An initiative, by nature and intent profoundly ominous for peace and freedom to develop and enjoy the relatively newly created states that broke away from communist Yugoslavia in 1990’s as prosperous sovereign entities, was launched in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on March 30th by notables and NGOs, however notorious or not, marked a major effort to bolster a politically disquieting consensus that Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins all speak the same language, thus erode each of the existing major four distinct (regardless of any commonalities) languages used – Croat, Serb, Bosniak, Montenegrin. All who in desperation for freedom and democracy have often argued into deaf ears that the Balkan region is riddled with political barbarians that huddle together with the view to keeping the decrepit and failed Yugoslav region alive as unified in one form another, including fusing all the different national groups into one, have, regretfully, on March 30th tucked another feather in their told-you-so cap.
Last time I checked the Declaration’s website, “Languages and Nationalisms” project some 228 people (a crew from former Yugoslav states evidently joined at the hip by the distinctly destructive and freakish streaks of “my nationality is Yugoslav” surging demeanour) have signed the Declaration. The Declaration seeks, among other demands, the abolishing of all linguistic segregation and discrimination in the educational and public institutions; the stopping of repressive, unnecessary and damaging practice of separating the languages; cessation of rigid definitions of standard variations (among languages); the avoidance of unnecessary, senseless and expensive ‘translations’ in court and administrative practices as well as in means of public information…
The Declaration claims that most of the former Yugoslav nations speak different variations of the same language and it stands to good reason and justice that it has been met with official outrage across the region. Opponents of the Declaration, rightly, see the initiative as reviving the ghost of the former Yugoslavia, one of whose official languages was at points in time and as form of Yugoslav communist oppression Serbo-Croatian. The signatories of the Declaration did not openly promote a “Serbo-Croatian” language and say they are comfortable with different versions of the same language having different names: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin. The problem here is that they do appear promote Serb linguistic forms immersed thorough single words in the very text explaining the Languages and Nationalisms Project on their website and that in itself is unshakeably indicative of the underlying political bias and underhanded attempts to keep the “Serb language forms” at a superior level to the other three, just as it used to be in the days of communist Yugoslavia.
When it comes to its implications for Croatia the Declaration could well represent an attempt to undermine the Croatian language as the only official language of the nation and install the Serbian language as another official language in the country not just in pockets of the country where the Serb ethnic minority population is or exceeds the 34% as stipulated in the constitutional law. The threads that keep Greater-Serbia expansion in the region are foully intricate indeed. To beef up this conclusion one only needs to ponder upon and weigh-up politically the sickening fact where Croatia’s Minister for Culture, Nina Obuljen, had last week sent two signatories of the Sarajevo Declaration from Croatia – writers Slobodan Snajder and Damir Karakas – as Croatia’s representatives at the Leipzig book fair! It goes without saying that this move of hers suggests that she too rides the train that transports those who would have the world believe that the Croatian language does not really exist in its own right. Given that Croatia has hundreds of writers, language professionals and academics who have toiled for decades even within the communist Yugoslavia to retain the Croatian language as a pure and distinct language of the Croatian nation, Minister Obuljen’s move can truly be considered perverse and insulting – politically and otherwise.
When asked about the Declaration a day before it was made public, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic responded with questions about the need for such an initiative: “How could I support that [declaration]? Who in Croatia can support it?” What else can one expect from the PM who, faced with the outrage against the Declaration among the Croatian people, just does not act as if he possesses the fight necessary for Croatian interests.
Plenkovic added – feebly: “The Croatian language is defined in our constitution. Croatian is one of the official languages of the EU. That’s the only thing that matters to me. There is no need to waste words on sundry informal initiatives.” Well, how about defending the Croatian language when attacked, Prime Minister!
The former Croatian culture minister and current Member of Croatian Parliament, Zlatko Hasanbegovic, used strong language to denounce the Sarajevo Declaration as “a wolf howl of Yugoslav nationalists for their lost country.” On the ball – Hasanbegovic!
To illustrate the political depravity among signatories of the Sarajevo Declaration among Croats one only needs to visit the words of the largely mistrusted and seemingly dangerously anti-Croatian independence politically biased Croatian journalist Ante Tomic, when he asked rhetorically in his regular column in Jutarnji List whether “we are so stupid that we cannot memorise more than one word for a certain thing.” Tomic added that through a language policy based on “pure Croatian,” the state is not only controlling its subjects but also creating confusion and stoking animosity against ethnic Serbs. “I signed [the Sarajevo Declaration] because it is a measure of reconciliation and it recognises and includes everyone. It affirms differences, and allows for the fact that one thing can be called by many names, and that we all speak the same language, which is variously named Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, or Montenegrin,” Tomic said.
How a Declaration such as the Sarajevo one, claiming that distinctly different languages are one single language, can be a measure of reconciliation is only clear (albeit wickedly to my taste) to Tomic and other signatories of the Declaration. Successful reconciliation unconditionally depends on the truth and there is no underlying truth in this Declaration except the one that points to the worn-out mantra “tell lies often enough and they become the truth”. This is a cause worth fighting against. Ina Vukic
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Well, there you go. Never mind that
’cause Croatia is such a beautiful country and the people are great!
We shall keep the buggers at bay, Zeljko
Well, I seriously doubt that. They have not been resurected, they were allways here and they were loud and clear. Tomic is NOT journalist, he is a columnist and he, along with all of the other main stream figures, is devoted only to one thing, … Also, you surelly have felt the sharpness in my coments and part of it is provoked by this word I been hearing a lot, “We”. There is no “We”. And you as a professor should know this. The only “We” there is and could be is my comrades and I. Proud but half broken, genuine war veterans. EVERYONE else failed! EVERYONE else let this happend. And by “this” I mean taking over everything by the forces we, the veterans, crushed in the battlefield. This is the shame! I have stumbled across your blog by accident and I congratulate you for the efforts. Maybe I hoped to find something real and hopefull, something to asure me that we will not fight again. I don’t see it, so when you say, “we shall …”, what it really means is what it meant in the first place, back in ’91.
Not everyone else failed to my view Zeljko, it’s just a matter of the apparent survival of the strongest (in numbers and means) … there are “We” and always will be as “man” rarely acts alone in these situations and succeeds. God willing – “We” will grow stronger in the “right” direction
The so called “One Language Declaration” is yet another provocation designed perfidiously by Belgrade in order to either impose the Serbian language upon sovereign peoples and nations that were part of the artificially and forcefully created communist Yugoslavia or to inspire yet another regional conflict. Fortunately, only a few naive individuals from the EU member Croatia have signed the “Declaration”. That however will not stop the creators of this ill intended effort – they will do their evil best to impose it in Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina in order to make Serbia the “mother company” with Belgrade as its “headquarters”. Naturally, they will even be prepared to invent a new name for their “one language” that, by the way, reminds me of doctor Frankenstein’s attempted creation.
Well said, Vlado
From Facebook: I am so glad this article wasn’t posted yesterday Ina. The casual reader would have undoubtedly and justifiably placed the event in the April 1st ‘overactive post-Titoist imagination’ basket. Anticipating a thunderous reaction from the Bosnjak camp any day now. Five stars!
Our camp won’t allow the blunting of axes
From Facebook: that’s retarded. I may not be completely fluent, but even I know the differences between all the different Croatian dialects. I can’t say words from my island to a Bosnian or someone from other parts of Croatia and have them even understand those words. Like seriously I’ve even talked to Bosnian Croats who were surprised at words I would say. Enough is enough. You cannot expect to eliminate all difference between ethnicities and not piss people off. People deserve the right to say who they are and where they are from. I understand the languages are similar and probably all have similar origins, but Fuck this leftist horse shit people have the right to maintain that which makes them unique in this world.
Will permit the not so eloquent words here for a very good reason: a time comes when “a spade needs to be called a spade”
“ell lies often enough and they become the truth” that can be effective, isn’t it. I am wondering how it can be corrected?
I guess the only way is to keep telling the real truth, YellowCable
my god the stupidity of these people… Ante Tomic is a fool.
I suppose no wonder Anna he had a bucket of human excrement poured over his head while sitting in a cafe in city of Split a couple of years ago
Lol oh dear…. That’s pretty bad!
It is isn’t it
yes he is. But he’s the fool who gets enormeous pay for croatian standards, gets rewards for is work from croatian institutions, movies and TV shows are made out of his work. He almost got his work in school programmes! He is a fool that got his work put in a form of play and it is being played in all major national theatres in front of dignitaries. So, in the end, looks like we are the fools. OK, he did recived a bucket of shit poured on his head. Wow, good for us! In the same time, last friday, national TV house did show his movie during prime time. here is what I wrote a few years back about these people, http://www.braniteljski-portal.hr/Novosti/HRVATSKI-BRANITELJI/Umirovljeni-pukovnik-HV-a-Vise-PTSP-a-su-mi-darovali-Dezulovic-Ivancic-Jergovic-Tomic-Pavicic-Stankovic-Latin-nego-sve-cetiri-godine-rata.
So, 228 people are trying to force their ideology on 5 million Croatians and we sit back and do nothing about it. What’s worse, the HDZ’s hand picked minister of culture sent two of her people there to that meeting. Well, first things first, shouldn’t they have invited a Bulgarian contingent there since its a very similar language? How about a Slovak continent since 80% of their language can be understood as well? I was telling a friend of mine that it looks like “Zajdnicki jezik” is the new “naski.” If you recall during the years of the Yugoslav occupation of our country, for fear of not getting arrested, some people would ask if you speak “naski” rather than Croatian. How about if these people actually did a study they would realize that it was the Serbs who stole the Croatian language and incorporated into their own. The real Serbian language is closest to Bulgarian. As for those people that were there its simple, the fact is most of the area speaks Croatian because most of that area has ties to Croatia…BiH was historically part of Croatia, Boka Kotorska (which is a part of Montengro now) was Croatian, as was parts of Vojvodina so its natural that they speak Croatian.
The shame of all of this is that this group of Yugoslav Nationalists should not have been covered by our media given a platform, they should have been ignored and marginalized. The funny part of this is that the timing of it is very interesting considering that this came a few weeks after polls showed that only 18% of Croatians miss the Yugoslav State, I believe 5% of Kosovars do yet in the other countries the numbers are well above 50% and I believe in Serbia’s case its was in the 70% range.
Good one Stevie, and yes “naski” (“ours”…) was the devil of masking the real intent to bury all languages except Serbian in Yugoslavia…
You have no idea what you are talking about and everything seems to be some Serbian conspiracy to you. You live in Australia and are completely disconnected from the situation in the Balkan states where nepotism and corruption run everything, yes even in Croatia. Oddly enough you call this a Serbian attempt to rule over the former Yugoslav states when in fact the conference or declaration was held in Sarajevo. Yet somehow this is a Serbian conspiracy. Do you even speak the language? If you do you’ll know there is very little difference between all of them. Different accents yes, little words being said differently, yes (Tko=Croatia/Ko=Serbia).You could travel from Zagreb-Sarajevo-Belgrade speaking the same dialect from Zagreb and you’d be perfectly understood in all 3 cities. This is an attempt at reconciliation and a step in the right move yet the alt-right diaspora in Australia sees it as an attempt at colonisation while they sit back and criticize while speaking what is universally known as English from Australia to Canada.
Former Yugoslav-states do speak very similar languages and bringing down the walls of segregation that do exist in Bosnia among the Bosniak-Croat federation could bring down barriers of government institutions. Examine the situation in Bosnia and maybe youd know what you are talking about. Otherwise please leave Balkan issues to those that live there.
My point proven, thank you Johnny – I wonder what your comment would be to the fact that Serbia/Serbs insist on: wherever a Serb lives that is Serbia! The platform for aggression and attempts at Greater Serbia. Diaspora is a part of a national body giving citizens the right to contribute
well, that is becouse it is a Serbian conspiracy. Do you know what SANU is and what agenda they are persuing? Do you know how many Serbs we have in our politics and how many Croats are in Serbian? Do you know how many Serbian representatives are sitting in Croatian parliament and how many Croats are in Serbian parliament? Serbia is the one pushing yugoslavia shit again and comunists in croatia have allies within serbian national core not croatian. you speak of reconcilation, but croatian people do not want to reconciliate. And yes, this is serbian spin. Serbia is only one who can profit from it. I live in Croatia and I say, this has nothing to do with the language and everyone thinking that it is, is a fool. This is a flat out provocation and communists way of trying to get back in power.
I know I’m not very knowledgeable on this topic having been born in the U.S. But even I can see this as a crock. My mother was from the islands of Dalmatia and my father from Hercerg-Bosna and even I know there is a difference. We were raised speaking my father’s dialect. And I swear the first time I met my mother’s family I didn’t understand half of what they were saying to me.! My mother chuckled at me when I asked her, “Are they speaking Croatian.?!?” So even I could tell at a very young age how different the dialects are between regions. Oh Ina, so much work still to do.
Thank you for sharing this invaluable post 🙂
It’s people like you of Croat origin that give and carry much hope for understanding and bringing the Croatian truth up front a notch by notch, Rose. Thank you for taking the time to comment XX
Thank you Ina! And it’s people like you who bring truth to power that make it easier for us to keep the truth up front.! 🙂
Thank you 🙂
I can see the reason for outrage.. This would equivalent of us wanting to ban the Welch language..
Sending Love and hugs.. for all you do in enlightening others..
Clear thinking, Sue ‘ hugs!
<3 xxx <3 Hugs back xx
https://youtu.be/50T5HOk92-M
Thank you, Aliosa
Yugoslavia. Forever sundered. :/
Thanks be to God – any the courageous people, intrepid8