Gazimestan speech

Gazimestan speech

Milošević delivering the speech
Native name	Obraćanje na Gazimestanu (Croatian language Latin alphabet) Говор на Газиместану (Serbian language, Cyrillic alphabet)
Date	28 June 1989 (1989-06-28)
Venue	Gazimestan, Kosovo field
Location	Pristina, SAP Kosovo, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Coordinates	42°41′26″N 21°7′25″E / 42.69056°N 21.12361°E / 42.69056; 21.12361
Theme	600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, possibility of armed conflict
Participants	Slobodan Milošević

This article is part of a series about Slobodan Milošević
Early life Public image Cultural depictions President of Serbia and Yugoslavia League of Communists of Serbia Presidency of SR Serbia 8th Session Anti-bureaucratic revolution Gazimestan speech 1990 constitution 1991 protests Karađorđevo meeting 1991–1992 anti-war protests Croatian War Bosnian War 1992 constitution Sanctions Insurgency in Kosovo Dayton Agreement Education agreement 1996–97 protests Kosovo War NATO bombing Overthrow Trial Death Bosnian genocide case Elections 1990 1992 1996 2000 Family Mirjana Marković Marko Milošević Borislav Milošević
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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.

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.