His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander and members of the Advisory Bodies of the Crown announced with great sorrow that Dusan Batakovic, member of the Privy Council and the director of the Institute for Balkan Studies at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, passed away in Belgrade.
Dusan Batakovic’s scientific and historical contribution to the defense of the Serbian state sovereignty is immeasurable, and the support he gave to the idea of constitutional parliamentary monarchy is irreplaceable.
Dusan T. Batakovic, PC, Historian, Lecturer at the Department of History of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Belgrade University. Member of the Inner Council of the Serbian Democratic Club “Odbrana” (Defense), President of Council for Democratic Changes (for the Homeland).
Born in Belgrade in 1957. Studied in Belgrade, MA in History, PhD at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV (France and the Creation of Parliamentary Democracy in Serbia 1830-1914). Father of two.
From 2001 to 2005 he served as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) to the Hellenic Republic. In July 2005, he became Advisor for political issues to the President of Serbia Boris Tadic. In that capacity he became a member, in November 2005, of the Serbian negotiating team at the UN-sponsored talks on the future status of the province of Kosovo in Vienna. He was a head of the Serbian Delegation at the International Court of Justice, regarding the advisory opinion on Kosovo status (2009-2011).
Dusan T. Bataković was appointed Ambassador of Serbia to Canada in July 2007 and Ambassador of Serbia in Paris, France in January 2009, where he took office in March 2009 and has completed his mandate in December 2012.
Published books: The Decani Question (Belgrade, 1989), The French Revolution 1789-1989 (Belgrade, 1989), Kosovo-Metohia in Serbian History (Belgrade, 1989), Contemporaries on Kosovo-Metohia 1850-1912 (Belgrade, 1989), The Battle of Kolubara 1914 (Belgrade, 1989), Le Kosovo-Metohija dans l’histoire serbe (Lausanne, 1990), Kosovo-Metohia in Serbo-Albanian Relations (Pristina, 1991), Nacertanije of Ilija Garasanin (Beograd, 1991), The Kosovo Chronicles (Belgrade, 1992), Kosovo, la spirale de la haine (Lausanne, 1993), La Yougoslavie: nations, religions, ideologies (Lausanne, 1994), The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, History and politics (Paris, 1996), The Serbs and Their National Interest (San Francisco, 1997), Kosovo-Metohia; History and Ideology (Beograd-Valjevo-Srbinje, 1998), Cronica de la Kosovo (Bucuresti, 1999).
The bibliography of Dusan Batakovic is, at the same time, his most precise biography, and his scientific contribution is what will survive and remain present forever through his significant work.
We pray the Lord to give him eternal peace.