Author: dr. sc. Amir Kliko
Source: Bosnainfo.ba
Photo: Ron Haviv
Taking advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the Serbs began the creation of a national state in the first two decades of the 19th century.
Through armed uprisings - and diplomatically and materially supported by some European powers, primarily Austria and Russia - they managed to achieve the autonomous principality of Serbia.
By the middle of the first half of that century, they also imagined the territory to which it, as a future independent state, should expand. This idea of a Serbian national state also covered the territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at that time was also under Ottoman rule. The Serbian large-state idea is more widely known as "Greater Serbia." The first step in its realization in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina was the Serbianization of the Orthodox population.
The Serbization of the Bosnian Orthodox in the 19th century was also a preliminary step towards the first strategic goal of the Republika Srpska from May 1992 (separation of the Serbs from the other two peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina). First, in the 19th century, the Serbian nation was created from the Bosnian Orthodox, and then, at the end of the 20th century, it was separated from the other two nations in order to carry out genocide against them in order to create an ethnically "pure" territory for the expansion of Serbia to her.
That first step, the Serbianization of the Bosnian Orthodox, was realized mainly through the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because there was no political and intellectual elite. In the organization of the Church, teachers came with textbooks from Serbia, in order to spread the Serbian national idea and create their own intellectual and political elite among the tired Bosnian Orthodox, with the aim of joining Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Principality of Serbia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, then called the province of Bosnia, had to be "liberated from the Turks" first, and then "joined" to Serbia. Turks meant not only the Ottoman rule - which in the province of Bosnia was mainly carried out by native Muslims-Bosniaks, not ethnic Turks - but also its entire Muslim population. So the "liberation" of Bosnia from the Turks also meant its "liberation" from the Muslim population.
In the Great Serbian aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. the world recognized the same process as "ethnic cleansing" and genocide against Bosniaks.
From the middle of the 19th century, the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro began to rebel against the Bosnian Orthodox population and raise armed uprisings against the Ottoman rule. And in this, the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church played a very important role, and some priests were even leaders of larger groups of insurgents. Therefore, the Montenegrin and Serbian armed uprisings from the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century - the results of which were the autonomous principalities of Montenegro and Serbia - from the second half of the same century were transferred among the Orthodox to the territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina for the purpose of its "liberation from the Turks" and "joining" Montenegro, that is, Serbia.
The most famous - and the most brutal in terms of violence against Bosniaks - armed uprising of the Bosnian Orthodox in 1875, which can be considered a war, because the following year, in connection with it, the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and a year later, Russia.
That war of 1875-1878. it was formally masked by an uprising of a social nature against the unjust Ottoman rule, such as the Serbian-Montenegrin aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. was overshadowed by the alleged civil war and the Serbian just struggle for freedom and the right to national self-determination.
The uprising of the Orthodox population of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875-1878, that is, the war against the Ottomans, was planned and started by the principalities of Montenegro and Serbia with the help of Russia. Their intention was to expand to the Bosnian vilayet. Russia's goal was to realize its interest through them to the eastern Adriatic coast. Only with the end of the Second World War did the Russians achieve that goal for three years.
The real political reasons for the uprising of the Orthodox population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, the war it waged against the Ottoman state in 1875-1878, and its consequences for the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the same as in the case of the Serbian-Montenegrin aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. years. The Orthodox insurgents were logistically and politically supported from Serbia and Montenegro. Volunteers came from them to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to fight against the "Turks." The most famous among them was Petar Karađorđević, the later Serbian king. He hid his identity under the war pseudonym Mrkonjić. In honor of his military service in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1924, Varcar Vakuf was renamed Mrkonjić Grad. The principalities of Serbia and Montenegro diplomatically advocated for the Orthodox insurgents in 1875-1878. with the great European powers, and they frantically killed and persecuted Bosniaks from the territory, as did the Yugoslav People's Army and the armed formations of Bosnian Serbs in 1992-1995. years. Also, during the 1992-1995 aggression. Logistical aid to the Bosnian Serb army came from Serbia and Montenegro, but volunteers also came to fight against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, committing war crimes, as well as volunteers from those countries in 1875-1878. years.
It can be said that the uprising of the Bosnian Orthodox in 1875-1878. it does not differ in any way from the Serbian-Montenegrin aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995, except for the combat technique used. The political causes and demographic consequences are the same for Bosniaks. Even the ending is very similar. The Austro-Hungarian occupation was a military and political intervention by the West that prevented the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Montenegro. The Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995 forced Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) to recognize the state independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to stop the armed aggression against it, which they carried out through the Republika Srpska.
The difference between the so-called uprising of the Bosnian Orthodox in 1875-1878. and the Great Serbian aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. is in the fact that the international community legalized the results of "ethnic cleansing," i.e. the genocide against Bosniaks, with its support for the survival of Republika Srpska as one of the two entities of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, part of eastern Herzegovina with Nikšić was handed over to Montenegro, and Mali Zvornik and Sakar were given to Serbia. This shows how the international community, nevertheless, always in some way tried to satisfy the interests of Serbia (in 1878 and Montenegro) in its territorial ambitions towards Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Serbia and Montenegro achieved state independence, which enabled them to continue planning territorial expansion. Due to the Austro-Hungarian occupation, they could not carry out significant activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia continued to subjugate the Bosnian Orthodox, waiting for a favorable political opportunity to realize the goals that were interrupted by the Austro-Hungarian occupation. She welcomed them at the end of 1918. However, the idea of "Greater Serbia" could not be fully realized in the joint Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for the next ten years. Then, on January 6, 1929, King Aleksandar Karađorđević, son of the aforementioned Petar Karađorđević, known as Mrkonjić, introduced a dictatorship. He divided the Kingdom of Yugoslavia into nine banovinas, four of which covered the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of the Banovina were with a Serbian majority population. In every banovina, which also included part of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks became a minority population without genocide and persecution. It was the first division of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The second one was carried out ten years later between Serbia and Croatia, because the leading Croatian politicians were not satisfied with the first one.
The king's dictatorship created "Greater Serbia" within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for the next decade. The Serbian republican leadership tried to do something similar in the early nineties of the 20th century in socialist Yugoslavia, which met with fierce resistance from the Slovenes, and then from the Croats and Bosniaks.
In the Second World War, the Serbian great-state idea recognized fascism as an excellent opportunity to be realized and tried to use it as an opportunity through the Chetnik movement. However, the end of the war on the Yugoslav battlefield prevented the realization of the idea of a "Greater Serbia", which the Chetnik movement fought for, although the Serbs, as well as in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, gained supremacy in the new Yugoslavia over other nations, especially in multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina. During World War II, the Chetniks, like the Orthodox insurgents of 1875-1878, committed numerous crimes against the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For almost half a century, the communist government in Yugoslavia prevented the realization of "Greater Serbia", which is why it became hated by Serbian nationalists. For this reason, at the end of the eighties of the 20th century, they caused a crisis in order to bring about the disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia, which, according to their expectations, would enable them to realize the old great-state ideas in the new redrawing of the borders of the Yugoslav republics. They called it "the right of the Serbian people to self-determination", accusing the other Yugoslav nations of nationalism, chauvinism, separatism, fascism, religious radicalism and the like. Quickly and very successfully, communists of Serbian nationality placed themselves at the head of Serbian nationalism. By mid-1991, they took over the Yugoslav People's Army.
From the end of the summer of 1991 until the beginning of the spring of the following year, it occupied most of the territory that - in Serbian intellectual, political, military and ecclesiastical circles - was envisioned as the future Serbian state on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For that Serbian state, it is planned that the Serbian population will have an absolute majority in it compared to other nations. Given that in that territory, which it was supposed to capture, Bosniaks and Croats lived in large numbers, in addition to Serbs - and in many cities they were also the majority population - the Serbian majority had to be established through violence. The creation and maintenance of such a Serbian state on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later called Republika Srpska, could not be achieved without genocide and other forms of war crimes against the Bosniak and Croat population.
The Yugoslav Federal Army occupied most of the desired territory before the open aggression, and the Serbian separatist authorities in that territory were left with the obligation of military defense and "ethnic cleansing" of Bosniaks and Croats, which they did during the period of aggression in 1992-1995. years. In addition to occupying a large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the future Serbian state, the JNA also left it with the weapons needed to form its own army, defend the already occupied territory and occupy the one that the federal army failed to take due to political reasons. By mid-May 1992, the JNA was transformed into the Army of the Republika Srpska.
Serbian nationalist and, against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, separatist policy was led by the Serbian Democratic Party, which was directly supported by Serbia, Montenegro, the JNA and the Serbian Orthodox Church. After successfully destroying the administrative structure and state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout 1991, on January 9, 1992, it declared its parastatal union and its secession from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the past, three significant and major events prevented the realization of the Serbian great-state policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely the Berlin Congress in 1878, the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995. The behavior of the Serbian state leadership and the politicians of Republika Srpska shows that Serbian nationalists are still trying to realize it. This is especially noticeable in recent years. Macedonia definitely broke away from "Greater Serbia" in the early nineties of the 20th century. Croatia succeeded in doing so in 1995, and Montenegro in 2006. In 1999, Kosovo successfully placed itself under the protection of the international community. Although Serbian big-state nationalism "shows its muscles" towards Kosovo, and even more so in Montenegro, in fact only Bosnia and Herzegovina remained unprotected from the idea of "Greater Serbia" now known as "Serbian World." That is why it is the most exposed to the attacks of Serbian radical nationalism. , which governs half of its territory and participates in all its state institutions, which it successfully uses to collapse it with the ultimate goal of its destruction so that the Republika Srpska entity with the Brčko district "joins the Serbian world."
Military and police parades and other festivities, organized by the Republika Srpska entity with the support of Serbia on the occasion of January 9, are nothing more than ordinary provocations to Bosniaks. In order for the desired provocation of the Bosniaks to have even greater effects this year, the organizers of the celebration on January 9 decided to move the related activities from Banja Luka to East Sarajevo. Perhaps they wish for some incidents from the Bosniak side, which they would then use for their future activities. It should be remembered that Serbian politics recently tried to cause incidents in Kosovo as well by setting up barricades in its north and leaving Kosovo's state institutions by employees of Serbian nationality.
Serbia's large-state policy, which has been trying to be realized in Bosnia and Herzegovina for thirty-one years through its war legacy of Republika Srpska, must constantly maintain and strengthen Serbian nationalism towards Bosniaks, and military and police parades are one of the necessary means.