The official commemoration of the war year 1991 in Croatia: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The official commemoration of the war year 1991 in Croatia: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Author(s): Sven Milekić
Contributor(s): Nikola Gajić (Editor), Nataša Šofranac (Translator)
Subject(s): Politics of History/Memory, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: Fond za humanitarno pravo
Keywords: Commemoration; Nationalism; Victimhood; Peacebuilding; Narrative
Summary/Abstract: Twenty-nine years after the end of the armed conflict, the war continues to be the foundation of the Republic of Croatia. The Croatian authorities have therefore paid excessive attention to the commemoration of 1991, which is remembered in Croatia as a year of resistance to the "Greater Serbian aggression". Apart from the fact that this continues to maintain the dominant narrative, according to which Croatia and Croats are the victims and winners of the war, such a culture of memory promotes and establishes nationalist policies and power relations with ethnic "others", i.e. minority Serb communities in Croatia. Aside from memory policies, the education system in general does not offer a different narrative in the history textbooks and school visits to war-related locations that are incorporated into the curriculum. At the same time, peace initiatives do not occupy an important place in the politics of memory. Integrating the memory of peace initiatives at the higher state level would help create a society that has overcome divisions concerning the past without suppression of information, and would help overcome occasional interethnic tensions in Croatia and the region.

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