About history of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

A few words of explanation requires the political situation in the former Yugoslavia during the last years.

To describe it as short as possible and understand the mistrust that often Yugoslavs have for each other:

Yugoslavia was being united together by the strong personality of Josip Broz Tito. After his death, all the unresolved problems began to emerge. One dubious ideology - communism - began to replace another, far more tragic in the history of the Balkans - nationalism.

Yugoslavia broke up in a bloody way. Please note that the capital of Yugoslavia was in Belgrade and that the Serbs were the largest ethnic group in the country, some of them thought that they were entitled to dominate

the other (the ideology of "Greater Serbia"). Yugoslav Army was dominated by Serbs. The tragedy of the situation is also reflected in the fact that the Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Croats, while religion is different, they speak the same language and if history had turned out differently they could have been one nation (as reflect the following information).

From 1971 to 1981 the number of people who feel the "Yugoslav" national identity increased. When the war broke out there was on the one hand the idea to save the federation, but it seems that they took it from all sides nationalism, which quickly grew, fueled with plenty of fatal victims of the war, more and more brutality and ethnic cleansing.

Source: Wikipedia

1 - The armed conflict began in Slovenia. It lasted a short time. Slovenia was relatively ethnically homogeneous, and with shrewd political game managed to end the conflict, which has been described as the "weekend war". For this reason, among Slovenians and Serbs there are no this kind of tension, as between Serbs and Croats, and Muslim Bosniaks. Slovenians were minor border dispute with Croatia, but fortunately there were no any war.

2 - in Croatia was completely different. The war lasted four years and resulted in many deaths. The friction between Serbs and Croats existed since the beginning of the common state, and is strong still. Tensions are being increased particularly through processes before The International Court of Justice in Hague. Croatians have no doubt that it was a defensive war, and therefore particularly difficult for them to accept the allegations of war crimes.

3 - Macedonia gained its independence peacefully, but tensions have appeared in the internal domain - the status of the large Albanian minority and external - the reluctance of Greece to the name of Macedonia and the Macedonian symbols used by the new state, received as a provocation against Greek province of Macedonia.

4 - When Bosnia declared independence, there has been the bloodiest phase of the Yugoslav wars. The situation in Bosnia was the most complicated, most mixed population, the highest sacrifice. Country which exist now is also the most complicated political body in the region, if not in the whole of Europe.

5 - In addition to the initial conflict of the Serbs against the Muslims, fighting erupts between the Croats and the Muslims, the effect of which is for instance the destruction of the beautiful bridge in Mostar.

6 - The sad epilogue was Serbo-Albanian conflict in Kosovo, dominated numerically by Albanians. There has been a NATO intervention in the form of bombing of Serbia, which took a large scale and also affected parts of the country geographically distant from Kosovo.

7 - The two newest independent state, Montenegro and Kosovo. While Montenegro is in good relations with most countries in the region and a split from Serbia, is sometimes referred to as the "divorce of convenience", and you will encounter opinions that was an economic one, it is a burning Kosovo flashpoint in the region. The situation in Kosovo seems to be calm, but Serbia is very far from the recognition of its independence and still treats them as part of their country. In addition to Serbia, there are still many countries that, for various reasons also do not recognize Kosovo as an independent country - among the most important: Russia and Spain.

  

While younger generations are sometimes more open to dialogue than their parents, they also are exposed to nationalist rhetoric and the wounds of war at the end of the last century are still fresh. In the Balkans, speaking on these subjects should be careful not to offend our sources and be aware of their point of view, for many people, they can be deeply personal issues.

Kuba.