Written by: dr. sci. Amir Kliko/Oslobođenje.ba
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the Balkan Peninsula, for the most part, was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which - by then for many years - was in serious difficulties, and the central government was weakening, and with it the military power of the Empire. This was used by the Balkan Orthodox peoples in order to free themselves from Ottoman rule and form their own states. The first half of the 19th century was spent in their frequent armed uprisings and rebellions against the Ottomans. By the middle of the century, the majority of those Orthodox nations achieved their autonomous principalities within the Ottoman Empire, and the Greeks an independent state.
The territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina was also under the rule of the Ottomans, as an administrative unit called Vilajet Bosna, i.e. Bosnian Vilayet. A significant number of the Orthodox population lived in that territory, which was exploited by the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro in order to expand into it as well. Already in the middle of the 19th century, they organized and helped the uprisings of the Orthodox population in eastern Herzegovina, to which Nikšić and its surrounding area also belonged. From 1875 to 1878 - first in eastern Herzegovina, and then in eastern Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina - the Bosnian Orthodox - initiated and supported by the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro - raised an armed uprising against the Ottomans.
The real goal of the uprising was the overthrow of the Ottoman government and the annexation of the territory of the Bosnian Vilayet to Serbia and Montenegro, which - in connection with the armed uprising of the Bosnian Orthodox - declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Russia joined the war against the Ottomans. The Montenegrins wanted to occupy eastern Herzegovina, and the Principality of Serbia wanted to occupy eastern Bosnia and all the area up to the Bosnian border. It was the first attempt to divide the territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina between its neighbors. Then Serbia and Montenegro. Although in the Bosniak perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina's past, the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is mostly understood as a harmful historical event, it actually saved Bosnia and Herzegovina from being divided between Serbia and Montenegro.
The development of the war situation in 1875 - 1878 proves that the Ottoman Empire did not have the military strength to preserve its administration over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia and Montenegro were strongly supported by Russia in every necessary segment. At the political congress of the major European powers in Berlin in 1878, it was decided that Austria-Hungary would occupy the Bosnian Vilayet, which was then called Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time. Ottoman consent to that occupation also confirms that the Ottoman Empire was too weak to oppose it. We could say that it was the first political intervention of Western countries, which saved Bosnia and Herzegovina from territorial division. Of course, they did it for their own interests, and in order to prevent the expansion of Russian influence to the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which at that time held Vojvodina and Croatia with Dalmatia under its rule. The expansion of Serbia and Montenegro into Bosnia and Herzegovina would be a serious problem not only for Austria-Hungary but also for other European powers, primarily Germany - as the leader in Central Europe - and because of the expansion of Russian influence to the Adriatic Sea.
Nevertheless, Bosnia and Herzegovina was territorially damaged by the Congress of Berlin. Part of eastern Herzegovina with Nikšić was given to Montenegro, and Mali Zvornik and Sakar to Serbia.
A similar Bosniak misperception of historical events, in connection with Bosnia and Herzegovina, also occurs with the understanding of its past from 1941 to 1992. The socialist period saved Bosnia and Herzegovina from the territorial division, then between Serbia and Croatia, just as the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878 saved it from the division between Serbia and Montenegro.
The territory of today's Croatia, at the time of the mentioned turbulent events on the rest of the Balkan Peninsula, was under the rule of Austria-Hungary. Political life in Croatia was intense. Croatia also had its own Parliament. The Croatian political elite - as well as the Serbian and Montenegrin ones - thought about the Croatian state and its future borders, in which they also imagined Bosnia and Herzegovina. She saw the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 as an opportunity to achieve this, and the Croatian Parliament sent a request to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia. The emperor ignored that request. It is known that Austria-Hungary was a so-called dual monarchy. From today's situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we could vividly say that it had two political entities, which was also reflected in its official name. Austrian and Hungarian. The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not belong to either of those two entities, nor was it divided between them, although there were proposals and requests from Hungarian politicians. Until the end of Austro-Hungarian rule, Bosnia and Herzegovina remained, so to speak, a separate political entity. Common between Austrians and Hungarians. If we were to look for a comparison with today, we could say that in Austria-Hungary it was like the Brčko district in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The end of the First World War brought major - and a few years earlier unexpected - political changes in Europe, including in the Balkans. A common state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed, and the Serbian and Croat big-state ideas continued to exist and operate in different and more complex political conditions, due to which they often came into sharp mutual conflicts. The political disagreements between Serbs and Croats culminated - well known to the public - in the murder and wounding of several leading Croatian politicians in the Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which helped the king to introduce a dictatorship in early 1929 and through it to achieve complete Serbian political hegemony. We can say without hesitation that in the next few years the idea of a greater Serbia was de facto realized. Ten years earlier, Serbian hegemony swallowed up the Montenegrin national state and incorporated Montenegrins into the Serbian political world, which lasted until the declaration of Montenegrin state independence a few years ago.
By the mid-thirties of the 20th century, the Serbian and Croatian political elites realized that their political ideas vis-à-vis Bosnia and Herzegovina could not be realized without a serious conflict between them, and they came up with the idea of an agreement on its division to the satisfaction of both Serbs and Croats. . At the dawn of the Second World War, they reached a political agreement, by which they mutually divided Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina had already been divided since January 1929 between the four banovinas of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but that division did not meet the expectations of Croatian politicians. They achieved complete satisfaction with the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina only with the Cvetković-Maček agreement of 1939. That agreement was to the detriment of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially the Bosniaks, who understood that they would be divided between the Serbian and Croatian banovina within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and opposed it. The Communist Party, which was operating underground at the time, also did not agree with the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She acted against the realization of that agreement and advocated for the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was a political novelty, which would become the ruling party for half a century after the end of the Second World War. Certainly we should keep in mind that there were Bosnian-Herzegovinian communists, of Serbian nationality, who opposed the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Croatia, for the reason that they envisioned its territorial unification with Serbia, which, in the future, they envisioned as a country under communist rule. administration. So, not all communists then, and not even after, saw Bosnia and Herzegovina territorially intact and independent compared to Serbia in the future Yugoslav state that they imagined.
The opposition of Bosniaks, communists and socialists did not affect the implementation of the Cvetković - Maček agreement, and until April 1941, Bosnia and Herzegovina remained divided between Serbian and Croatian banovina. The German occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia completely changed the political situation. With the disappearance of the Kingdom, the Cvetković - Maček agreement went to the dustbin of history. Two Quisling states were formed on the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The independent state of Croatia and the so-called Serbia of Nedić. Bosnia and Herzegovina was once again territorially united, but within the borders of the Croatian fascist state. This was the reason why the majority of the Bosniak population and Bosniak political activists accepted the Croatian state. He certainly could not even oppose it, because it was a German puppet state, i.e. under its protection, and neither the Kingdom of Yugoslavia could resist Germany, nor could some European powers. For example, France, and before it Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Holland and Belgium.
At that time, Bosniaks were not even a politically developed people. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and especially in the period from 1939 to 1941, they were on the political margins. Their only significant political party, the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, ceased to exist. So, politically beheaded and without their own ideas, except for the one about Bosnia and Herzegovina's territorial integrity. It was a vital interest to them. Whether - territorially integrated Bosnia and Herzegovina - will be part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Independent State of Croatia or the German Reich, was of no particular importance to the majority. Only its territorial integrity and with it they, the Bosniaks, "together", as they said then. In April 1941, Bosniaks were not aware of the criminal nature of the German Reich, nor of the fascist intentions of the NDH against Jews, Roma and Serbs. When the criminal side of the NDH was soon revealed, Bosniaks responded with a series of well-known resolutions, signed in several cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with which they began to show their opposition to its internal politics. They soon started looking for political solutions. In the Second World War, due to war events and, in connection with them, the impossibility of mutual communication, Bosniaks were not politically united. Everyone, in their area, led their own policy, all with the aim of avoiding the suffering of the people. Sarajevo, where the majority of Bosniak intellectuals were located, could not have a connection and cooperation with Bosniaks in Mostar, Trebinje, Foča, Tuzla, Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Bihać... and vice versa. Everyone managed as best they could and in accordance with the situation in their vicinity. Some cooperated with the communists, some with the Croatian authorities, and some even cooperated with Chetnik commanders.
In the summer of 1941, an armed uprising against the occupying power began in most of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of the insurgents were of Serbian nationality, so the insurgent hot spots were in the territories where the Serbian population was the majority. In the first year of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the insurgents acted together, partisans and Chetniks. In the area of Eastern Herzegovina, Podrinje and Bosnian Krajina, the insurgents committed numerous and brutal murders of Bosniaks, which strongly influenced their mistrust towards the Partisans, who split with the Chetniks at the beginning of the following year due to different political affiliations. The Chetnik movement tried to realize the idea of a greater Serbia. On the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sandžak and Montenegro, he carried out genocide against Bosniaks, so that the future Serbian state would have an absolute majority of the Serbian population. Very quickly the Chetniks achieved political and military cooperation, first with the Italian and then with the German occupier. They even achieved military cooperation with the Croatian armed forces in the fight against common enemies, the partisans, led by the Communist Party. With such a political and military orientation, the Chetniks showed that it is more important for them to realize a great Serbia, without the Bosniak population and communists, than to free the entire Kingdom from the occupying and Quisling authorities.
The partisan resistance movement had different political ideas, which were finalized in mid-autumn 1943. At the political sessions - of the Bosnian anti-fascists in Mrkonjić-Grad on November 25 and of the Yugoslav anti-fascists in Jajce four days later - definitive and clear decisions were made regarding the future of Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina within it, as well as the Bosniaks, i.e. the Muslims, as they were then nationally identified. Bosnia and Herzegovina was established as an equal "country" within the future Yugoslav state, and Muslims (Bosniaks) received the status of a constituent nation. The imagined communist organization of Yugoslavia, with republics, constituent nations and a strong central government, was based on the Soviet concept. After the political fall of Aleksandar Ranković, in the mid-sixties of the 20th century, he changed with a significant decentralization of power in favor of greater independence of the republics.
Muslim battalion
Partisans also offered Bosniaks armed protection from the Chetnik massacres, which they sought to achieve from Germany through the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina under its protectorate. As part of the 6th Bosnian National Liberation Strike Brigade, the Muslim Battalion was formed, which became the nucleus for the establishment of the 3rd Muslim, or later the 16th Muslim National Liberation Strike Brigade. It was the first military unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was called Muslim. The 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore not the first military unit with a Muslim name.
In addition to being part of the National Liberation Army, some Bosniaks were important partisan collaborators, that is, they acted as anti-fascists even while they were officers in the NDH armed forces. For such an example, we can mention Home Guard colonel Sulejman Filipović.
Thanks to the victory of the Allies on the world battlefield and the partisans on the Yugoslav battlefield, the political decisions made in 1943 in Mrkonjić-Grad and Jajce were realized. It is the most important historical turning point in favor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also Bosniaks, which permanently saved them from Serb-Croat mutual division. The political decisions of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Yugoslav anti-fascists from 1943 became the legal basis for the realization of the state independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when Yugoslavia was dissolved at the end of 1991.
As for the Bosniaks, they could not independently influence the outcome of the Second World War on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, just as they did not influence its beginning either. The victory of the anti-fascist resistance movement was indeed the best ending to the war for them. If any other political ideology, Ustasha or Chetnik, had won, it would have been fatal for Bosniaks. The Republika Srpska continued the genocide against them in 1992, which the Chetniks had to stop in 1944 with the partisan predominance on the battlefield in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina entered the Second World War as a divided country between Serbia and Croatia, and emerged from it as territorially united and equal with them, thanks to the actions of anti-fascists - led by the Communist Party - and the military victory of the partisan movement of resistance to the fascist occupation. The Great Serbian aggressor of Bosnia and Herzegovina inherited from socialist Yugoslavia the weapons and equipment of its federal army and a large part of the Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosniaks inherited their acquired legal status, which was recognized by the entire international community. At the end of the war in 1995, the legal heritage of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. its Army, still prevailed - along with high-quality and persistent military resistance to the aggressor - its legal legacy from the era of socialist Yugoslavia.
The achievement of state independence and its defense in 1992 - 1995 is another major historical milestone in favor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would hardly have been achieved without the one from 1943.