Is Djokovic glorifying a war criminal here? – Sports mix

He smiles proudly at the camera. Novak Djokovic seems to be delighted with his gift. A manufacturer of rakija, a typical Serbian schnapps, had presented the tennis star with his specialty, and Djokovic is now posing with it. And thus causes a lot of trouble in its neighboring countries.

Because the box shows Draža Mihailovic, Chetnik leader in World War II. While Mihailovic is considered a hero especially by Serbian nationalists, he is particularly hated in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. For them he is a war criminal and collaborator who is responsible for tens of thousands of murders with his ethnic cleansing. Mihailovic was sentenced to death and executed in 1946, rehabilitated by a controversial judgment of the Serbian Supreme Court of Appeal.

A political message?

The fact that Djokovic poses freshly and happily with such a controversial figure is now heavily criticized. For example, the Bosnian website Klix.ba writes: “With one photo he destroys everything that he has built up over the years. His reputation is now permanently damaged.” The Bosnian “Faktor” is also outraged: «In addition to the photo of the man responsible for the death of more than 50,000 people, the rakija box also bears the inscription ‘Made in honor and glory of the heroes of Ravna Gora “And the Croatian online newspaper” Index “reacted blankly to the fact that Djokovic posed with the likeness of a person” who had committed serious crimes against Croats and Muslims. “The media believe Djokovic wanted to send a political message out into the world .

In Serbia, the photo caused less excitement. Rather, the newspaper “Večernje novosti” sees an attempt at a dirt campaign: “The media in Croatia are trying to criticize our tennis player for posing with a rakija.” Djokovic himself did not comment on the controversy.

Finally, the Serb stepped from one faux pas to the next. He was disqualified at the US Open because he shot down a line judge, previously he caused a lot of head shaking with his Adriatic tour in the middle of the first wave of the corona pandemic.