Novak Djokovic
Djokovic in 2013, photo by Leonard Zhukovsky/Bigstock.com
Place of Birth: Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Date of Birth: 22 May, 1987
Ethnicity: Serbian, Croatian
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian tennis player. He is ranked world No. 1 in singles by the ATP, and has held the top position for a record total 373 weeks, finished as the year-end No. 1 a record seven times, and won a total of 93 singles titles on the ATP Tour. He has the most wins over and matches played against top 10 players.
He is the son of Dijana (Žagar) and Srđan Djokovic. His father, who is of Serbian descent, was born in a village near Trepča, in Kosovo. His mother was born in Belgrade, and is of partly or entirely Croatian descent. His maternal grandparents were from Vinkovci, in eastern Croatia. His siblings, Marko Djokovic and Djordje Djokovic, are also tennis players. Novak is married to Jelena Ristić, with whom he has two children. His family is Serbian Orthodox.
The Đoković family is said to hail from Čevo.
He is said to speak Serbian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, and Spanish.
Novak’s paternal grandfather was Vladimir Đoković (the son of Neđeljko Đoković and Sara Jauković). Vladimir’s parents were from Jasenovo Polje near Nikšić, now in Montenegro, and later moved to Voćnjak in Metohija. The family fled Albanians during WWII, and lived with a relative, named Novak, after whom Novak Djokovic is named.
Novak’s paternal grandmother was named Stanka.
Novak’s maternal grandfather was named Zdenko.
Novak’s maternal grandmother was named Elizabeta Franjić.
Sources: https://www.in4s.net
Genealogy of Novak Djokovic (focusing on his father’s side) – http://www.geni.com
22 slams
If his great-grandfather is originally from Cevo (from the tribe of Ozrinici), he is Montenegrin. The Ozrinici tribe comes from Old Montenegro, a region where almost all of the native tribes identify as ethnically Montenegrin, especially the Ozrinici tribe. The village of Cevo, which is the center of the Ozrinici tribe, has 98.4% of its population identifying as ethnically Montenegrin, as of the 2011 census: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cevo
Montenegrins are a recognized ethnic group, no matter what anyone says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegrins
It is true that most of the natives of the area known as Old Herzegovina (North Montenegro) where the Djokovic family came to, from Cevo, usually identify as Serbs, however, the Djokovic family is not native to the area, coming from the south, Old Montenegro. Even the village of Jasenovo Polje, where the Djokovic family migrated to, contains 75 % ethnic Montenegrins and 25% Serbs, according to the 2003 census: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovo_Polje.
This is because the other major families in this village, like the Durutovic, and Todorovic, also come from Cevo, along with the Djokovic family, migrating there in around 1730. The 25 percent of Serbs in the village are probably natives. The Jaukovic line, from the mother of his paternal grandfather, seems to come from the Drobnjak clan, which is an Old Herzegovian clan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drobnjaci. You can see that the Jaukovici are from the Drobnjak clan, under the section “Brotherhoods and Families”
As was said before most Old Herzegovian clans, including the Drobnjak, traditionally identify as Serbs.
His paternal grandmother was most likely a Kosovo Serb, although no information is provided.
So his father seems to be around 12.5 % Montenegrin and 37.5 % Serbian (from Old Hercegovina and Kosovo). The ethnicity should actually say Serbian and Montenegrin (father) or something like Serbian as well as some Montenegrin.
Not true and highly expected from someone who is nicknamed Horvat (Croatian), Ozrinici Tribe are an old Serbian tribe, Montenegrins as ethnicity started to identify themselves only in 20th century, furthermore, his family links his ancestry with Serbian Orthodox priest Damjanovic who moved from Kosovo region after Ottoman attacks, his father is of SERB ethnicity, that can been seen in this interview : https://www.in4s.net/srdjan-djokovic-stao-uz-novaka-sine-ti-si-ponos-srpskog-naroda/ where Srdjan Djokovic clearly says: “The right to every human is to express themselves as they want, Montenegrin have that right to, but also WE SERBS have the same right, nobody can take our identity, our roots and our church. Djokovic is not a Monetnegrin, neither his father, he is of Serb ethnicity and ancestry, it is also questionable questionable is his mother Croatian since the Zagar last name is of Slovenian origin comes from german word Sägen and means saw and iti is occupational last name. SO remove this nonsence that he is Montenegrin because his ethnicity is Serb
Not true, the Ozrinici are an Old Montenegrin tribe. The tribe did not come from Kosovo during the Ottoman times, as the tribe was first mentioned in the Kotor Archives of Montenegro in 1335 before any Ottomans were present in the area, the Ottomans started coming to Kosovo at around 1389. This information about the tribe can be found on a Serbian site and it can be translated into English:
https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A7%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE
Someone named Nenoje Ozrinic was noted to live in Montenegro, at the time. The next time the tribe was mentioned was in 1489, in a charter issued by the Montenegrin Prince Ivan Crnojevic.
From the 10th century up to 1186, the area was known as “Duklja” and was a vassal state of the Byzantine Greek Empire, being somewhat independent. The inhabitants of the area were sometimes called Serbians, while sometimes they were called Croatians, for example, Mihajlo Vojislavljevic, (the King of Duklja from 1050 to 1081) was called “the ruler of the Croats, who was ruled from Kotor” by John Skylitzes, a Byzantine historian, which can be read on Wikipedia (the last sentence of the second paragraph form the “Early Life” section).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihailo_Vojislavljevi%C4%87
However, the inhabitants were neither Serbs nor Croats, but a completely different ethnicity.
At around 1186 Serbia imposed its rule over Duklja, ruling it from 1186-1356, however even during Serbian rule the area of Montenegro probably had some special status. From around 1356, the area of present-day southern Montenegro (encompassing the territory of Old Montenegrin tribes that include the Ozrinici) existed as a mostly self-governing country with its own Princes and it was known as the Principality of Zeta, with the inhabitants known as Zetans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Zeta
From around 1516 until 1852, it was known as the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro and was mostly independent of the Ottomans, having its own rulers, unlike present-day Serbia, except the northern regions which were mostly under Hungarian rule. Montenegro was completely independent of the Ottomans from 1852-1918 until it entered a union with Serbia, which was opposed by many, including the then Montenegrin King Nicholas. Therefore the Serbians only ruled Montenegro for about 170 years, while Montenegro was mostly a self-governing country for about 900 years and likely more than that.
Also, the tribes of Montenegro are similar to the Albanian tribes in many ways, with some of the Montenegrin tribes said to originate from North-Central Albania. Genetically speaking, the tribes of Montenegro seem to be close to Albanians, for example the Bjelopavlici tribe seem to be distantly related to the Kelmendii, an Albanian tribe, and the Piperi overlap genetically with some Albanians from Kukes, North Albania (according to comparisons between genetic mutations called haplogroups on the site: https://www.yfull.com/tree/R-FT166340/ and “https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-FT89249/” ). Even the Zetan nobles and rulers from the dynasty Balsic are said to be fully or partially Albanian in origin.
However, Montenegrins are probably somewhat more Slavic than the Albanians. The surname Zagar was first mentioned on Croatian territory, in 1570, in Cabar, Western Croatia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDagar_(surname)
In translation, Zagar is just how some Slovenes and Northern Croatians from these areas say sawyer (an occupational term for someone who saws wood). The term was influenced by German.
Some people like to deny the existence of Montenegrins, but I have presented links and facts to verify my statements that Montenegrin is an ethnicity.
Well it is not my agenda or my feelings in queston here .It is a fact which Novak himself explained in an interview one year ago and since this is a page that talks about ethnicity I thought I could contribute a little bit because it is obvious that you are out of touch here. But if you think that is better for this page to leave a snarky comments instead of doing a little bit of research,then go ahead let”s see how far will that bring you
I honestly don’t understand what you want to be changed here. Both Serbian and Croatian are already listed. You write that you don’t see why Croatian was added, yet in an earlier comment you acknowledge that his mother is part Croatian.
I was just trying to explain that it is not that simple to put just one ethnicity on his mother side since it is obvious that she has more than one . But I do understand the confusion that I caused now and I do apologise . My question is- Is it enough to write just Croatian part or should one go more into details
Well, it depends. How much detail do you have? From the previous exchanges, it seems like the only thing that’s certain about his mother is that she’s part Croatian. Nowhere in the profile does the text imply that his mother is only Croatian. What changes could be made that would be a major improvement to the profile?
Since we already established that his ethnicity is Serbian (eventhough nobody wrote that his father is of Serbian descent), I do not see any reason why was this croatian part added, especially since his mother was of mixed ethnicity and her religion is orthodox
You really seem to be bent out of shaped about this. lol His mother’s ethnicity – fortunately – doesn’t depend on how you and your agenda feel about it. That’s your own personal problem you have to deal with.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯