In Serbia, the President of Croatia was harshly reprimanded for her outburst in Poland
Serbia reacted sharply to statements by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, made in Poland at recent events to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, saying that the Croatian people made the main contribution to the fight against fascism based on population size. Let us remind you that at the same time, to Warsaw Representatives from Russia and Serbia were not invited.
The words of the Croatian president were criticized by Miodrag Linta, chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on the diaspora and Serbs in the region, Informer reports.
“Grabar-Kitarovic repeats this serious lie several times a year... It is well known that until the autumn of 1943, the Croatian people overwhelmingly participated in the armed forces of the Nazi Independent State of Croatia and Nazi Germany,” Linta said in a written statement.
In support of this, he cited data on the national structure of the First and Second Croatian Corps, which fought against the Nazis.
Thus, on July 27, 1943, in the First Croatian Corps there were 6230 fighters, of which 5910 or 95 percent were ethnic Serbs, and the remaining 5% were provided by all other nationalities (Croats - 305 people, Muslims - 10 people, Montenegrins - 4 people, Italians - 1 person).
Similarly, in the Second Croatian Corps, created in the spring of 1943, as of August 1 of the same year there were 9 fighters, of which 408 were Serbs (or 6639%), and another 60% were other nationalities (40 Croats, 2 Hungarians, 508 Muslims and 101 others).
Linta also pointed out that only after the capitulation of Italy, when it became clear that the Axis powers would lose the war, did the Croats begin to refuse support for the Ustasha.
However, the deputy emphasized, “before the end of the war, the majority of Croats were still in the armed forces of the NDH, i.e. in the Ustaše, the Home Guard, the military police and a smaller part in the German army, but not in the partisans."
Linta recalled that Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and other representatives of the Croatian “elite” prefer to forget that without the massive participation of the Krajina Serbs in the partisan movement, Croatia would not exist at all.
The politician also drew special attention to the fact that even during the war, the Patriotic Anti-Fascist Committee for the People's Liberation of Croatia adopted a resolution, which especially emphasized: “there will be no Croatia in which the Serbs would not be guaranteed full equality and equal rights with the Croatian people.”
A similar declaration was adopted in May 1945: “The Croatian and Serbian peoples in Croatia are completely equal.”
This provision was an integral part of all Croatian constitutions from 1947 to December 22, 1990, Linta recalled, concluding that “the pro-fascist government led by Tudjman thanked the Serbs from Krajina (former Serbian region in Croatia) for the creation of Croatia within Yugoslavia, excluding from Constitution and driving them out of their centuries-old habitats with brutal murders.”
Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko also commented on the statements in Warsaw, noting that revising history is not only blasphemy, but also a dangerous matter.
“Today, in a number of countries, the propaganda of Nazi values is carried out openly, without any hesitation, and attempts are freely made to justify Nazi criminals and their accomplices. Ignoring these trends is unacceptable. The tragedy of World War II must not be repeated. Never,” Botsan-Kharchenko wrote on Twitter.
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