Vojvodina not merely a part of Serbia, it is Serbia - declaration

BELGRADE - Vojvodina is an inseparable part of the national political, constitutional and cultural identity of modern Serbia and, just like there is no Serbia without Vojvodina, Vojvodina cannot exist outside of Serbia, says the text of the People's Declaration on Vojvodina, to be adopted on Sretenje, February 15 - Serbia's Statehood Day.

"The most recent developments in Serbia's northern province, a revival of separatist ideas and movements, public advocacy of the ideas of a 'Vojvodina nation', language and Orthodox Church, as well as an announcement of the adoption of some kind of 'Vojvodina platform', obligate us to safeguard the territorial integrity and wholeness of the Serbian state by working actively in the social and political sphere," says the opening section of the Declaration, which was published by Politika on Friday.

With that aim, a five-point declaration is proposed to the citizens, says the document, noting that the Serbian Constitution was its starting point.

Under the Constitution, adopted by the citizens' sovereign will, Serbia is the state of the Serbs and all citizens living in it, and the territory of Serbia is a single and indivisible territory, it adds.

The first point of the Declaration deals with the historical development of Serbian Vojvodina, while the second point addresses continued attempts to turn Vojvodina into a state and impose the idea of a so-called Vojvodina nation.

The Declaration notes that a Vojvodina separatism - euphemistically determined as "autonomism" - had been created artificially without historical grounds and without social, economic or national justification.

The fifth point, about Vojvodina as a multicultural, multinational and multiconfessional community based on equality of citizens, notes that a renaissance in the relations between Serbs and Hungarians in the past decade was the best proof that an autonomist-etatist model for Vojvodina had not only not contributed to relations between nations, but that its rejection had been a necessary precondition for advancement of understanding, harmony and cooperation between national communities in the province.

Vojvodina reflects European values as a community of all citizens living in the territory of the autonomous province, just as much as it is an inseparable part of the national political, constitutional and cultural identity of modern Serbia, the Declaration says, noting that the two aspects were not mutually exclusive but complemented each other.

"Vojvodina is not merely a part of Serbia, Vojvodina is Serbia, Vojvodina is the given name and Serbia is the family name, and just like there is no Serbia without Vojvodina, Vojvodina cannot exist outside of Serbia," the Declaration concludes.