Serbian greeting

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Demonstrators show the three-finger salute at the " Kosovo is Serbia " demonstration on February 21, 2008 in Belgrade , Serbia .

As a three-finger-Greeting ( Serb Поздрав са три прста Pozdrav sa tri prsta ) or three-finger salute (Српски поздрав / Srpski pozdrav) a is gesture of the right hand indicated, in which the thumb , index and middle fingers extended and the ring finger , and little fingers are flexed. The gesture is a national symbol for many Serbs .

The gesture resembles the hand of the oath and, like this, has a religious background in that it refers to the sign of the cross in the Orthodox Church (see also gesture of blessing of the Orthodox Church ) to which most Serbs belong.

The neighboring peoples of the Serbs regard the gesture as nationalistic and its use can therefore be viewed as a provocation and provoke negative reactions.

Emergence

The gesture established itself among Serbian nationalist parties in the early 1990s, when religious symbols became important for the peoples of the former Yugoslavia in the construction of a national identity, and is expressed in the proverb Nema Srpstva bez tri prsta (There is no Serbianism without three Finger).

During the armed conflict of Yugoslavia , the gesture became a prominent form of Serbian self-identification and developed into a counterpart of the victory symbol used by the other warring parties. In many cases, people of different faith and ethnicity were forced to perform the three-finger salute in order to humiliate them.

Use today

NBA basketball player Saša Pavlović with the Serbian salute.

The gesture is often used by fans and players after sporting victories. After winning the 1995 European Basketball Championship , the entire Yugoslav team made this gesture. For the basketball star Aleksandar Đorđević it is not a provocation, but stands for Serbia and “ that's us, that's me - nothing else. It is my pride. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelia Sorabji: Islam and Bosnia's muslim nation . In: FW Carter, HT Norris (eds.): The changing shape of the balkans . Westview Press, Boulder, Co. 1996, pp. 54 (also quoted in Praeger / Goetze 2001, 160).
  2. ^ Roger E. Axtell: Essential Do's and Taboos: The Complete Guide to International Business and Leisure Travel . John Wiley & Sons, 2007, pp. 27 ( google.de ).
  3. ↑ Miron Rezun: Europe's Nightmare: The Struggle for Kosovo . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 978-0-275-97072-7 , pp. 81 ( google.de ).
  4. ↑ Lynne Jones: Then They Started Shooting: Growing Up in Wartime Bosnia . Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-674-01561-6 , pp. 269 ( google.de ).
  5. ^ Patrick James, David Goetze (eds.): Evolutionary Theory and Ethnic Conflict (=  Praeger studies on ethnic and national identities in politics ). Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 978-0-275-97143-4 , National Identity in the Balkans: Confessionalism to Nationalism, pp. 160 ( google.de ).
  6. ^ Andrew Herscher: Violence Taking Place: The Architecture of the Kosovo Conflict (=  Cultural Memory in the Present ). Stanford University Press, Stanford, Ca. 2010, ISBN 978-0-8047-6935-8 , pp. 92 ( google.de ).
  7. ↑ Ivana Nizich: War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina . Ed .: Helsinki Watch. 2nd Vol. Human Rights Watch, 1993, ISBN 978-1-56432-097-1 , pp. 118 ( google.de ).
  8. ↑ Christian Konle: Macro crime in the context of the Yugoslav civil wars . Criminological investigations into human rights violations committed by the Serbian side in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8316-0943-7 , p. 130 ( google.de ).
  9. ^ Prisoners of War by Sports Illustrated