Milijan Brkic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Rehashing Croatian Citizenship Act – Croatian Diaspora Takes A Spotlight

February 2, 2019 by inavukic 45 Comments

Zeljko Glasnovic, MP Croatian Parliament for Diaspora
January 31, 2019
Photo: screenshot

In its legal formulation, citizenship is a fundamental expression of membership in a nation! Automatic right to citizenship by descent/ancestry is far valuable for the Croatian national goal of having as many Croats return than what citizenship by naturalisation is. No question about that!

If I hear once more a Croatian government representative, or the President of the country for that matter, chivalrously (as they do) invite Croats living in the diaspora to return to Croatia, I fear I won’t be able to contain my outrage much longer! Why, you may ask – indeed. Well, all that the Croatian diaspora has been hearing from the political elites in power since about 1995 (when the Homeland War ended in military operations sense) is how Croats are welcome to return, how they should return to their homeland, how this, how that – all along those lines – and yet Croatia’s powers that be have done absolutely nothing to ensure that the process of receiving citizenship truly matches their invitations for return. That is, that citizenship is awarded to people of Croatian national descent living abroad who want to return or migrate to live in Croatia with minimal delay, if any!

One gets this bitter and irritating taste of something gone alarmingly wrong within this evidently national goal (and constant invitations for return have given a sense of national goal – i.e. succeeding in getting as many Croats as possible answer to the call [invite] for return) and pathetically incongruous means to achieve it, so far. Certainly, amending the existing Citizenship Act would represent one of the key means/strategies to achieve the goal of return. But, the highest of honours bestowed upon citizenship, an automatic entitlement to Croatian citizenship by descent (if one was/is born in the diaspora) is still locked to the condition that at least (only) one parent is a Croatian citizenship at time of birth of the child outside Croatia! This, of course, cuts out from that honour roll millions of people of Croatian descent living abroad. And those powers that be in Croatia are aware of this – some, especially those who show no desire for Croatia to be and grow strong, most likely prefer things to stay that way.

During the past week the Croatian Parliament agenda included discussions, presentations and suggestions from various parties about amendments to the Citizenship Act and those, bar one or two, gave no sense at all that what was afoot is a critical chance to ensure that the national goal of attracting as many as possible Croats from the diaspora to return to Croatia is actually addressed via amendments to the Act, including criteria for automatic right to citizenship. Representatives from the major party in government (Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ), such as Milian Brkic, Davor Ivo Stier, Ivan Suker and others kept waffling on about how their government is now bringing in the amendments that would make it much easier for Croats to become citizens of Croatia!

Front row: Zeljko Reiner (L), Milijan Brkic (R)
Photo: Hina

“This is a small step for Croatia, but a big one for Croatian emigration,” Milijan Brkic , HDZ Vice-President and Deputy Speaker Croatian Parliament, emphasised, accentuating the enormous potential and significance of the Croatian emigration.

“With this we are sending out the message to the émigrés that our doors are open to them and that we are extending our hand to them for eventual return, and the first step is reception into the Croatian citizenship, and that we are extending our hand to them for investment into Croatia,” he said.

Well, well, well (!) – they are not pulling any wool over my eyes with this!

Firstly, Croatian diaspora gets deeply offended by such attitudes from Croatia that imply Croatia is not their homeland too. It is and it has always been so – the diaspora is part of Croatian nation! What does it feel like when people living in Croatia say “we extend our hand, open our door…to Croats from diaspora” ?! People say that such attitudes are pathetic, unproductive and have no place for a nation desirous of living with its diaspora.

Secondly, with their amendments they’re still keeping millions of people of Croatian national descent living in the diaspora who wish to return to Croatia, become citizens, in the less-important category of receiving citizenship through naturalisation! And that is no jackpot for Croats in the diaspora despite it being sold as such by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)!

Citizenship by descent means an automatic right to citizenship, whether one exercises that right or not.

Citizenship by naturalisation means that you pass the relevant requirements to become a citizen of a country that you weren’t previously a citizen of. This is the part about which the Croatian Democratic Union boasts – they say they will make this process easier, quicker for people who prove Croatian descent or belonging to the Croatian people.

Naturalisation is not an automatic right to citizenship and the Croatian diaspora needs to fight hard to achieve a widening of criteria for automatic citizenship right – at least those who want to return or emigrate (if they were born abroad) into Croatia.

“ … Perhaps one of the most important laws in modern history of Croatia is before us … for 28 years we gave been watching a Greek Tragedy … It’s a tragedy that the Croatian diaspora has become, I would say, Shudra in its own country, in the meaning of social castes in far India, they are there somewhere at the bottom … after all that they have given … this is a strategic question for the Republic of Croatia…we are constantly talking about the demographic plague … are we going to talk about the potential of the Croatian diaspora for the next three decades or are we going to finish this job … Independents for Croatia club will intercede to make things simpler…that law is still unclear…there are still smoke screens in it …in Article 6 for instance there are some 45 days for administrative purposes, which can block the process …well wait, the administration must complete its job as fast as possible … clarity and shortening of process …” said on 31 January 2019 in his presentation Zeljko Glasnovic, Independent Member of Parliament for the Croatian Diaspora. Video Link to his speech (in Croatian language) in Parliament on the Citizenship Act is presented below and well worth paying close attention to.

The important thing in Glasnovic’s presentation is that it contains inclinations towards possibilities of a special status in right to citizenship to be provided by the Act for people of Croatian national descent, including those whose ancestors have been living outside Croatia for many decades, whose families may have been deported or had fled e.g. post WWII, and are returning to live in Croatia.

Certainly, shining a special spotlight at the descendants of Croatian people returning to Croatia or emigrating into it is critical to the strategies of achieving the national goal of Croats returning to Croatia. No naturalisation process, no matter how short it is made, can ever replace in value for Croatia the automatic right to citizenship by descent. Descent meaning a descendant of Croatian people not Croatian citizens – the difference is paramount and enormous. I hope those in HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) will get to understand this difference and stop boasting about its new proposals to make naturalisation easier for Croats from diaspora and get on the wagon that is about automatic right to citizenship for descendants of Croatian people. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Citizenship Act of Republic of Croatia, Croatia, Croatian citizenship, Croatian Democratic Union, Croatian diaspora, HDZ, Independents for Croatia, Milijan Brkic, Zeljko Glasnovic

Croatia: Give Yourself A Tattoo With A Razor Blade Without Anesthetics

February 4, 2018 by inavukic 25 Comments

Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (L)
President of Croatia
Aleksandar Vucic (R)
President of Serbia
Photo:Pixsell

Metaphorically speaking, “give yourself a tattoo with a razor blade without anesthetics” is the kind of feeling many people in Croatia are expressing as an intended impact of their president’s current invitation to Serbia’s president for a state visit.

A very significant number of Croatian people are outraged at President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s invitation to Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic for an official visit to Croatia mid-February. How Grabar Ktarovic indends to dust off the red carpet to greet Vucic in Zagreb is indeed proving to be a vexing question that goes to the core of the Croatian still largely uncompensated and unrecognised suffering at the hands of Serbia in the early 1990’s.

Serbia’s President Vucic has long, using blatant lies publicly despised, denigrated, vilified and maligned Croatia and Croatian people. Vucic, as did all Serbs who were active during the aggression, embarked on a personal mission during their aggression against Croatia in the early 1990’s to occupy and ethnically cleanse of Croats and other non-Serbs one third of Croatian territory. Croats liberated that territory but were faced with incalculable costs to Croatian lives and at enormous cost to Croatian property by the enemy’s hand. None of which damages have been reconciled to a degree that could satisfy at least a part of due justice.

At the time when Serbia holds its exhibition in UN New York building through which, using lies and half-truths, purposefully tries to show Croatia up as the worst Holocaust perpetrator in Europe the Croatian president invites its president on a visit!

The invitation at such a time may indeed prove to be a gaffe of monumental proportions by the Croatian president, whose approval ratings are already floundering.

It’s a known fact that apologetic gestures via their implications of recognition of past wrong doing contribute positively to a reconciliation process. However, there’s no sign that Vucic intends to offer any apologies with regards to the bloody, murderous aggression against Croatia in the early 1990’s in which he himself actively participated by fueling the Serbian intent to kill, plunder and rape in Croatia.

Given the public outcry and condemnation in Croatia regarding this invitation, including from some well-known intellectuals and politicians, the only way this meeting could end “well” is that Croatia’s president takes Serbia’s president to one of the monuments dedicated to victims of Serbia’s aggression; such as the one in Vukovar, in Skabrnje, in Tovarnik … to mention but a very few.

Anything less certainly appears as a betrayal of Croatian trust and interests that is almost treasonous in its own right; for untold number of unresolved Serb perpetrated crimes during their aggression against Croatia and untold Serb pursuits to vilify Croatians on a world stage even to this day draw one to such a conclusion.

Negotiating successfully with the enemy, an unrepentant one such as Serbia, on points that are outstanding as a matter of reconciliation would indeed be a political art of high-ranking. In essence, Vucic has taken, for the moment at least, the no-concessions view to ongoing requests from Croatia for the location of the many hundreds of Croat victims still recorded as missing from the Homeland War, Vucic continues equating the aggressor with the victim, he continues usurping politically superior rights over the Serb minority of Croatia even if they are Croatian citizens bound to Croatian laws thus maintaining Serb-imperialism over Croatia…

He said a couple of days ago that he “will seek the assistance of authorities in reviving Serb villages and speak of what Serbia can do for their Croatian minority.” The fact that Serb minority has three seats in the Croatian parliament whose line of representation and the fact that Croatian state budget channels significant funds in support of its ethnic minorities doesn’t appear praiseworthy to Vucic – he intends meddling in Croatia’s affairs over its own population, he continues denigrating Croatia in business that is not his!

Milijan Brkic
HDZ Member of Croatian Parliament
and Deputy Speaker
Photo:MP

One must wonder why deputy Speaker of Croatian Parliament (HDZ), Milijan Brkic, stated on Friday 2 February 2018 that he supports President Grabar-Kitarivic’s invitation to President Vucic because “Serbia is our friendly and neighbouring country. Mr Vucic has had in his history some derailment from the path, he wandered a bit, but its time we all take our foot off the ball, all together and that we stop concerning ourselves with the past.”

The problem with this is that Serbia has clearly shown via its UN exhibition last week that it is still no friend to Croatia. And that is only a small part of its unfriendly and aggressive activities against Croatia and its people. People are neither fools nor blind and to call an active enemy a friend is insulting to human intellect.

The situation on the ground regarding President Grabar Kitarovic’s invitation to President Vucic is that a significant number of people within the HDZ ruling party do not support it and the same goes for the opposition. Besides the sentiment expressed by Milijan Brkic the following exemplify the ones that are opposite to Brkic’s or deal with outstanding issues Serbia is expected to deliver:

Stevo Culej (L), HDZ Member of Parliament
Zeljko Glasnovic (R), Independents Member of Parliament
Photo: Screenshot

Stevo Culej (HDZ Member of Parliament) said: “75 Croatian citizens were killed in Tovarnik and no one has been made duly responsible for these killing nor have the remains of the killed been found yet, and I expect, if Serbia’s president comes to Croatia to try in his Serbia find information for at least one person still missing killed in Tovarnik and bring that information to Croatia with him…”

Josip Dakic (HDZ Member of Parliament) said: “as you know, I would rather he is in Remetinec (prison in Zagreb) than on a visit to Croatia…”

Zeljko Glasnovic (Independts Member of Parliament) said: “we have $34 billion war damage, and what’s with the raped, with the murdered, what’s the damage to the victims … since 1945 Germans paid $89 billion in damages to the victims of Nazism, what have Serbs the Greater Serbia imperialists done? I mentioned it before the youngest victim murdered in Croatia was 6 months old and the eldest 104 years old, the youngest rape victim was 5-year-old girl and the eldest 80 … who will pay for these people’s destroyed lives, families etc…”

Another concerning thing is for certain and that is that by inviting Serbia’s president to visit Croatia at this particular time when Serbia’s international propaganda activities based on lies are particularly viciously geared against Croatia President Grabar Kitarovic has served an unpleasant and disquieting surprise to her people. The surprise whose goals and reasons that justify this timing are completely obscure to the masses and politicians as well as the government itself. How is that for preparing the terrain for a visit Grabar Kitarovic claims is good for Croatia when its people are vulnerable still from the ravages and devastation of Serb aggression and are deeply insulted by Serbia’s recent UN exhibition? Grabar Kitarovic would presumably have had a more accommodating public reception to her invite had she clearly stated to the people at least some of the important points on her meeting agenda – which coincide with people expectations – with Serbia’s president on Croatian soil. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Aleksandar Vucic, Croatia, Croatian president ivites Serbian president to visit, Josip Dakic, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Milijan Brkic, reconciliation, Serb aggression against Croatia, Serbia, Stevo Culej, Zeljko Glasnovic

Croatia: Witch-Hunt Fever Spreads Threatening Collapse Of Government

June 5, 2016 by inavukic 29 Comments

Tomislav Karamarko
Leader of HDZ/ First Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia

Following Croatia’s political developments that saw the mounting of scandal after scandal in efforts to destabilise the government since January 2016 these days is like being catapulted back to the Middle Ages when witch-hunts thrived, fever of confusion and moral panic ruled the day and truth and justice took a far back seat. This time, though, in Croatia the moral panic appears to seep in all shapes and forms from ex-communist and communist-minded echelons, threatened with full exposure and reckoning of the communist crimes their political forbearers committed against the Croatian nation. It’s also like riding on a beastly rollercoaster that cruelly gives no clues as to how turbulent, even how fatal, its next turn may be.

The most deeply disappointing element in this state of political confusion is that even the appointed (non-elected) Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic and minority BRIDGE/MOST coalition partner Deputy Prime Minister Bozo Petrov have both since Friday 3 June 2016 caught an insufferable dose of the terrible illness previously manifested mainly by the leftist opposition of Social Democrats and their political allies in the parliament. This terrible illness can be labeled: witch-hunt fever against Tomislav Karamarko, First Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ majority partner in the coalition government. This witch-hunt fever currently centres around the motion to the parliament by Social Democrat opposition seeking a vote of no-confidence on basis of Karamarko’s wife’s previous business consultancy as well as on basis of things Croatia media has reported Karamarko had at various times said!

To use this motion, prior to the appropriate authorities delivering a finding as to whether Karamarko has a conflict of interest case to answer, as a foundation in seeking his resignation in a country where democracy and due process are said to be the guiding principles and practices is tantamount to lunacy; to witch-hunt fever no citizen should be subjected to in the 21st century. The motion for no-confidence vote tabled by the Social Democrats is discussed in some political circles as a credible process even though facts of the matter have not been established nor truth certified by way of tested evidence! How someone can say they’ll vote for the motion of no confidence when it has not been established that Karamarko’s professional decision making capabilities for the government have been adversely affected by his wife’s business dealings prior to elections and his becoming the First Deputy Prime Minister, as Social Democrats seem to claim, can only be answered with repugnance.

Tihomir Oreskovic
Croatian Prime Minister

Croatia’s prime minister Tihomir Oreskovic on Friday 3 June 2016 in a surprise and seemingly sudden move urged his two deputies (Tomislav Karamarko and Bozo Petrov) to step down to end a political deadlock; he said he himself would not resign and that he did everything in his power to try and fix the broken relationship between the two deputies. The latest crisis erupted when Bozo Petrov from BRIDGE/MOST said during the past week it would support the Social Democrat motion to replace its partner’s First Deputy Prime Minister Karamarko.
“I am not resigning and I didn’t plan to,” Oreskovic said Friday, insisting new elections are not necessary and would only slow down and burden Croatia’s economic recovery.
“I hope they (deputies) will make a decision in the interest of the Croatian citizens,” he said.

The leader of the Croatian Democratic Union, Tomislav Karamarko, who said he was surprised by the prime minister’s decision, promptly rejected Oreskovic’s call.
Deputy premier Tomislav Karamarko, head of the HDZ party which dominates the government, refused to quit and said either fresh elections or a “reconfiguring” in parliament were now the only solutions adding that Prime Minister Oreskovic no longer enjoys HDZ’s trust.
MOST leader Bozo Petrov said he was ready to resign but insisted Karamarko should too.

Bozo Petrov
Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia

The fact that witch-hunt against HDZ leader Karamarko is at the forefront of Bozo Petrov’s mind is evidenced by his statement for HRT news Saturday 4 June 2016 when he said: “…I am now truly interested, after the ‘consulant’ affair (read Karamarko’s wife’s business consultancy) that arose and everything else that he is the one who presents himself as the one who is protecting (Croatian) national interests … if he really cared about the homeland, as he often said he does, then he would know that the term ‘political rsponsibility’ exists and if though nothing else then he would protect national interests by submitting his resignation …”

Petrov stated further on HRT news Saturday 4 June that if HDZ achieve a governing majority through reconfiguring then “that will resemble some hybrid monster, but that is their problem…”! Can you imagine a member of parliament saying this! Absolutely shocking – nothing that people elect into the parliament can be viewed as a monster of any sort! This Bozo Petrov needs to be ousted from the government – not Karamarko.

HDZ Presidency met on Saturday 4 June 2016 and confirmed its support for Tomislav Karamarko as its leader in both the Party and its parliamentary majority, despite a reported suggestion by HDZ vice-president Milijan Brkic that Karamarko could consider removing himself/resigning from First Depty Prime Minister position. Reportedly all options were at the table and the concluding agreements were that HDZ will work on finding a way as to how Prime Minister Oreskovic needs to be removed from the top job and how HDZ can push ahead by reconfiguring the parliamentary partners it may still govern with as majority coalition partner. Reports in the media that HDZ itself is split on the issue of Karamarko’s leadership do not seem to be supported by any visible threat to his leadership although, as any other party anywhere, HDZ is not immune from factions and fractions.

In the event of re-stacking or re-configuring parliamentary majority in order to save this HDZ led government possibilities do exist that some MOST/BRIDGE coalition members may abandon that coalition and cross to direct coalition with HDZ as “single seat” to help HDZ make-up the required 76 seats as Petrov loses his grip on MOST’s political coagulation of independents. Furthermore, the next week or so is set to show as to whether HDZ can assemble new alliances within the parliament in order to come up with majority seats and, hence, enter a new era of its coalition government. The alternative solution to solving the political crisis that has been created via false allegations and sheer political stupidity and sensationalism is said to lie in new general elections, which HDZ says is the last resort they would condone as elections take time and cost money Croatia cannot afford. Of course, there is always the possibility that Social Democrats’ motion for a vote of no confidence against Karamarko will be blown out of the water even before voting gets a place on the agenda of parliamentary day business. And then again, one could expect new scandals seizing the public space unless HDZ leader Karamarko sits firmly on government’s reform agenda, clears unstable HDZ elements/members and officers in its ranks to outer margins or insignificance, so to drown political scandals and affairs that prevent the government from doing its job properly. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)