, democracy, human rights, etc., but the Western mainstream simply ignores these facts. Most of the media attacks against me come from Pristina, i.e. from the fake state of Kosovo, probably under the influence of foreign intelligence services, which have a huge influence there. Also, these attacks were supported by certain liberal media, which are financed by funds from Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, then the EU, the National Endowment for Democracy from the USA, the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, the George Soros Fund, etc. There were also such attacks in Serbia (Espresso, Krik, etc.), and such false information that I work for the Russian secret service was also published on the website of the official Association of Journalists of Serbia. Instead of fighting against public misinformation and protecting journalists, the Association of Journalists of Serbia supports Western-funded media that spread lies and attack independent journalists.

I decided to respond to these baseless attacks and sent a letter to all the major international journalists’ associations, explaining my case in detail and providing them with evidence of the media attacks. The only one I received a response from is the International Federation of Journalists, which is also the world’s largest association of journalists, known for, among other things, advocating for Assange’s release. I have to say that as an individual, this support was very important to me, especially when the institutions are not responding and you have virtually no one to turn to for help.

Finally, what message of hope do you have for the citizens of Serbia, considering the current situation in the world?

I think the time will come when we will be able to fight for historical justice and improve Serbia’s position, of course, if we are wise. The current geopolitical changes offer such opportunities. I sincerely believe that these geopolitical changes will lead to historical changes and the creation of a fairer world based on true values such as humanism, tradition, spirituality, diversity of cultures, in general “development, not a clash of civilizations”.

Translated from Serbian: Svetlana Maksovic

Sources : French

Serbian