National identification in Montenegro

Montenegro is one of the few European countries in which the national-formative processes have not yet resulted in the national-identity unification of the ethnically homogeneous population. Moreover, as a rule, this population is divided by nationality. Such a situation, according to the 2011 census, is most noticeable in the Montenegrin Orthodox population divided between the national Montenegrins (278,865) and Serbs (178,110). However, Slavic-speaking Catholics and Muslims also have a sense of disunity in the context of experiencing their own nationality. Thus, an equal number of Catholics declare themselves Croats (6,021) and Montenegrins (5,667), while Muslims identify themselves as Bosniaks (53,605), Muslims (20,537) or Montenegrins (12,758). It is a research-stimulating phenomenon all the more because it deviates from the established pattern of national formation of the original speakers of the dialects and dialects of the central South Slavic diasystem, i.e. according to the pattern according to which Catholics are Croats, Orthodox are Serbs and Muslims are Bosniaks. Therefore, in the proposed project, we paid special attention to the detection of the causes that make Montenegro specific in relation to its own environment. National determination in Montenegro also has a far-reaching political significance, especially in the context of the Orthodox population. Identification with Montenegro implies support for the independent state status of Montenegro. Since Montenegrin Croats, Bosniaks/Muslims and Albanians also support it, it implies a constructive relationship with these communities and their home states. In contrast, identification with Serbia basically includes a tendency towards the arrangement of Montenegro with Serbia, and in the last case its annexation to Serbia. Montenegro already experienced annexation to Serbia in 1918, while during the 1990s it was a training ground for Greater Serbia’s aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, within the research, we focused our interest on the current political dimension of Serbian-Montenegrin relations and the consequences that these relations can have on the immediate neighborhood of Montenegro.