Krajina Serbs
Krajina Serbs (Krajinski Srbi or Krajiški Srbi) is a name that was particularly widespread in the 1990s for part of the Serbs in Croatia . This applies in particular to the descendants of the Orthodox fortified farmers who were settled along the military border from the 16th century to protect the Habsburg Empire against the Ottomans .
The term “Vojna krajina ” ( military border ) has been used for South Slavic border marks since the Middle Ages .
The inhabitants of the Habsburg military border were and are therefore called krajinski / krajiški Srbi or Krajišnici (cf. also the family name Krajišnik ). Contemporary Venetian and Austrian authors used the term Wallachians or Morlaken and Karawlachen or Prawoslawen (Orthodox). The term “Serbs” was promoted by the Serbian Orthodox Church towards the end of the 19th century . The extent to which this was an assimilation by the Serbian Orthodox Church or the phenomenon of the transfer of the ethnonym “Wallachians” to Orthodox Slavs in the Balkans is a matter of dispute among historians.
At the beginning of the Croatian War in 1991, the Republic of Serbian Krajina , which was not recognized under international law, was proclaimed in their settlement area , from which almost all non-Serbs fled or were expelled. Conversely, almost all Krajina Serbs fled to the Republika Srpska , Serbia and Montenegro and the UNTAES zone in 1995.
history
16th Century
In the 16th century the region was marked by wars against the Ottomans . The Ottomans conquered eastern Croatia, the Bosnian cities of Jajce and Banja Luka and the areas of Lika , Krbava and Banija . During the course of the Ottoman rule, Serbs, Vlachians , Morlaks and other Orthodox Christians also settled in these areas . The Ottomans cherished the hope that the Orthodox Christians could be used as a protective wall against the Austrians, and sometimes with coercive measures persuaded them to settle there.
To protect against attacks by the Ottomans, the Habsburgs established the military border (Vojna Krajina) at the beginning of the 16th century , which stretched from Karlovac and Varaždin via Slavonia to the Banat . In 1535 the Roman-German King and later Emperor Ferdinand I granted the residents of Žumberak autonomy and appointed them to be fortified farmers . They were expected to fight the Ottomans at their own expense, in return they were given some land and the opportunity to choose their own leaders.
17th century
The Catholic-Croatian nobility and clergy were not very pleased with the rights of the “ orthodox schismatics ” who, as yeoman farmers, owed them neither allegiance nor taxes. As a result, they tried by all means to bring the Serbs under their rule within the military border, to convert them to Catholicism or, if necessary, to drive them out. In 1607 Emperor Rudolf II issued an edict in which the autonomy of Serbs in Slavonia and Krajina was affirmed, but the Croatian nobility prevented its implementation. In 1608, the Croatian nobility passed a law granting subjects rights in Croatia only to Catholic residents. The Bishop of Zagreb and the Croatian nobility asked Ferdinand II to deprive Serbs of their privileges, to expropriate them and forbid them to practice the Serbian Orthodox Christian faith. Krajina Serbs, on the other hand, wrote to the emperor that they "would rather die than serve the Croatian nobility and clergy".
After the death of Rudolf II, the Croats' hope of gaining more influence on the military frontier reawakened. But neither Rudolf's successor, Matthias , nor the subsequent Emperor Ferdinand II listened to the Croatian banus , instead they granted the Serbs more autonomy. As a sign of protest against this policy, the Croatian Banus Tomo Erdedi temporarily resigned from his office. It was not until 1637 under Ferdinand III. succeeded the Croatian nobility to bring the Serbian areas in Slavonia and the military border partially under their administration. When Serbs threatened to leave the military border in 1660, Leopold I reaffirmed their autonomy rights with a further edict on October 19, 1660. The Croatian administration was reversed in 1670 at the instigation of the imperial council of war in Graz . The war council justified its request by stating that the Croatians were "foolish, restless and unreliable".
According to the maxim “ divide et impera ”, the Habsburgs often stirred up religious, cultural and ethnic differences in the Krajina and used them for their own benefit.
After the Ottomans' campaigns against Dalmatia , which were reflected in attacks on the cities of Kotor , Split , Šibenik and Zadar , Venice also tried in the middle of the 17th century to win Serbian settlers for the defense of Dalmatia. Many Serbian families were settled with the help of Uskoks , for example in the vicinity of Zadar.
In the course of the 17th century the Ottomans suffered several setbacks: the defeat of the Turkish army at the siege of Vienna in 1683 and the ensuing liberation of part of the Croatian territories from Turkish rule finally brought Croatia to the long-awaited peace after the centuries-long Turkish wars. In the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, Hungary and today's Slavonia were liberated from Ottoman rule. In the great Turkish war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in 1684, the Serbian leader Stojan Janković distinguished himself as the commander of the Uskoks by liberating the area from Zadar to Knin , whereupon around 50,000 Serbs settled.
18th century
After victories against the Ottomans at the end of the 17th century, the Croatian nobility and clergy renewed their will to rule over the areas inhabited by Krajina Serbs. Slavonia and the military border were to be connected to Croatia, which, according to the nobility, also included the long-awaited end of Serbian autonomy in these areas. But the Graz war council and the imperial court opposed it again and even called on the Serbs to armed resistance. The Croatian banus and the sabor were informed that the Serbs were under the personal protection of the emperor. Only under the reign of Maria Theresa 1740–1780 did this policy change.
The Krajina Serbs during the Croatian War 1991-1995
Since independence in 1991, both before and during the Croatian War, the Serbian minority was officially guaranteed minority rights by the Croatian government under Franjo Tuđman . This also applies to all minorities in the Republic of Croatia. However, with the previous constitutional amendment, people of Serbian origin were downgraded from the status of the state people at the time of the former Yugoslavia to a minority in the Republic of Croatia. The formally guaranteed rights were modeled by law for the entire region of Southeast Europe, but, as the annual reports of Amnesty International show , they have not been implemented accordingly.
The Serbian population in Croatia feared a repetition of the events from the period of the fascist independent Croatian state (1941 to 1945) , when hundreds of thousands of people (Serbs, Jews, Sinti and Roma and Croatian regime opponents) joined the Ustasha regime in a genocide, fell victim. These fears were reinforced by the anti-Semitism expressed by Tuđman in his book “Errwege der Geschichtswichtlichkeit” and statements during the election campaign such as “I am so happy not to be married to a Serb or a Jew” , as well as by the statement made at the time Foreign Minister Zvonimir Šeparović told the international press "The Serbian lobby in the world is dangerous because it works with Jewish organizations" as a reason for Tuđman's radical remarks. The public display of Ustaše symbols, the discrimination against Serbs, especially at work, the brutal police action, the belittling of Serbian victims in World War II and finally a widespread "Serbophobia" made things even more difficult. However, instead of calming the situation, Croatian and Serbian politicians aroused and fueled national emotions. Belgrade media accused the strongest Croatian, at the time nationalist party, HDZ, of planning massacres of the Serbian population. At the same time, the Serbian media reported extensively on the crimes of the Ustaše regime against the Serbs in World War II and established a connection with leading Croatian politicians. The Belgrade leadership replaced moderate forces in the Serbian Democratic Party in Croatia with people who refused to compromise with Zagreb. The increasing tensions were then politically instrumentalized by both sides. As a result, barricades were erected in the " Krajina ", armed incidents with the Croatian police were provoked and villages were stormed. For their part, moderate voices in the Serbian population were threatened and branded as traitors.
The Krajina Serbs resisted the new state of Croatia for the reasons mentioned and in view of the now massive change in the political situation to their disadvantage. In the wake of Croatia's declaration of independence, which was foreseeable in mid-1991, the leadership of the Serbian population in Croatia declared the Serbs' settlement areas in Krajina and in parts of western and eastern Slavonia to be autonomous, and later to be independent, and in turn founded a Republic of Serbian Krajina . However, this republic was never recognized under international law. The political leaders of the Krajina Serbs sought to remain in what was then still the rest of Yugoslavia.
During the Croatian War from 1991 to 1995, up to 170,000 Croatians and other minorities living in Croatia were expelled from the territory of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina as part of this policy . Civilians were also murdered. The Serbian leadership received support from the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian irregulars.
In 1995 the Croatian government launched the Oluja military operation to conquer and reintegrate the Krajina. According to UN statistics, around 200,000 Krajina Serbs fled to the Republika Srpska , Serbia and Montenegro and the UNTAES zone. Revenge, reprisals and attacks on the Serbian civilian population took place during the Oluja operations. Prosecutors at the Hague Tribunal spoke of murder, pillage, pillage, destruction, inhuman treatment, humiliation, persecution of ethnic groups, ethnic cleansing and other inhumane acts in the sense of crimes against humanity. According to the Helsinki Committee , between 400 and 800 Serbs were killed by Croatian troops. The Hague Prosecutors said at least 150 Serb civilians were killed. A few hundred more are still reported missing. Serbs displaced from Croatia spoke of 2,669 missing people in 2005. Serbian houses were partially destroyed after the completion of Operation Oluja and partially assigned by the Croatian government as temporary accommodation for the also displaced Croatian population, especially from the Republika Srpska and central Bosnia.
Development after 1995
Today about 4.36 percent (186,633) of the people living in Croatia are of Serbian origin. According to Amnesty International , many of the returned Serbs have left the area of the so-called "Krajina" again because they could not find a livelihood there due to various disadvantages.
According to official reports, however, the Croatian government under Prime Minister Sanader carried out a consistent return program for the Krajina Serbs. It would be in the interest of the Republic of Croatia to resettle the Serbian population who have not participated in crimes against humanity in the democratic Republic of Croatia. The Croatian government is intensively involved in the reconstruction of destroyed Serbian houses which were destroyed during or after the fighting. Social aid programs have also been set up in cooperation with international organizations.
Controversial term in Croatia
In Croatia, the term “Krajina” is mostly avoided for the areas described here, as it is considered to be historically burdened following the violent expulsion and murder of Croats and other non-Serbs.
The area of the historical military border was only partially identical to that of the later Republic of Serbian Krajina .
Famous pepole
- Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) electrical engineer and inventor
- Svetozar Boroević from Bojna
- Milutin Milanković
- Milan Babic
- Goran Hadžić
- Milan Martić
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Gojko Škoro: Genocide over the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia. Institute of Contemporary History, Belgrade 2000. ISBN 86-7403-058-0 , p. 11
- ↑ ibid., Pp. 13-14
- ↑ ibid., Pp. 14–15
- ↑ ibid., P. 16
- ↑ ibid., Pp. 11-12
- ↑ ibid., P. 12
- ↑ ibid., Pp. 15-16
- ↑ - ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.operationlastchance.org/CROATIA_OLC%20Activities_1.htm
- ↑ haGalil.com about Franjo Tuđman and Croatia in the early 1990s - By Chaim Frank
- ↑ The Parliament: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and its Consequences , published by the German Bundestag. Retrieved June 25, 2011 .
- ↑ Gagnon, 1994/95
- ↑ http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/50/plenary/a50-648.htm
- ^ Karl Kaser: The ethnic "engineering". In: Dunja Melčić (Ed.): The War in Yugoslavia. Prehistory, course and consequences manual. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-33219-2 , pp. 401-414, here: p. 408.
- ↑ Die Welt: Commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Croatia's "Operation Storm" . Retrieved November 21, 2012 .
- ↑ 2011 census by citizenship, ethnic groups and mother tongue - Republic of Croatia , page 13, Croatian State Statistics Office , dzs.hr, accessed on December 12, 2019
- ↑ Amnesty International Germany: Annual Report 2005: Croatia ( Memento of the original dated February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
