Serbs in Croatia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Serbs in Croatia ( Serbo-Croatian  Срби у Хрватској / Srbi u Hrvatskoj ) or Croatian Serbs (Хрватски Срби / Hrvatski Srbi ) are numerically the largest national minority in the country.

According to the 2011 census, there were 186,633 Serbs living in Croatia at that time , which corresponds to 4.36 percent of the total population of the state.

Demographics

population

Orthodox Church in Zagreb and Monument to Petar Preradovic , Cvijetni Trg (Flower Square) in Zagreb

Before the outbreak of the Croatian War in 1991, there were around 581,663 Serbs in Croatia, which was around 12.1 percent of the total population of Croatia.

In 1971 there were 626,789 Serbs in the Socialist Republic of Croatia (over 14 percent of the total population of Croatia). The Serbs formed one of the two constitutive peoples of Croatia alongside the Croats. In 1990, the constitution was unilaterally changed by the HDZ's Franjo Tudjman party, with him at the helm, with the Serbs being outvoted.

During the Second World War , the Serbs made up 30% of the population of the Independent State of Croatia ( vassal state 1941–1945). However, the national territory also included all of Bosnia-Herzegovina . For this purpose, almost the entire Croatian population in the coastal region including the hinterland was separated from the rest of Croatia.

According to the 1931 census in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , around 633,000 Serbs were counted on Croatian territories. However, the boundaries of these areas were different from today's. In this respect, this figure is not comparable.

The 1840 census in Austria-Hungary recorded 504,179 Serbs in the areas of Croatia and Slavonia , who made up 32% of the population. The loss of the region of eastern Syrmia , which is predominantly inhabited by Serbs , the incorporation of the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Istria into the Socialist Republic of Croatia , as well as the non-inclusion of areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina that are predominantly inhabited by Croats (such as during the Banovina Hrvatska ), shows that with the territorial changes, the relative percentage of the Croatian population of Serbian ethnicity also changed.

Since the fall of Yugoslavia

The great decline in the population of Serbs in Croatia was caused by the Yugoslav wars and in particular by the Croatian war in the period from 1991 to 1995 .

In 2001, according to the census, there were 201,631 Serbs living in Croatia, i.e. 4.54% of 4,437,460 inhabitants. In the 2001 census, about 380,000 Serbs, 100,000 Yugoslavs and a total of about 350,000 fewer people were counted.

With between 150,000 and 400,000 people, depending on the source, a large part of the population now lives in Serbia . A large part (around 150,000) also live in the Republika Srpska ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ). The exact number is difficult to determine because of the fluctuation , as many people have returned to Croatia, have been registered twice or have left Croatia again after returning their property or re-registering.

Geographical distribution

Most Serbs live in the regions of Banija , Kordun , Lika , North Dalmatia , West and East Slavonia , Syrmia and Baranja . Smaller groups also live in other parts of Croatia, in Slavonia and Dalmatia as a whole, the Bilogora , Moslavina , the Gorski Kotar and in Istria . Serbs also live in all major Croatian cities. The largest number of Serbs in Croatia live in Zagreb .

In the 2001 census, the share of Serbian national minority exceeded in four counties , the 10 percent limit: In the Vukovar-Srem , the Sisak-Moslavina County , the County of Karlovac and Lika-Senj .

There is a Serb majority in 16 municipalities:

Culture

language

Most of the members of the Serbian national minority in Croatia speak the neo- štokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian with Ijekavian pronunciation, while in eastern Slavonia and Baranja the Ekavian pronunciation predominates.

Around 45,000 people in Croatia named Serbian as their mother tongue in 2001. Two thirds of them live in the area around Vukovar and Osijek-Baranja. “Croatian” was given as the standard answer.

According to the Erdut Agreement (1995), Serbian schoolchildren in Eastern Slavonia (former UNTAES area) have the right to be taught in Serbian and in Cyrillic.

religion

Most of the Serbs in Croatia are Serbian Orthodox .

The Metropolinates are divided into four eparchies .

There are three Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Northern Dalmatia:

  • Krupa
  • Krka
  • Dragović. was the construction of the Peruca - dam during the communist Yugoslavia flooded.

Great personalities

Nikola Tesla Monument (Zagreb)

Numerous well-known Serbian personalities were born in Croatia . The most important personalities include:

history

Early Middle Ages

Toponyms

According to Serbian linguists, the toponym Srb , a village on the Una River , recorded in writing in the 9th century, is considered a trace of Serbs in Croatia. Terms like Serb or Srb therefore indicate the ethnic group of Serbs. Croatian linguists, on the other hand, argue that the noun Srb is derived from the ancient Slavic verb serbati ( Engl . To source; what is meant here is the source of the Una ).

Settlement according to sources

According to De Administrando Imperio (DAI, Chapters 32–36) by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII from 950 , Slavs settled the following lands in Dalmatia during the reign of Emperor Herakleios (610–641) :

The DAI describes the inhabitants of Pagania, Zahumlje and Travunia as Slavs who settled there during the reign of Herakleios (610–641).

Most of Pagania / Narentas and smaller parts of the Zahumlje, Travuniens and Konavles now belong to the national territory of Croatia. Most of the remaining areas belong to Bosnia and Herzegovina . Raszien is in today's Serbia and also in Montenegro , Dioclea almost exclusively in Montenegro and partly in northern Albania .

Late Middle Ages

The Serbian King of Raszien Stefan Dragutin from the Nemanjiden dynasty received some land from the Hungarian-Croatian King Ladislaus IV and founded the Kingdom of Syrmia . Slavonia was part of it from 1282 to 1316. His successor Vladislav II. Had to hand over most of Slavonia to the Croatian noble families of Zrinski and Frankopan in 1316 .

Early modern age

Settlement area granted by the Habsburgs, Vojna Krajina (military area)
Territory of the proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina 1991–95

The Orthodox settlers in today's Croatia and Bosnia were to a large extent originally Romansh-speaking Wallachians (also Vlachs ). However, in the process of creating a modern denominational- related national identity, the terms Wallachian and Serb gradually began to be used interchangeably , as both groups were of Serbian Orthodox denominations.

Most of the Serbian Orthodox settlers settled as refugees in various areas of present-day Croatia during the period of the Ottoman conquests . Some of these settlers were already settled by the Ottomans in areas of today's Croatia, which only became Habsburg or Venetian in later periods. Many were recruited and settled by the Venetians , but most of them were given land in the border area by the Habsburgs . In order to serve as a special military protection zone, the area was designed as a military border ( Vojna Krajina , to German military area ) within the Habsburg Empire. It functioned until the end as a retreat for the rebellious Orthodox in Ottoman Bosnia, who were persecuted by the Ottomans, but the Ottoman side of the border was also predominantly populated by Serbian Orthodox farmers due to resettlements after depopulation through wars and the plague.

The inhabitants of the military border, who in many areas were mostly of the Serbian Orthodox denomination (ancestors of today's Krajina Serbs ), formed a kind of "military class" in the region.

The historic military border was dissolved after the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1881 and reunited with Croatia and the Banat . Since the reunification, the deputy ban always came from the ranks of the Serbs.

In the last two decades of the 19th century, the Hungarian Ban of Croatia, Károly Khuen-Héderváry, allied with the Serbian parties in the Croatian parliament. For this reason, Serbs received a disproportionately large number of posts in administration and state institutions . This led to tension with part of the Croatian population.

Memorial for the victims of the Croatian war from 1991 to 1995.

Younger story

Under the rule of the Ustasha in the independent state of Croatia (1941 to 1945) 330,000 to 390,000 Serbs fell victim to genocide .

The 1991 census was the last before the war in Croatia broke out . The ethnic and religious composition of the population in Croatia was as follows:

A total of 4,784,265 inhabitants

  • Croatians 78.1%
  • Serbs 12.1%
  • Yugoslavs 2.2%

The years 1991 to 1995 are characterized by two major migration movements :

  • a first in the early stages of the Croatian War around 1991 and
  • a second in the final stages of the war in 1995.

During the first major population movement, several hundred thousand people fled on the Croatian side, during the second population movement several hundred thousand people fled on the Serbian side.

After the end of the Yugoslav wars, the national proportion of the population had changed as follows:

A total of 4,381,352 inhabitants

  • Croatians 89.6%
  • Serbs 4.5%
  • Yugoslavs 0.0017%

At the beginning of the war, most of the Croatians fled from Eastern Slavonia, the Baranja , Banija , the Kordun , the east of the Lika , the northern Dalmatian hinterland and Konavle , i.e. from those areas that came under Serbian military control.

At the same time, most of the Serbs fled Bilogora , and northwestern Slavonia , from areas that remained under Croatian control. In later phases of the war, most of the Serbs fled western Slavonia, the Banija, the Kordun, the eastern Lika and the northern Dalmatian hinterland.

According to some sources, these population movements are described as ethnic cleansing . There were numerous events that were clearly documented as such:

  • Attacks and the systematic displacement of the Croatian population, for example from the towns of Škabrnja , Kijevo , Saborsko , Slunj , Vukovar , Lovas , the places south of Dubrovnik .
  • Attacks and displacement of the Serb population from Croatia during the Oluja and Bljesak military operations . As a result, the ICTY was charged with several war crimes and crimes against humanity against military leaders such as B. Ante Gotovina charged in the ICTY, who was acquitted on all counts.

During his trial at the Hague War Crimes Tribunal, the leader of the Serbian militants Milan Babić pleaded guilty to having persecuted people based on their religious origins and to having committed crimes against humanity in the territory of the Republic of Serbian Krajina .

The war ended with the military victory of the Croatian army in 1995 and the peaceful reintegration of the remaining national territory in the east of the country in 1998.

The exodus of the Serbs from the Republic of Serbian Krajina in 1995 was caused by the advance of Croatian troops. The indictments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia also speak of forced escape.

Around 200,000 Serbs were expelled or fled to Serbia and the Republika Srpska. According to a report by the Croatian Helsinki Committee , a total of 400 to 800 Serbs were killed by marauding Croatian troops during and after the offensive . According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, around 100,000 Croatian Serbs had returned by 2002 .

present

In 1997 all persons who were involved in the armed uprising as Serbian militants or paramilitaries, but who could not be proven to have committed war crimes, were amnestied .

Most of the Croatian refugees returned to their hometowns. About two thirds of the former Serbian population in Croatia remained in exile. About a third returned to Zagreb and other parts of Croatia where no fighting took place.

In 2004 and 2005, the Serbian government counted around 140,000 refugees from Croatia on its territory. The Croatian authorities have received around 13,000 applications for the repair of damaged houses.

Thousands of Croatians who were expelled from Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Bosnian War now live in places where a Serb majority previously lived.

According to the current Croatian legal situation, people who have found accommodation in abandoned houses and have no alternative accommodation are allowed to stay in the private property of the third person as refugees. The number of these people and families has declined sharply, especially since 2000, and a significant number of private property has been made available to previous owners.

While in 2004, according to the authorities, around 1,400 houses were occupied by refugees, the number fell to 385 in the following year.

The reconstruction of private houses damaged or destroyed during the war is financed by the Croatian state for both Croats and Serbs up to certain limits (shell construction) (“Obnova” program). Frequently, however, the industrial plants and other jobs have been destroyed and not rebuilt, so that there is no reasonable livelihood in these areas. In Croatia, as in other European countries, smallholders can no longer make a living from agricultural products.

Immediately before the peaceful reintegration in accordance with the 1995 Erdut Agreement between the government of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for the peaceful reintegration of the remaining Serb-controlled areas in eastern Croatia, around 24,000 Serbs left the country around 1998 because they did not want to live in Croatia. In the further course, many Croatians in Vojvodina exchanged their properties with Serbs in Croatia. But Serbs have also returned to Croatia. The exact number is difficult to determine because of the fluctuation, as many people are often double registered or have left Croatia after returning their property or re-registering.

Political development

Since the end of the war, several Serbian MPs have participated in the Croatian political landscape. B. Milorad Pupovac , Vojislav Stanimirović and Milan Đukić in charge of government.

Local Serbian envoys are involved in municipal political work and are in the spotlight of the international community such as B. the UNHCR , independent mass media , as well as the press.

The participation of the largest Serbian party in Croatia, the SDSS and the SNS in the government led by Ivo Sanader brought progress in coexistence. However, the refugee situation remained politically sensitive.

In 2005 and 2006, the Croatian President Stjepan Mesić and the Serbian President Boris Tadić made mutual state visits to improve political relations.

literature

  • Vladimir Ćorović: Illustrated History of Serbs. Books 1 - 6. Politika and Narodna Knjiga, Belgrade 2005 (English)
  • Vojin S. Dabić: migrations of the Serbs to Croatia and Slavonia from the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 17th century . In: Историјски часопис . No. 38 (1991) , 1992, pp. 43-76 ( google.com ).
  • Nicholas J. Miller: Between Nation and State: Serbian Politics in Croatia before the First World War. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 1997. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2011 census by citizenship, ethnic groups and mother tongue , pages 11 to 13, Croatian State Statistics Office, dzs.hr, accessed on October 13, 2019
  2. ↑ Vjesnik from June 11, 2002, article on the change in the population situation in Croatia ( Memento from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ A constitutive people according to the old Croatian constitution before 1990 ( Memento from December 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ 2001 census in Croatia, revised figures
  5. ↑ 2001 census in Croatia, improved data
  6. ^ Gyula Moravcsik: Constantine Porphyrogenitus De administrando imperio. (English translation by RJH Jenkins, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington, DC 1967, ISBN 0-88402-021-5 , pp. 139ff and 161ff.)
  7. ^ Noel Malcolm: A short history of Bosnia. Pan Books 2002, p. 70 ff.
  8. ^ Karl Kaser: Free farmer and soldier. The militarization of the agrarian society on the Croatian-Slavonian military border (1535-1881). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98614-8 , p. 119.
  9. ^ Karl Kaser: Free farmer and soldier. The militarization of the agrarian society on the Croatian-Slavonian military border (1535-1881). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98614-8 , p. 180.
  10. ^ Karl Kaser: Free farmer and soldier. The militarization of the agrarian society on the Croatian-Slavonian military border (1535-1881). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98614-8 , p. 186.
  11. ^ Karl Kaser: Free farmer and soldier. The militarization of the agrarian society on the Croatian-Slavonian military border (1535-1881). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98614-8 , p. 201.
  12. ^ Karl Kaser: Free farmer and soldier. The militarization of the agrarian society on the Croatian-Slavonian military border (1535-1881). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98614-8 , p. 282.
  13. ↑ Ivan Mužić: Vlasi_u_starijoj_hrvatskoj_historiografiji (PDF; 2.3 MB) "Wallachians in the older Croatian historiography". Dalmacija papir Verlag, Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-6803-25-5 , p. 33.
  14. ↑ Ivan Mužić: Vlasi_u_starijoj_hrvatskoj_historiografiji (PDF; 2.3 MB) "Wallachians in the older Croatian historiography". Dalmacija papir Verlag, Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-6803-25-5 , p. 44.
  15. ↑ Ivan Mužić: Vlasi_u_starijoj_hrvatskoj_historiografiji (PDF; 2.3 MB) "Wallachians in the older Croatian historiography". Dalmacija papir Verlag, Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-6803-25-5 , p. 94.
  16. ↑ Ivan Mužić: Vlasi_u_starijoj_hrvatskoj_historiografiji (PDF; 2.3 MB) "Wallachians in the older Croatian historiography". Dalmacija papir Verlag, Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-6803-25-5 , p. 210.
  17. ↑ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Holocaust Era in Croatia: Jasenovac 1941-1945 ( Memento from November 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ^ Rob McCormick: The United States' Response to Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945. In: Genocide Studies and Prevention. University of Toronto Press, Volume 3, Number 1 / April 2008.
  19. ^ Indictment of the ICTY against Ante Gotovina (2001)
  20. ^ 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.