Citizendia

Greater Serbia map proposed by Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Šešelj, in the late 1980s.
Greater Serbia map proposed by Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Šešelj, in the late 1980s[1]. The Serbian Radical Party (Српска радикална странка or Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS is a Nationalist right-wing Political party Vojislav Šešelj ( Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ (b

The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia (Serbian: Велика Србија/Velika Srbija) applies to certain currents within Serbian nationalism. Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Serbian nationalism is the Ethnic nationalism of the Serb people

The postulated borders for the proposed state incorporate one vast and continuous stretch of land across south-eastern Europe. Each region is included for a minimum of one of three reasons: firstly, the land may occupy a region where the Serbs had originally settled upon arrival on the Balkan (eg. Šumadija or Montenegro); secondly, the land was once controlled by the medieval Serbian empires after expansion (eg. Šumadija (Шумадија is a geographical region in Serbia. Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! the Preševo Valley or the Republic of Macedonia); and thirdly, the land is where numerous Serbs later came to live having escaped onslaughts (eg. The Preševo Valley Albanian: Lugina e Preshevës) ( Serbian: Прешевска Долина or Preševska Dolina; is a geographical region The Republic of Macedonia (Република Vojvodina or Knin). The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Knin ( Croatian: Knin Latin and medieval Hungarian: Tinin, Italian Tenin, Serbian: Книн is a historical town in the The primary aim is to unite all Serbs and Serbian lands in one state and this in its radical form is interpreted as including areas where Serbs are merely a significant minority, as well as where there has been no continuous Serbian existence down the centuries.

The simplest form is a plan to unite the Serbs by simple expansion of an already existing Serbia: for instance, today this would mean expanding the borders in any direction of the Republic of Serbia; or a century earlier, to have done the same involving the Kingdom of Serbia. Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The Kingdom of Serbia ( Serbian Cyrillic: Краљевина Србија Serbian Latinica Kraljevina Srbija) was created when Prince Milan Obrenović ruler

A Greater Serbian state in one form or another has been generally seen as necessary by a number of Serbian politicians, who claim it is a national need of Serbia, and cite the nation's long-used motto "Only Unity can Save the Serbs" as a clear indication of the national importance of a Greater Serb state. There have been large sections of Serbs who reside outside of Serbia, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and formerly in Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between The practice by governments led to World War I where-by Serbs from all sides of the border fought to unify; in contrasting circumstances, much of the fighting in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s were the result of an attempt to keep those Serbs unified. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY that took place between 1991 and

A second theory in achieving these goals is the exploitation of the ideologies surrounding the unification of South Slavs. The South Slavs are a southern branch of the Slavic peoples that live in the Balkans mainly throughout the former Yugoslavia (meaning "Land of Even though "greater" implies expansion, the term had often been applied from 1918, to movements or individuals who intended to create a state which on the surface, appeared to represent a number of ethnicities; whilst from inside, Serbian politicians dominated. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Through the establishment of Yugoslavia, opponents saw these actions as the attempt to "impose Serbian domination of Yugoslavia. See also Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian " Supporters of the policies saw the Yugoslav state's foundation as based on the need to unite Serbs in one state and that diminishing Serbia's leading position was attacking the foundation of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a statist concept among the South Slavic Intelligentsia and later popular masses from the 17th to early 20th centuries that culminated in Apathy for non-Serbian interest was demonstrated early in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes when the government ceded Istria and other regions to Italy which angered local Croatian citizens, and left Slovenia with no access to the sea. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croato-Slovene ie Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Kraljevina Jugoslavija This article is about a geographical region bordering the Adriatic Sea Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

Even though many high profile proponents of Greater Serbia hijacked the idea of Slavic unity, there had been prominent Serbs with genuine support for the idea and were opposed to any form of Serbian dominance; whilst there had also existed opposing Serbian movements, such as the Serbian People's Radical Party, who were opposed to any form of unification with non-Serbs. The Serbian People's Radical Party ( Serbian: Српска народна радикална странка Srpska narodna radikalna stranka) was an ethnic Serb

It can be seen as having originated in the 19th century with the Serbian minister Ilija Garašanin in his work Načertanije (1844) and aimed at uniting the Serbian people which at the time was separated among foreign Austria-Hungary and Ottoman empires. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Ilija Garašanin ( Serbian Cyrillic: Илија Гарашанин) (1812 &mdash 1874 was a politician in Serbia having considerable influence Načertanije (Начертаније is a document drawn up by the Serbian politician Ilija Garašanin in 1844 aimed at uniting the Serbian people that at the time Year 1844 ( MDCCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The work describes the lands on the Balkans, then inhabited mostly or partially by Serbs but ruled by the empires, and included Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Vojvodina, as well as parts of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Garašanin's plan proposes methods of spreading Serbian influence in these countries, mainly by propaganda efforts and by network of pro-Serbian agitators- in order to achieve optimal situation for Serbian national interests when the Ottoman empire finally collapses. Essentially, this plan (not made public until 1897) can be interpreted as a blueprint for Serbian national unification, with primary concern of strengthening Serbia's position by inculcating Serbian and pro-Serbian national ideology in all surrounding peoples that are considered to be devoid of national consciousness. Garašanin’s work does not mention violent or terrorist activities as the means of expanding the boundaries of Serbdom.

Later developments have altered Garašanin's "Načertanije" in two significant matters: the originally propagandist blueprint which was concerned principally with the crumbling Turkish empire became a geopolitical instruction for Serbian expansion into the lands that had, generally, never been a part of Serbia. The imagined borders of such Serbia were including most of today's Croatia (everything eastwards of the Virovitica-Karlovac-Karlobag line, all of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, north of today's Albania and the present-day Republic of Macedonia as Velika Srbija, which could be translated from Serbian language as "Big Serbia", "Large Serbia" or "Great Serbia". Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between The Karlobag - Ogulin - Karlovac - Virovitica line is a hypothetical boundary often used to describe Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Other significant alteration was a change of methods: initially a propaganda plan, it was transformed into a military strategy and, sometimes, as is the case with the Black Hand, terrorist activity. Black Hand ( Serbian: Црна рука / Crna Ruka) officially Unification or Death ( Serbian: Уједињење или смрт Ujedinjenje

Contents

Origin of the term

King Petar Karađorđević, sovereign of Kingdom of Serbia and 1st Yugoslavia between 1903 and 1921
King Petar Karađorđević, sovereign of Kingdom of Serbia and 1st Yugoslavia between 1903 and 1921

In English language, the concept is referred to as "Greater Serbia", suggesting that it is an expansionistic goal. The Kingdom of Serbia ( Serbian Cyrillic: Краљевина Србија Serbian Latinica Kraljevina Srbija) was created when Prince Milan Obrenović ruler The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croato-Slovene ie Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Kraljevina Jugoslavija English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In general expansionism consists of expansionist policies While some have linked the term to promoting Economic growth (in contrast to no growth / Sustainable policies The term appears in a derogatory manner in a pamphlet authored by a Serbian socialist Svetozar Marković in 1872. Svetozar Marković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Светозар Марковић (c Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The title «Velika Srbija»/Greater Serbia was meant to express the author's dismay at the prospect of expansion of the Serbian state without social and cultural reforms as well as possible ethnic confrontation with neighboring nations, from Croats to Bulgarians. However, the situation has changed in time, as can be seen in writings of Serbian intellectual from Bosnia and Herzegovina Jefto Dedijer at the end of the 19th century. Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Jefto Dedijer was a Serb writer who was born to a peasant family in the 19th Century in Bileća in the Herzegovina region (today in Republika He envisaged Serbia and Montenegro, the two neighboring Slavic states with ethnic kin in Austro-Hungarian territories, as a nucleus for creating a great Serbian state (more spacious than Yugoslavia), that would, in his opinion, unite all Serbs as well as areas with similar Slavic or religious background. Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Up to this point, the situation remained within the realms of academic discussion.

Extremist Greater Serbian nationalist groups included the secret society called Black Hand, headed by Serbian colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis which took an active and militant stance on the issue of a Greater Serbian state. Black Hand ( Serbian: Црна рука / Crna Ruka) officially Unification or Death ( Serbian: Уједињење или смрт Ujedinjenje This organization is believed to have been responsible for numerous atrocities following the Balkan Wars in 1913. The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which the Balkan League ( Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common In 1914, Bosnian Serb Black Hand member Gavrilo Princip was responsible the assassination of Habsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set off an international crisis that led to the First World War. Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Gavrilo Princip ( Cyrillic: Гаврило Принцип gaʋ'rilɔ 'prinʦip ( &ndash) was a Bosnian Serb and proclaimed himself to be a Yugoslav Franz Ferdinand ( December 18, 1863 &ndash June 28, 1914) was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Prince Imperial of World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All

On the moderate front, by 1914 the Greater Serbian concept was eventually replaced by the more neutral Pan-Slav movement. The change in approach was meant as a means to gain support of other Slavs which neighboured Serbs who were also occupied by Austria-Hungary. The intention to create a south Slav or "Yugoslav" state was expressed in the Niš declaration by Serbian premier Nikola Pašić in 1914, as well as in Serbia's regent Aleksandar's statement in 1916. Nikola P Pašić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Никола П Пашић, at the time also spelled Pashitch or Pachitch) ( December Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Alexander I or Alexander Obrenović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Обреновић) (August 14 1876 - June 11 1903 was king of Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The documents showed that Serbia would pursue a policy that would integrate all territory that contained Serbs and southern Slavs, including Croatians, Slovenes and Bosnian Muslims.

In 1918, the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) defeated Germany and Austria-Hungary. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Triple Entente (" entente " — French for "agreement" was the name given to the loose alignment of the United Kingdom, the Serbia, which was allied with the Entente, pressured the allies to give Serbia the territory it requested. At this time Montenegro had already joined Serbia, and Serb nationalists in the other Slav territories also demanded to be in a Serbian state. The Allies agreed to give the lands of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia. Serbian and Yugoslav nationalists claimed that the peoples' had few differences and were only separated by religious divide imposed by occupiers. It was under this belief that Serbia believed the large annexations would be followed by assimilation of people into a southern slav identity which was based on the Serb identity which would legitimize Serbia's control of ethnically and religiously divided territories such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kossovo-Metochia, and Croatia.

Concept

Greater Serbia by French author H. Thiers in 1862
Greater Serbia by French author H. Thiers in 1862

The "Greater Serbian" concept was an offshoot of the Pan-Slavist movement of the mid-19th century. Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid 19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been It was initially conceived as a federation of South Slavic peoples by the influential Polish émigré Adam Czartoryski. The Polish people, or Poles, (Polacy) are a Western Slavic Ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Adam Czartoryski can refer to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (1734-1823 Polish nobility Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770-1861 Polish statesman Some versions like that of Garašanin focused specifically on Serbs rather than Slavs in general. From 1850s onward, this concept has had a significant influence on Serbian politics — with a few significant exceptions. Events and Trends Industry Production of Steel revolutionized by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman For instance, Serbian writers and politicians in Austria-Hungary Svetozar Miletić and Mihailo Polit-Desančić fiercely opposed the Greater Serbia ideology, as well as the premier Serbian socialist from Serbia proper, Svetozar Marković. Also see Svetozar Miletić (disambiguation Svetozar Miletić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Светозар Милетић, 1826-1901 Svetozar Marković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Светозар Марковић (c They all envisioned some sort of "Balkan confederation" that would include Serbia, Bulgaria and sometimes Romania, plus Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, should the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolve. A confederation is a group of empowered states or communities usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between

The most notable Serbian linguist of the 19th century, Vuk Karadžić, was a follower of the view that all south Slavs that speak the štokavian dialect (in the central south Slavic language group) are Serbs who speak the Serbian language. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864 Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages The Serbo-Croatian language or Croato-Serbian language (cрпскохрватски језик srpskohrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic Diasystem Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, As this definition implied that large areas of continental Croatia and Dalmatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, including areas inhabited by Roman Catholics - Vuk Karadžić is considered by some to be the progenitor of the Greater Serbia program. Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Dalmatia ( Croatian: Dalmacija, see names in other languages) is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, situated mostly in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan More precisely, Karadžić was the shaper of modern secular Serbian national consciousness, with the goal of incorporating all indigenous štokavian speakers (Eastern Othodox, Catholic, Muslim) into one, modern Serbian nation. It should be noted that this linguistic definition of nation would have excluded parts of southern Serbia where the Torlak dialect is spoken. Torlak ( Cyrillic: Торлачки говор Торлашки говор Latinic: Torlački govor) or simply Torlakian, is the name used

This negative view is not shared by Andrew Baruch Wachtel (Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation) who sees him as a partisan of South Slav unity, albeit in a limited sense, in that his linguistic definition emphasized what united South Slavs rather than the religious differences that had earlier divided them. However, one might argue that such a definition is very partisan: Karadžić himself eloquently and explicitly professed that his aim was to unite all native štokavian speakers whom he identified as Serbs. Therefore, Vuk Karadžić's central linguistic-political aim was the growth of the realm of Serbdom according to his ethnic-linguistic ideas and not a unity of any sort between Serbian, Croatian or other nations. It has often been suggested that the Muslims of Bosnia are the descendants of Serbs who converted from Orthodox Christianity to Islam under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Note that Croatian nationalists claim something very similar, except involving Catholicism rather than Orthodoxy. As a Christian Ecclesiastical term Catholic —from the Greek adjective, meaning "general" or "universal"—is described Such views have been used to claim ownership of lands inhabited by other peoples (sometimes subsequently, sometimes not), much to the dismay of those inhabitants.

The Habsburg Empire, which included large numbers of Slavic people, supported certain unification efforts among the Slavs (cf. the Vienna literary agreement), but soon came to oppose pan-Slavism as a detrimental factor to its own unity. Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid 19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been The Serbs formed Matica srpska ("National Matrix") as far back as 1826, had their own clergy in the Serbian Orthodox Church, and their own states as the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro emerged. The Matica srpska ( Serbian Cyrillic: Матица српска is the oldest cultural-scientific institution of Serbia. For the game see 1826 (board game. Year 1826 ( MDCCCXXVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display The Serbian Orthodox Church ( Serbian: Српска Православна Црква / Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva; СПЦ / SPC) or the Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Although these institutions were supported and paid for by Austrian government, the government in Vienna became suspicious when these institutions turned into political propaganda machinery aiming at secession and Serbian expansion into their territory. The idea of reclaiming historic Serbian territory has been put into action several times during the 19th and 20th centuries, notably in Serbia's southward expansion in the Balkan Wars and an attempted westward expansion during the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The twentieth century of the Common Era began on The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which the Balkan League ( Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

The concept of “Greater Serbia” was put in practice during the early 1920s, under the Yugoslav premiership of Nikola Pasic. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada Nikola P Pašić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Никола П Пашић, at the time also spelled Pashitch or Pachitch) ( December Using tatics of police intimidation and vote rigging[2] , he diminished the role of the oppositions (mainly those loyal to his Croatian rival, Stjepan Radić) to his government in parliament[3], creating an environment to centralization of power in the hands of the Serbs in general and Serbian politicians in particular. Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an Election. Stjepan Radić ( 11 June 1871 &ndash 8 August 1928) was a Croatian Politician and the founder of the Croatian Peasant [4]

During the Second World War, the largely Serbian royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland headed by General Draža Mihailović attempted to define its vision of a postwar future. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Chetnik movement or the Chetniks ( Serbian: Četnici, Cyrillic script: Четници were a Serbian -nationalist/ royalist Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( Cyrillic script: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић also known as "Чича Дража" or " One of its intellectuals was the Bosnian Serb nationalist Stevan Moljević who, in 1941, proposed in a paper entitled "Homogeneous Serbia" that an even larger Greater Serbia should be created, incorporating not only Bosnia and much of Croatia but also chunks of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Dr Stevan Moljević (1888-1959 was a Serbian Lawyer from Banja Luka, who participated in the Chetnik uprising in Second World War. It is alleged to have been a significant point of discussion at a Chetnik congress held in village Ba in central Serbia in January 1944. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. However, Moljević's ideas were never put into practice due to the Chetniks' defeat by Tito's Partisans (also predominantly Serb resistance movement) and it is difficult to assess how influential they were, due to the lack of records from the Ba congress. The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans, ( Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian, Slovene: Partizani A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups dedicated to fighting an Invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation Nonetheless, Moljević's core idea--that Serbia is defined by the pattern of Serbian settlement, irrespective of existing national borders--was to remain an underlying theme of the Greater Serbian ideal. Also: Moljević's excursus into cartography has become a standard reference tool in modern Serbian nationalist repertory, ranging from a familiar image of Greater Serbia map frequently appearing in the mass media to the programme of the Serbian Radical Party.

Role in the final dissolution of Yugoslavia

The modern elaboration of Serbs' grievances and allegation of inequality in Yugoslavia was to be developed in the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a paper not officially publicized at the time of its appearance, 1986, but which was the single most important document to set into motion the pan-Serbian movement of the late 1980s which led to Slobodan Milošević's rise to power and the subsequent Yugoslav wars. The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a committee of the Serbian Academy from 1985 to 1986 The authors of the Memorandum included the most influential Serbian intellectuals, among them: Pavle Ivić, Antonije Isaković, Dušan Kanazir, Mihailo Marković, Miloš Macura, Dejan Medaković, Miroslav Pantić, Nikola Pantić, Ljubiša Rakić, Radovan Samardžić, Miomir Vukobratović, Vasilije Krestić, Ivan Maksimović, Kosta Mihailović, Stojan Čelić and Nikola Čobelić. Professor Pavle Ivić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Ивић ( December 1, 1924 - September 19, 1999) was a leading Mihailo Marković (Михаило Марковић (born 24 February 1927, Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes) is a Serbian Dejan Medaković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Медаковић ( July 7, 1922 - July 1, 2008) was a Serbian writer historian Miomir Vukobratović (Миомир Вукобратовић (born October 1, 1931, Botoš, near Zrenjanin, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) Vasilije Krestić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Василије Крестић (1932- is a Serbian nationalist Intellectual and Historian, Christopher Bennett (Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse) characterized the memorandum as "an elaborate, if crude, conspiracy theory. " The memorandum alleged systematic discrimination against Serbs and Serbia culminating with the allegation that the Serbs of Kossovo-Metochia were being subjected to genocide. According to Bennett, despite most of these claims being obviously absurd, the memorandum was merely one of several similar polemics published at the time.

The Memorandum's central theses are:

The Memorandum's defenders claims go as follows: far from calling for a breakup of Yugoslavia on Greater Serbian lines claimed to be in favor of Yugoslavia. Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Its support for Yugoslavia was however conditional on fundamental changes to end what the Memorandum argued was the discrimination against Serbia which they alleged was inbuilt into Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav constitution as it existed. The chief of these changes was abolition of the autonomy of Kossovo-Metochia and Vojvodina two provinces which were almost equal to other republics yet were nominally part of the republic of Serbia. According to Norman Cigar (Genocide in Bosnia p24), because the changes were unlikely to be accepted passively, the implementation of the Memorandum's program would only be possible by force.

With the rise to power of Milošević the Memorandum's discourse became mainstream in Serbia. According to Bennett, Milošević used a rigid control of the media to organize a propaganda campaign in which the thesis that Serbs were the victims and the need for reajust Yugoslavia to redress the alleged bias against Serbia. This then was then followed by Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in which the provincial governments of Vojvodina and Kossovo-Metochia along with the Republican government of Montenegro, were overthrown which gave Milošević the dominating position of 4 votes out of 8 in Yugoslavia's collective presidency. The term " Anti-bureaucratic revolution " refers to a series of mass Protests against governments of Yugoslavian republics and autonomous provinces during

Milošević had achieved such a dominant position for Serbia because, according to Bennett, the old communist authorities had failed to stand up to him. This changed first when the Slovenian communist leadership felt it had to respond to the concerns of the civil society opposition. Then in 1990 free elections brought opposition parties to power in Croatia and Slovenia.

By this point several opposition parties in Serbia were openly calling for a Greater Serbia, rejecting the then existing boundaries of the Republics as the artificial creation of Tito's partisans. These included both Vuk Drašković's SPO (Cigar p35) and Šešelj's Serbian Radical Party, claiming that the recent changes had rectified most of the anti-Serb bias that the Memorandum had alleged. Vuk Drašković (Вук Драшковић (b November 29 1946, Međa, Žitište, Serbia, former FPR Yugoslavia) leader Milošević supported the groups calling for a Greater Serbia, insisting on the demand for "all Serbs in one state", however, the Socialist Party of Serbia appeared to be defenders of Yugoslavia. The Socialist Party of Serbia (Социјалистичка партија Србије Socijalistička partija Srbije) is a Political party in Serbia. Opponents and critics of Milošević claimed that "Yugoslavia could be that one state but the threat was that, should Yugoslavia break up, then Serbia under Milošević would carve out a Greater Serbia". (James Gow: Triumph of the Lack of Will p. 19).

In 1990, power had seeped away from the federal government to the republics and the republics were deadlocked over the future of Yugoslavia with the Slovene and Croatian republics seeking a confederacy and Serbia a stronger federation. Gow states, "it was the behavior of Serbia that added to the Croatian and Slovene Republic's belief that no accommodation was possible with the Serbian Republic's leadership". The last straw was on 15th of May 1991 when the outgoing Serb president of the collective presidency along with the Serb satellites on the presidency blocked the succession of the Croatian representative Stjepan Mesić as president. Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić (born December 24, 1934) is a Croatian politician According to Gow (p. 20), from this point Yugoslavia de facto "ceased to function".

During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the concept of a Greater Serbia was widely seen outside of Serbia as the motivating force for the military campaigns undertaken to form and sustain Serbian states on the teritorries of the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Croatia (the Republic of Serbian Krajina) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Republika Srpska). The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY that took place between 1991 and The Republic of Serbian Krajina abbreviated RSK (Република Српска Крајина РСК sometimes also translated "Republic of Serb Krajina" Republika Srpska ( Serbian: Република Српска Republika Srpska ( often abbreviated PC or RS) also Српска Srpska From the Serb point of view, the objective of this policy was to assure Serbs' rights by ensuring that they could never be subjected to potentially hostile rule, particularly by their historic Croatian enemies (cf. Ustaše). For the militiamen of the Military Frontier, see Uskoci The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement ( Croatian:

The concept of a Greater Serbia has been widely criticised by other nationalities in the former Yugoslavia as well as by foreign observers. The two principal objections have been:

Radovan Karadžić, President of Republika Srpska between 1992 and 1996, during a visit to Moscow in 1994. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev.
Radovan Karadžić, President of Republika Srpska between 1992 and 1996, during a visit to Moscow in 1994. Radovan Karadžić (Радован Караџић râdovaːn kâraʤiʨ born in Petnjica, SR Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Bosnian Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev.

The fundamental problem of the policy has been that its definition of a Serbian national space - i. e. all lands where Serbs live - conflicts with other nationalities' conceptions of their national spaces. Many Serbs point out, however, that a converse argument can also apply: the independence movements in Croatia, Bosnia and Kossovo-Metochia all took little regard of Serbs' desire to live in a unified state. Along these lines one could argue that the borders of current Serbia are questionable, too: since probably the vast majority of Albanians, Bosniaks or Hungarians (citizens of Serbia) want, naturally, to live in their respective national states, the dissolution of Serbia is the necessary logical consequence of following the argument to the conclusion.

Proponents of the goal of Greater Serbia do not insist on an ethnically clean Serbia. Indeed, 35% of the population of Serbia is non-Serb. Rather, they assert that Greater Serbia could have minorities, as well as that there still might remain Serb minorities in surrounding countries. Opponents of the goal claim that, in practice, the treatment of national minorities in the Serbian provinces during the 1980s and 1990s shows that the Greater Serbian goal equates to ethnic supremacism. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 In Kossovo-Metochia, the conflict with the Albanians led to the Kosovo War. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo: 1996–1999 As a matter of fact Roma, Gorani, and other stateless minorities had aligned themselves with the idea of Greater Serbia because it is the most coherent with their cause. In Vojvodina, the radical nationalists (such as Vojislav Šešelj of the Serbian Radical Party) used to terrorize the minority populations, but the situation did not lead to armed conflict. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Vojislav Šešelj ( Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ (b The Serbian Radical Party (Српска радикална странка or Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS is a Nationalist right-wing Political party

The military defeat of the Republic of Serb Krajina, the creation of the Republika Srpska within a sovereign Bosnia-Hercegovina, the UN Administration of Kosovo, the exodus of Serbs from large areas of Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo and the indictment of some Serbian leaders for war crimes have greatly discredited the Greater Serbian ideal in Serbia as well as abroad. The Republic of Serbian Krajina abbreviated RSK (Република Српска Крајина РСК sometimes also translated "Republic of Serb Krajina" Republika Srpska ( Serbian: Република Српска Republika Srpska ( often abbreviated PC or RS) also Српска Srpska The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied Western countries claim that atrocities of the Yugoslav Wars have prompted them to take a much stronger stance against the Greater Serbian goal, most notably in Kosovo. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings However, the idea of a Greater Serbia remains influential in Serbian politics and is still seen by many Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Albanians as a barrier to good relations between Serbs and other neighbouring peoples.

See also

References

  1. ^ Šešelj ICTY Case information sheet
  2. ^ Balkan Politics, TIME Magazine, March 31, 1923
  3. ^ Elections, TIME Magazine, February 23, 1925
  4. ^ The Opposition, TIME Magazine, April 06, 1925

Bibliography

External links

Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture ( Serbian: Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе Projekat The Bosnian Institute is an Organisation principally devoted to providing information on and promoting the Common good of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radovan Karadžić (Радован Караџић râdovaːn kâraʤiʨ born in Petnjica, SR Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Bosnian
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