This Is How It Went Down in 1933, Because People Stayed Quiet

Written by Boban Batrićević

What you’ve seen over the past three days across Montenegro, Turkish citizens being hunted, their businesses smashed, their property torched, all whipped up by a media-driven lynch mob against anyone who’s different, is chillingly familiar. It’s exactly what happened in the Third Reich in 1933. Paramilitary groups tied to so-called Orthodox brotherhoods, street thugs, and agitators? They’re basically the brownshirts in another time. And we… just sit there. Doing nothing.

That’s how it was in 1933: most people didn’t have the guts to stand up to a radicalized, militant minority. So now the question is, what happens next?

Do you really think you’re going to boot Mandić and the BIA networks that are quietly undermining Montenegro’s stability at the ballot box in 2027? Forget it. Do you think these street gangs will suddenly stop on their own? Not a chance, not even close.

So what do we do? Maybe the first step is just asking the hard questions:

1. Where is the Montenegrin opposition calling for solidarity rallies?

2. Where are we, the civic activists, calling for solidarity rallies?

3. Where are the Bosniak and Albanian parties in government, stepping up for solidarity rallies?

When we stop even needing to ask these questions, we’ll know we’re on the right track. But right now? We should already be on the streets, showing Montenegro has another face, a normal, humane, anti-Chetnik face. Because, gentlemen, after the Turks… we’ll be next.

If we don’t mount a sharp, organized, strategic, and sustained pressure campaign against Mandić and Vučić’s cronies; if the so-called “salon opposition” doesn’t lead a real, energized resistance, I’ll tell you straight, those of you who love this country will soon have nowhere left to call home.

If we let ourselves be occupied and ruled by a Chetnik horde, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

And finally, a little bit of Turkish culture, out of spite. A cult song by a cult Turkish band about darkness… and the sun starting to break through.