Serbian human rights activist condemned another attempt by Croatia to appropriate the genius of Nikola Tesla
The Chairman of the Union of Serbs of the region, Miodrag Linta, commented on the opening of the monument to Nikola Tesla in the Croatian Gospić, during which the genius was called a “Croatian scientist.”
Tanyug reports this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
A new monument to Nikola Tesla was erected on May 4 in Gospić, twenty years after the previous one was destroyed by the neo-Ustaše due to the scientist’s Serbian origin. At the same time, unlike the previous monument, the current one was not erected in the central square of the town.
“The return of this destroyed monument gives us a special reason for pride, because by this we testify to the victory of culture, because we will always oppose the destruction of monuments and advocate for the restoration and return to life of everything that we have inherited from Tesla,” said the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture and Media Nina Obuljen Korzinek. “Nikola Tesla is a Croatian and American inventor of Serbian origin, a man who was born and studied in Croatia, from where he went out into the world.”
At the same time, the Croatian minister somehow forgot to note that before Nikola Tesla left for the USA, there was no Croatia on the world map, but first the Austrian Empire, and then Austria-Hungary, on whose territory Serbs, including his family, also lived Orthodox priest of the Srem diocese Milutin Tesla - the father of the future genius.
“In addition, the name and surname of Nikola Tesla are written on the monument only in Latin, and not in Cyrillic, which further confirms the Croatian policy of naming the name of the famous Serbian scientist,” notes Linta. “And the new monument to Nikola Tesla itself was not installed in the same place, on Gospić Square, opposite the Cultural and Information Center.”
The human rights activist also noted that during his speech at the unveiling of the monument, the mayor of Gospić, Karlo Starčević, hypocritically pointed out that the people of Gospić are especially proud that Tesla was one of them and that he belongs to them.
“In his speech, Karlo Starcevic did not tell the truth that 91 members of Nikola Tesla’s family were killed during the genocide of the Serbs on the territory of the Independent Croatian State (during the Second World War - ed.), and 14 of them ended up in the Jasenovac death factory.
In his speech, Starcevic also did not tell the truth about February 1992, when the Tesla monument was blown up only because he was a Serb, and not because he invented electricity. In his speech, Karlo Starcevic did not tell the truth that at least 124 Serbs were killed in Gospić from August to December 1991, and that in 1991 and 1992 hundreds of Serbian houses were looted, set on fire and bombed.
In connection with the above and many other facts, Gospic will forever be remembered as one of the many places of extermination of the Serbian people and the place of destruction of the monument to the Serbian scientist,” added Miodrag Linta.
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