Breaking the myths about Croatia #3 - Croatia and Serbia [ENG/HRV]

Day 1,382, 07:42 • Published in Croatia Croatia • by Vjekoslav1701




[ENG]


The third article will take on the familiar and legendary, even in erep, relations between Croatia and Serbia. How this "eternal animosity" started, where did this hatred come from, are we like this from the beginning of our nations and is there hope for something better.


First, history corner:


The first common event in Croatian and Serbian would have to be the Bulgarian wars. During the time of king Tomislav, the Croatian-Bulgarian Wars were a series of conflicts that erupted three times during the 9th and 10th centuries between the medieval realms of Croatia and Bulgaria. During these wars, Croatia formed alliances with Eastern Francia and Byzantium against the Bulgarian Empire.

During the second war under heavy pressure from the Bulgarians and amassing defeat after defeat, the Byzantine Empire negotiated with Serbia and Croatia in an effort to forge an alliance against the Bulgarians. Having been informed of these plans, Simeon overran Serbia in 924, destroyed it by tricking its nobility, and made it directly part of the Bulgarian Empire. Serbia's ruler Zaharija Pribislavljević fled and found exile at the Croatian court, while after the realm's destruction massive waves of Serb refugees fled and found refuge in Tomislav's Croatia

At the end of the war the Serbs were able to take advantage of it and many of them returned by 931 to their homes in the renewed Serbian realm, thus terminating Croatia's short-lived Bulgarian neighbor at the east.


The second important event would have to be near the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Croatia was a part of. Waves of new politicians wanted and alliance with "slavic Serbian brothers". In the same time Serbian politician Ilija Garašanin releases "Načertanije" in which he promotes the ideal of Greater ethnically clean Serbia spanning the territories of Bosnia and most of Croatia. This later became the foundation of Chetnicks and Greater Serbia aspirations.

In spite of that we first entered into the State of SHS and after uniting with Serbian kingdom into the first Yugoslavia. In this Yugoslavia we were second class citizens. Our politicians were assassinated in the people's court. Our civilians massacred in what we call "Casualties of Sibinj" and "December casualties". This caused the rebirth of our aspiration for a free and independent state and the birth of the Ustasha movement. However they were forced into exile and to flee into Germany and Italy. In the same time the serbian Chetnick movement comes to life also cooperating with Nazis and Fascists. Wanting to "clean" Bosnia and Croatia from Croats

There they made contact with Nazi and Fascist movements. Their ideology became corrupt and lust for power started growing. When Hitler defeated the first Yugoslavia in WWII he gave the Ustasha, which supported him, an Independant State of Croatia, the darkest four years of our history. During those four year concentration camps were opened in Croatia and many Jews, Serbs and Croats opposing the forced regime were killed there. The official numbers are 100 000 dead, independent history researchers from Canada came to the number of 110 000 while the Serbian historians and politicians clam that it was 800 000 - 1 000 000. (You choose who to believe)

But the Nazi, Ustasha and Fascist regimes fell and the new Communist regime founded the second "federalist" Yugoslavia. In the process between 60 000 and 80 000 (but some sources are telling it was between 200 000 and 600 000) Croatian refugees (some were former Ustasha, but most were simply civilians) were slaughtered while forced to walk between the new borders of Yugoslavia.

And here we come to the nineties and fall of communism. With communism fell Yugoslavia and our five-year Homeland war begun. I won't write a lot about the war because most of the world knows what happened and who won. We finally got our independence but the not fully closed wounds of history were reopened and new wounds were added.



[HRV]

Treći članak će se baviti već sada poznatim i legenradnim čak i u erepu odnosom Hrvatske i Srbije. Kako je došlo do tog "vječnog neprijateljstva" i takve mržnje, jesmo li od početka naših naroda u takvim odnosima i ima li nade za nečim boljim.


Prvo, povijesni kutak:


Prvi zajednički događaj u hrvatskoj i srpskoj povijesti su Bugarski ratovi. Za vrijeme kralja Tomislava, to je bila serija od tri rata tokom 9. i 10. stoljeća između srednjovjekovnih kraljevstva Hrvatske i Bugarske. Tokom ovih ratova, Hrvatska je formirala savez sa istočnom Franačkom republikom i Bizantom u borbi protiv Bugarskog carstva.

Tokom drugog rata pod velikim pritiskom Bugara i nizajući poraze za porazima, Bizant pregovara sa Hrvatskom i Srbijom u svrhu stvaranja saveza protiv Bugara. Pošto je bio informiran o tome Simeon je pregazio Srbiju 924., tako da je zeznuo velikaše, i pripojio Srbiju Bugarskom carstvu. Srpsko vladar Zaharija Pribislavljević bježi na hrvatski dvor, te nakon poraza mnoge srpske izbjeglice bježe u Tomislavovu Hrvatsku.

Kraj rata većina Srba koristi za povratak u obnovljeno Srpsko kraljevstvo i do 931. većina ih se vraća te prekida kratkoročnu granicu Hrvatske i Bugarske na istoku.


Sljedeći važan događaj bi trebao biti tokom pada Austo-Ugarske monarhije čiji je dio bila Hrvatska. Valovi novih političara traže savez sa "slavenskom srpskom braćom". U isto vrijeme srpski političar Ilija Garašanin izdaje "Načertanje" u kojima promovira ideale Velike etnički čiste Srbije koja zauzima teritorije Bosne i većine Hrvatske. Ovo kasnije postaje osnova Četničkog pokreta i aspiracija Velike Srbije.

Unatoč tome ulazimo u Državu SHS te nakon ujedinjenja s kraljevinom Srbijom u prvu Jugoslaviju. U toj Jugoslaviji smo bili građani druge klase. Naši političari su ubijani u narodnoj skupštini, civili su masakrirani u "Sibinjskim žrtvama" i "Prosinačkim žrtvama". To sve izaziva ponovo rođenje aspiracija za slobodnom i nezaviskom državom i rođenjem Ustaškog pokreta. No oni su istjerani iz države te bježe u Njemačku i Italiju.

Ondje dolaze u kontakt s Nacizmom i Fašizmom. Njihova ideologija se korumpira te njihova žudnja za moći počinje rasti. Kada je Hitler porazio Jugoslaviju u 2. sv. ratu dao je Ustašama, koje su ga podržavale, Nezavisnu državu Hrvatsku, najmračnije četiri godine u našoj povijesti. Tokom tih godina osnivani su koncentracijski kampovi te mnogo Židova, Srba i Hrvata koji su se protivli režimu je slano tamo. Službene brojke mrtvih su 100 000, nezavisni institut za povijest iz Kanade procjenjuje oko 110 000 dok srpski političari i povjesničari tvrde da je bilo oko 800 000 - 1 000 000 mrtvih. (Odaberite kome vjerujete)

No Nacizam, Ustaštvo i Fašizam su pali te na vlast dolazi novi Komunistički režim koji osniva drugu "federalističku" Jugoslaviju. U tom procesu ubijeno je između 60 000 i 80 000 (no neki izvori tvrde da je između 200 000 i 600 000) hrvatskih izbjeglica (neki su bili Ustaše no većina su bili obični civili) tokom hoda između granica nove Jugoslavije.

I tako dolazimo do 90ih i pada komunizma. S padom pala je i Jugoslavije te je počeo naš 5-godišnji Domovinski rat. Neću pisati puno o tom ratu jer većina svijeta zna što je bilo i tko je pobijedio. Konačno smo dobili nezavisnost, no nedovoljno zatvorene rane povijesti su ponovo otvorene a nove su dodane na njih