25 years ago, on April 5, 1992, a new state appeared on the map of Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia. Today it is a small country with big political and socio-economic problems, and then, 25 years ago, soon after the proclamation of political sovereignty in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a bloody interethnic war began, which lasted for three years and claimed thousands of lives of both fighters of armed formations and civilians. residents.
The war in multiethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina goes back centuries. The origins of interethnic conflicts on the territory of this country must be sought in the peculiarities of the historical development of this Balkan region. For several centuries, from the 15th to the 19th centuries, Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the Ottoman Empire. During this time, a significant part of the local Slavic population was Islamized. First of all, the Bogomils who did not belong to the Orthodox or Catholic churches were subjected to Islamization. Many members of the nobility also voluntarily accepted Islam, focusing on the possibility of a career and the preservation of privileges. By the middle of the XVI century. in Bosnian Sandjak, 38.7% of the population consisted of Muslims. In 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina received autonomy status in accordance with the Peace of San Stefano between the Russian and Ottoman empires. However, in the same year, the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which formally remained under Ottoman jurisdiction, was occupied by Austro-Hungarian troops. The Austro-Hungarian authorities changed the priorities of the national policy - if the Ottoman Empire patronized the Bosnian Muslims, then Austria-Hungary provided privileges for the Catholic (Croatian) population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most disadvantaged Serbian Orthodox population in Bosnia and Herzegovina hoped for reunification with Serbia. This goal was pursued by the Bosnian-Serb nationalists, one of whom, Gavrilo Princip, killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914.
After the end of the First World War and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, on October 29, 1918, the creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was proclaimed on the Yugoslav lands, formerly controlled by Austria-Hungary. Soon, on December 1, 1918, the State united with Serbia and Montenegro into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). This is how the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina began as part of a common Yugoslav state. However, after the outbreak of World War II, the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was incorporated into the Independent State of Croatia, created by Croatian nationalists - the Ustashas under the direct patronage of Hitlerite Germany. The Third Reich sought to oppose the Catholic and Muslim population of the Balkans to the Orthodox population. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the emphasis was placed on Croats and Bosnian Muslims. From the latter, the 13th SS Mountain Division "Khanjar" was formed. Over 60% of its personnel were Bosnian Muslims, the rest were Croats and Germans. The "Knajar" division, despite its large size (21,000 servicemen), became more famous in the massacres of civilians - Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, than in hostilities. It is noteworthy that back in 1941, the Bosnian Muslim clergy adopted a resolution condemning calls for violence and violence against the Orthodox and Jewish populations. However, the Nazis, using the authority of the famous Palestinian mufti Amin al-Husseini, who worked closely with the Third Reich, were able to influence the mood of many young Bosnian Muslims and the latter, rejecting the admonitions of traditional leaders, joined the SS division.
The atrocities committed by the SS from the Khanjar division remained in the memory of the Serb population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is a black stripe between various ethno-confessional groups in the region. Of course, there have been interethnic conflicts before, there have been contradictions and clashes, but the policy of purposeful genocide of the Serbian population by the same Slavs professing other religions was tested precisely during the Second World War. After the end of World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the union state as an autonomous republic. The policy pursued by the socialist authorities of Yugoslavia was aimed at eliminating the traditional image of the social organization of Bosnian Muslims. So, in 1946 the Sharia courts were liquidated, in 1950 the wearing of the veil and the burqa was prohibited by law - under the threat of serious sanctions in the form of fines and imprisonment. Naturally, these measures could not be to the liking of many Bosnian Muslims. Nevertheless, in 1961 the Bosnian Muslims were officially granted the status of a nation - "Bosniaks". Josip Tito, who was trying to strengthen the union state, strove to create equal conditions for all the titular peoples of Yugoslavia. In particular, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the principle of the equal appointment of representatives of all three main nations of the republic to civil service positions was observed. The entire second half of the twentieth century. in Bosnia and Herzegovina there was a process of decreasing the proportion of the Orthodox and Catholic population. If in 1961, 42, 89% of Orthodox Christians, 25, 69% of Muslims and 21, 71% of Catholics lived in the republic, then in 1981 Muslims were in the lead among the three main ethno-confessional groups of the republic and accounted for 39, 52% of the population, while Orthodox there were 32, 02%, Catholics - 18, 38%. In 1991, 43.5% of Muslims, 31.2% of Orthodox Christians and 17.4% of Catholics lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, centrifugal processes in the SFRY at the turn of the 1980s - 1990s. affected, of course, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Given the multi-confessional composition of the republic's population, its secession from Yugoslavia could have entailed the most tragic consequences. Nevertheless, the opposition forces pursued their own interests. The differentiation of the political space of Bosnia and Herzegovina began, and not according to ideological, but according to ethno-confessional characteristics. The Muslim Democratic Action Party was created, headed by Aliya Izetbegovic (1925-2003), who came from a poor Muslim aristocratic family, a well-known figure in the religious and political movement of Bosnian Muslims.
Back in 1940, young Alia joined the Young Muslims organization. Subsequently, opponents accused him of recruiting young people during the war years to join the ranks of the SS "Knajar" division. In 1946, Izetbegovic received his first three-year prison term for religious propaganda while serving in the Yugoslav army. However, socialist Yugoslavia was a very soft state. Izetbegovich, who was convicted and served three years of imprisonment, was allowed to enter Sarajevo University in 1949, moreover, to the Faculty of Law, and was allowed to graduate in 1956. Then Izetbegovich worked as a legal adviser, but along the way continued to engage in religious and political activities. In 1970 g.he published the famous "Islamic Declaration", for which he received a very serious sentence - 14 years in prison. The Bosnian Muslims had such a serious leader. Naturally, Izetbegovic broadcast his radical attitudes among the Bosnians, and they were perceived, first of all, by young people, dissatisfied with the numerous social and economic problems of the republic, hoping that the creation of their own state would immediately improve their situation.
The strengthening of the positions of Izetbegovic and his party was associated with the growth of religious fundamentalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Back in the 1960s - 1970s. The SFRY began to develop contacts with Arab countries, which contributed to the gradual cultural influence of the Arab world on Bosnian youth. The radical organizations of the Arab world viewed the Bosnian Muslims as their outpost in the Balkans, therefore, even during the existence of the SFRY, contacts between the Bosnian Islamists and their like-minded people in the countries of the Arab East became stronger and stronger.
After the emergence of the Party of Democratic Action, political organizations of Catholics and Orthodox were established. The Croatian Democratic Commonwealth party was led by Mate Boban (1940-1997, pictured). Unlike Izetbegovic, in his youth he was not an open opponent of the authorities and, moreover, even was a member of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia, but after the restoration of the multi-party system in the country, he headed the right-wing Croatian Democratic Commonwealth. At the same time, the Serbian Democratic Party appeared, headed by the psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic (born 1945).
In addition to nationalists, by 1990 the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia continued to operate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a branch of the Union of Reform Forces, which advocated the preservation of the union state, subject to democratic reforms. However, the communists lost the support of the population, and the reformers could not find it. In the elections to the Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990, only 9% of voters voted for the Communists, and even less for the reformers - 5% of the voters. Most of the seats in the Assembly went to nationalist parties that expressed the interests of the republic's three main ethno-confessional communities. Meanwhile, at the strategic level, there were obvious differences between the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian nationalists on the one hand, and the Serb nationalists on the other.
The Serbian Democratic Party of Radovan Karadzic (pictured) proclaimed its main goal to be the creation of a unified state of the Serbian people. Given the separatist tendencies that triumphed in Slovenia and Croatia, the SDP adhered to the concept of "Little Yugoslavia". Slovenia and Croatia were to withdraw from the SFRY - without Serbian territories. Thus, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Serbian regions of Croatia remained within the unified state. Therefore, the Serbian Democratic Party was categorically against the secession of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia. In the event that Bosnia and Herzegovina nevertheless seceded from Yugoslavia, the Serbian territories of BiH were to remain a part of the Yugoslav state. That is, the republic had to cease to exist within its former borders and separate from its composition the territories inhabited by the Bosnian Serbs.
The Croatian side counted on the annexation of the Croatian lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia. The separatist sentiments of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats were fueled by the leader of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, who planned to include their lands into independent Croatia. Bosnian Muslims, who constituted the majority of the republic's population, however, did not initially have a serious potential for independent action. They did not have the powerful support of fellow tribesmen from other republics, like the Serbs and Croats. Therefore, Aliya Izetbegovich took a wait and see attitude.
On October 15, 1991, the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo voted for the republic's sovereignty, despite numerous objections from Serb deputies. After that, the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared a boycott of the parliament and on October 24, 1991 convened the Assembly of the Serbian people. On November 9, 1991, a referendum was held in the Serbian regions of the republic, in which 92% voted for the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina to remain in a single state with Serbia, Montenegro and the Serbian territories of Croatia. On November 18, 1991, the Croats proclaimed the creation of the Croatian Commonwealth of Herceg-Bosna as a separate entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Around the same time, the Croatian Democratic Commonwealth, whose leaders already understood how events would develop in the future, began to form their own armed detachments.
On January 9, 1992, the Assembly of the Serbian People proclaimed the creation of the Republika Srpska. It was announced that it will include all Serbian autonomous regions and other communities, as well as regions in which the Serb people were in the minority due to the genocide carried out against them during the Second World War. Thus, the Republika Srpska intended to include in its composition the regions where by 1992 the majority of the population was already Muslim.
Meanwhile, on February 29 - March 1, 1992, another referendum took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina - this time, on the issue of state sovereignty. With a turnout of 63.4%, 99.7% of voters voted in support of the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such a low turnout was due to the fact that the Serbs boycotted the referendum. That is, the decision on independence was made by the blocked Croats and Bosnian Muslims. On April 5, 1992, the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was officially proclaimed. The very next day, April 6, 1992, the European Union recognized the political sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On April 7, Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized as an independent US state. The response to the proclamation of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the proclamation of the independence of the Republika Srpska on April 7, 1992. The late Bosnian Croats declared the independence of Herceg Bosna on July 3, 1992, when an armed conflict was already raging in the republic.
