Gazimestan speech
The Gazimestan speech (Serbo-Croatian: Govor na Gazimestanu / Говор на Газиместану) was given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia, at the Gazimestan monument on the Kosovo field. It was the centrepiece of a day-long event to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, which was fought at the site in 1389.
Milošević delivering the speech | |
| Native name | Obraćanje na Gazimestanu (Croatian language Latin alphabet) Говор на Газиместану (Serbian language, Cyrillic alphabet) |
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| Date | 28 June 1989 |
| Venue | Gazimestan, Kosovo field |
| Location | Pristina, SAP Kosovo, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Coordinates | 42°41′26″N 21°7′25″E |
| Theme | 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, possibility of armed conflict |
| Participants | Slobodan Milošević |
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President of Serbia and Yugoslavia
Elections Family
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The speech was delivered to a huge crowd, and came against a backdrop of intense ethnic tension between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and increasing political tensions between SR Serbia and the other constituent republics of the then SFR Yugoslavia caused by the anti-bureaucratic revolution.
The speech has since become famous for Milošević's reference to the possibility of "armed battles", in the future of Serbia's national development. Many commentators have described this as presaging the collapse of Yugoslavia and the bloodshed of the Yugoslav Wars. Milošević later claimed that he had been misrepresented.