Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Sokolac Rogatica Rudo Višegrad Pale Foča Gacko Kalinovik Nevesinje Bileća Trebinje Ravno Ljubinje Konjic Istočni Mostar Berkovići Neum Mostar Stolac Čapljina Čajniče Goražde Pale-Prača Ustiprača Foča-Ustikolina Srebrenica Bratunac Milići Han Pijesak Zvornik Bijeljina Brčko Ugljevik Lopare Vlasenica Šekovići Osmaci Olovo Ilijaš Hadžići Ilidža Trnovo Istočni Stari Grad Istočna Ilidža Vogošća Sarajevo-Stari Grad Sarajevo-Centar Sarajevo-Novi Grad Istočno Novo Sarajevo Novo Sarajevo Visoko Glamoč Livno Bosansko Grahovo Kupres Kupres (RS) Šipovo Jajce Donji Vakuf Bugojno Gornji Vakuf Prozor-Rama Jablanica Tomislavgrad Posušje Grude Široki Brijeg Ljubuški Čitluk Fojnica Kreševo Kiseljak Busovača Novi Travnik Travnik Zenica Vitez Kakanj Vareš Breza Kladanj Živinice Kalesija Sapna Teočak Tuzla Lukavac Čelić Srebrenik Banovići Zavidovići Žepče Maglaj Tešanj Usora Dobretići Gradačac Gračanica Doboj Istok Velika Kladuša Cazin Bužim Bosanska Krupa Bihać Bosanski Petrovac Drvar Sanski Most Ključ Petrovac (RS) Istočni Drvar Ribnik Mrkonjić Grad Jezero Kneževo Kotor Varoš Teslić Banja Luka Oštra Luka Krupa na Uni Prijedor Novi Grad Kostajnica Kozarska Dubica Gradiška Srbac Laktaši Čelinac Prnjavor Derventa Doboj Stanari Modriča Brod Pelagićevo Donji Žabar Orašje Domaljevac-Šamac Šamac Odžak Vukosavlje
Location of the municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina (clickable map)
Distribution of Croatians according to the 2013 census:
  • > 90%
  • 80-90%
  • 65-80%
  • 50-65%
    		•
  • 40-50%
  • 30-40%
  • 20-30%
  • 10-20%
    		•
  • 5-10%
  • 1-5%
  • <1%
    		•

    The Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina , often simply referred to as Bosnian Croats since the Bosnian War , form one of the three constitutive peoples of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina .

    According to the 2013 census, around 545,000 Croatians live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, making up 15.4% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Geographical distribution

    Simplified representation of ethnic relationships before the Bosnian War (1991)

    Due to the effects of the war and the associated ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War , the majority of Croatians now live on the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (so-called "Bosniak-Croatian Federation"), one of the two entities of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2013, 497,883 of 2,219,220 inhabitants described themselves as Croatians (22.4%). 29,645 Croats (2.41%) lived in the Republika Srpska , and another 17,252 (20.66%) in the Brčko district .

    The main town of the Bosnian Croats is Mostar , the city with the most Croatian inhabitants in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the same time the political and cultural center of Herzegovina . Since the war in Bosnia, more Croats have lived in Herzegovina than in Bosnia .

    In the following municipalities, Croatians make up the absolute majority of the population (descending according to population share in 2013): Dobretići (99.8%), Posušje (99.7), Široki Brijeg (99.6), Grude (99.5), Čitluk (98, 7), Neum (97.6), Domaljevac-Šamac (97.1), Ljubuški (96.8), Usora (92.3), Tomislavgrad (91.8), Kupres (88.5), Orašje (87 , 3), Livno (85.8), Ravno (81.8), Kreševo (78.7), Čapljina (78.5), Prozor-Rama (74.9), Odžak (61.7), Žepče ( 58.9), Stolac (58.5), Kiseljak (57.1) and Vitez (55.5).

    The largest group, but not the absolute majority, are the Croatians in Busovača (49.5) and Mostar (48.4). The municipalities of Novi Travnik (46.2), Jajce (46.1), Gornji Vakuf (41.4), Pelagićevo (35.4), Vareš (31.7), Fojnica (29.7) also have a noteworthy Croatian population. and Travnik (28.2).

    A total of around 17,000 Croatians live in Sarajevo .

    history

    At the time of the Ottoman rule, some of the Catholic inhabitants left Bosnia and Herzegovina and settled in the areas of Croatia-Slavonia and Dalmatia, which belong to Austria-Hungary and the Republic of Venice .

    During the Second Yugoslavia (1945–1991) the number of Croats in the country fell by about a quarter. At the 1991 census, 17.3% of the population were Croatians. Most of the Croatians live (d) live in the regions of western Herzegovina , western Bosnia, central Bosnia and Posavina .

    Between 150,000 and 200,000 Croatians (depending on the source) fled or relocated to Croatia during the Bosnian War (1992–1995) . After the Bosnian War, many Croatian displaced persons did not return to their hometowns, especially in Posavina . Villages in this area have been looted and burned, and reconstruction is slow. Compensation payments have not yet been made.

    Culture

    Old High School (West Mostar)

    language

    Most Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina use the Croatian language as a standard . Both the Ijekavian and the ikavic dialect of the Štokavian dialect group are spoken. Croatian school children are entitled to school lessons in Croatian. However, there is no separate television program in Croatian.

    Institutions

    One of the most important cultural institutions for the Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Croatian Cultural Association Napredak .

    The University of Mostar is the only educational institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which consists of lectures in Croatian language will be held. However, many Croatians in the country attend universities in Croatia, with the University of Zagreb being the most sought-after.

    There are currently two Croatian music festivals in the country: The Ethnofest Neum and Melodije Mostara . The best Croatian artists in the country perform regularly at these festivals.

    religion

    Roman Catholic Cathedral of Sarajevo

    The vast majority of Croatians belong to the Roman Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina . This is divided into the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna with the Diocese of Banja Luka , the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno , the Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan and the Diocese of Skopje .

    In Medjugorje is an important pilgrimage site of the apparition , the year of over a million pilgrims visited from around the world.

    For centuries, the Franciscans in Bosnia formed the religious foundation of the Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, by standing up for the Catholics, especially under Ottoman rule, they contributed to the continued existence of the Catholic Church and to the identity of the Croats in these areas.

    Tattoos

    Croatian from Bosnia with tattoos

    Among the Catholic Croats, especially in Bosnia and, more rarely, in Herzegovina, blue tattoos were widespread on the hands, forearms, chest and, more rarely, on the forehead until about the middle of the 20th century. The motifs consisted primarily of Christian symbols and Stećak ornaments, which mostly depicted the cross as the central motif.

    The tradition goes back to the conquest of Bosnia by the Ottomans in 1463. The tattoos were intended to prevent a conversion to Islam and the abuse of women by immigrant Turks, or to preserve their identity in the event of a forced conversion. Children were also given appropriate tattoos before they were ten years old in order to prevent them from being abducted to Turkey. As a rule, the child was also tattooed with the initials of his name. The motifs were engraved with simple needles and paint, consisting of a mixture of charcoal, soot, honey and breast milk from women who had given birth to a son.

    With the less importance of religion in later socialist Yugoslavia , the tradition of tattoos also lost its importance.

    politics

    The most important Croatian parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the Croatian Democratic Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina , the Croatian Democratic Union in 1990 and the Croatian Party of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina .

    The Croatians provide a member of the Presidium at state level. Since the 2014 election, this office has been held by the chairman of the HDZ in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Dragan Čović . Before that, from 2006 to 2014 the representative of the multi-ethnic SDP Željko Komšić was a Croatian member of the State Presidency. Representatives of the national Croatian parties that were unsuccessful in the election, etc. a. of the HDZ, questioned the legitimacy of the election, as the avowed atheist Komšić was allegedly mainly directly elected by the Bosniak majority population in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina , and thus not by the constitutive Croatian population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Symbols

    Hoisted flag in Medjugorje (2010)
    coat of arms
    flag

    At the beginning of the 1990s, the Croatians in Bosnia-Herzegovina tried to create their own state with the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna (HRHB) and / or to join the Republic of Croatia. The coat of arms of the HRHB was a modification of the historical Croatian coat of arms and consisted of 25 red and silver boxed fields, starting with a red field. The coat of arms has the shape of a German Renaissance round shield and is made of gold. The Croatian wickerwork is shown in the upper field of the coat of arms . The coat of arms of the HRHB can be found for the first time on the first police units of the Republic of Croatia ( Prvi hrvatski redarstvenik ), which were formed in Croatia and the Croatian areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina and wore this as a hat badge from autumn 1990 to early 1991 (still surrounded by a halo) . The HRHB used a red-white-blue tricolor with the heraldic shield mentioned. Although a flag was introduced for the subsequent Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on November 5, 1996 , the flag is still used de facto by the Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The cantons of Western Herzegovina and Western Bosnia also use this flag as an official symbol. The Croatian coat of arms can also be found in other flags of Bosnia-Herzegovina .

    Personalities

    Monument to Ivo Andrić in Belgrade ( Serbia )

    Numerous well-known Croatian personalities were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some of the most significant are:

    gallery

    • Croat from Central Bosnia (1901)

    • Croatians in Bosnia celebrate Holy Mass in the open air (1901)

    • Building of the Croatian Cultural Association "Hrvoje" in Mostar (1905)

    • First Croatian printing house in Mostar (1920)

    • Croatian folk costume from Tomislavgrad (Herzegovina)

    • Croatian folk costume from Neum (Herzegovina)

    See also

    literature

    • Noel Malcolm: History of Bosnia . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-10-029202-2 .

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b c Agencija za statistiku Bosne i Hercegovine: Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova u Bosni i Hercegovini, 2013. Rezultati popisa. (pdf, 19.7 MB) Sarajevo, June 2016; P. 54
    2. ↑ Ćiro Truhelka : The tattoo among the Catholics of Bosnia and Hercegovina . In: Bosnian-Hercegovinisches Landesmuseum (Hrsg.): Scientific reports from Bosnia and Hercegovina . tape 4 . Carl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna 1896, p. 493 ff . ( archive.org ).
    3. ↑ Tattooing of Croatian Women In Bosnia-Herzegovina ( Memento April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on March 30, 2013
    4. ↑ The Croatian Tattoo Grandma Cult , Vice , accessed on March 30, 2013.
    5. ^ ORF: Croatians continue against election result. Archived from the original on November 17, 2011 ; Retrieved January 19, 2013 .
    6. ^ ORF: Croats for constitutional reform in BiH. Archived from the original on November 17, 2011 ; Retrieved January 19, 2013 .
    7. ↑ Mario Jareb: Hrvatski simboli [Croatian symbols] . Ed .: Hrvatski institut za povijest. ALFA dd, Zagreb 2010, ISBN 978-953-297-230-6 , p. 371 (Croatian).
    8. ↑ Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (1993–1995) Flags of the World
    9. ↑ According to Article 8 (coat of arms) and Article 9 (flag) of the canton's constitution. See Bosna i Hercegovina, Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine, Županija Zapadnohercegovačka, Skupština (ed.): Ustav Županije Zapadnohercegovačke . No. 01-I-8 / 96-1 . Posušje March 26, 1996 ( skupstina-zzh.ba ).
    10. ^ West Herzegovina Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Flags of the World
    11. ↑ According to Article 8 (coat of arms) and Article 9 (flag) of the canton's constitution. See Bosna i Hercegovina, Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine, Hercegbosanska županija, Skupština (ed.): Ustav Hercegbosanske županije . 01-K-1/96. Tomislavgrad December 19, 1996 ( vladahbz.com [PDF]).
    12. ↑ West Bosnia Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Flags of the World
    13. ↑ Posavina Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Flags of the World