Croatia: 20 Years after the Berlin Wall
Text by Natasa Radic for Southeast European Times*
Unlike other former communist countries in Europe, Croatia and the Yugoslav republics did not see a peaceful political and economic transition to democracy with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The weakening of the communist regime in the late 1980's allowed a rebirth and expansion of various nationalist tendencies in the former Yugoslavia. The country's League of Communists was slowly dissolving and a number of new political parties were emerging.
In 1989, still as part of Yugoslavia, Croatia was celebrating the Eurovision Song Contest victory of the Zadar-based pop group "Riva". The country was hopeful that the following year Zagreb would host the Europe-wide musical event and thereby boost the rising spirit of independence in Croatia.
The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, established in June of 1989, won the first democratic pluralist elections in 1990, and would play a crucial role in the fight for Croatia's independence.
Today in Croatia, some miss life under communism, regretting the loss of the highly socialised former Yugoslav system. "We had free health care, the state provided apartments, guaranteed free education, and our social security was established. Now, under capitalism, one has to pay for everything, " Marija Ancic, 66, a retired professor from Split, explains.
Ante Tomic, a journalist for Croatia's daily Jutarnji List, differs. "There is no such thing as the 'good old days'. For the most part, they never happened. The Berlin Wall was controlled only from one side."
"That was the side with the barbed wire, reflectors, German Shepard dogs and soldiers. In the former East Germany, life was so great that it was necessary for the soldiers to protect the Wall with machine guns to prevent escape. As much as we would like to believe that socialism was better, we should tell the truth -- people wanted to jump over only from one side of the Wall."
As Europe marks two decades of post-communism, Croatia is commemorating a decade since the death of its first president, HDZ leader Franjo Tudjman, who died on December 10th 1999.
"Tudjman was a pure and clear symbol of Croatian democracy. It is wrong to perceive him in any other way," says Milan Beslic, a member of the board of Matica hrvatska, a Croatian cultural and heritage organisation.
Tudjman's legacy is controversial. Many consider him the father of Croatian independence, but as his critics often point out, he faced war crimes allegations, he was a nationalist hardliner who allied with Slobodan Milosevic on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and created a new political climate in Croatia based on corruption, which in turn produced capitalists loyal to the Tudjman system.
Read more about Croatia on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Croatia
Epicure
Bulgaria
Pumpkin head!
If you wish to insult somebody in Bulgarian, you could call him tikvenik – a word whose Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
The Red and White Strings that Welcome Spring in Bulgaria and Romania
I remember walking along Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown on March 2 a few years ago, when I saw a man sporting a small ornament made of red and white thread pinned to his coat lapel. He must be Bulgarian, I thought to myself with a sudden rush of homesickness, but now realize that he may have been Romanian as well.
Full Story
Useful Reads
Bulgaria
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
Full Story
Music
Bulgaria
The Choir that Turned England a Bit Bulgarian
One of the few constant sources of pride for Bulgarians is folk music, and especially singing. But not the kind that, decorated with Oriental beats, often booms in nightclubs, urging the clientele to jump atop tables and chairs and sway their hips around. But the kind that, when heard, mesmerises you and gives you goose bumps. The kind that is haunting with its out-of-this universe quality.
Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs