| |
|---|---|
 Flag of Serbs of Croatia as defined by theSerb National Council | |
| Total population | |
| 123,892 (2021)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| Croatian andSerbian (standard varieties ofSerbo-Croatian) | |
| Religion | |
| Serbian Orthodox Church | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina,Serbs of Vojvodina,Serbs of Montenegro,Serbs of Hungary,Kosovo Serbs |
| Part of a series on |
| Serbs |
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Native Titular nation
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Related nations OtherSouth Slavs |
TheSerbs of Croatia (Serbo-Croatian:Срби у Хрватској /Srbi u Hrvatskoj) orCroatian Serbs (Serbo-Croatian:хрватски Срби /hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largestnational minority inCroatia. The community is predominantlyEastern Orthodox Christian by religion, as opposed to theCroats who areCatholic.
In some regions of modern-day Croatia, mainly in southernDalmatia, ethnicSerbs possibly have been present from theEarly Middle Ages. Serbs from modern-day Serbia andBosnia-Herzegovina started actively migrating to Croatia at a time when theHabsburg monarchy was engaged in a series of wars against theOttoman Empire.Several migration waves happened after 1538, whenFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, granted them the right to settle on the territory of theMilitary Frontier. In exchange for land and exemption from taxation, they had to conduct military service and participate in the protection of the border. They populated theDalmatian Hinterland,Lika,Kordun,Banija,Slavonia, and westernSyrmia. From the beginning of the 20th century, theCroat-Serb Coalition—led by the CroatFrano Supilo and the SerbSvetozar Pribićević—governed theKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia until thedissolution ofAustria-Hungary. After thecreation of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 (later renamed toYugoslavia), a few thousand Serbs moved to Croatian territory. DuringWorld War II, Serbs were targeted for extermination as part ofgenocide by theUstashas in theNazi Germanpuppet stateIndependent State of Croatia (NDH).
After the beginning of thebreakup of Yugoslavia and Croatia'sproclamation of independence, the Serbs living in Croatia rebelled against theCroatian government and proclaimed theRepublic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) on parts of Croatian territory, which led to theCroatian War of Independence (1991–95). Several RSK leaders have been later convicted ofwar crimes by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). After theCroatian Army'sOperation Storm, the RSK ceased to exist, its territory was reincorporated into Croatia, and approximately 200,000 Serbs fled from the country. In the post-war period, Serbs were exposed todiscriminatory measures and rhetoric, including barriers to employment, property rights, anduse of the minority languages.Denial of the genocide in the NDH has also been a prominent issue at times. Following the2020 parliamentary election,Boris Milošević, member of theIndependent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and President of theSerb National Council, was elected one of the fourDeputy Prime Ministers. Shortly afterwards, the Croatian authorities and representatives of the Serbs marked the events of the 1991–95 war together. The Operation Storm refugees were the largest refugee population in Europe before the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2]
Manyprominent Croatian Serbs have become internationally recognized in their fields, such asNikola Tesla,Milutin Milanković,Sava Šumanović,Rade Šerbedžija,Siniša Mihajlović andPeja Stojaković. According to the 2021 census, 123,892 Serbs were living in Croatia (3.2% of the population) which are recognized as a national minority by theCroatian Constitution and therefore have three permanent seats in theCroatian Parliament.
Traditional elements of their identity are theSerbian Orthodox faith,Cyrillic script and military history, while modern elements arelanguage andliterature, civic, social and political values, concern for ethnic status and national organisation, and celebration of theLiberation of Yugoslavia.[3]
According to the 2021 census, there were 123,892 ethnicSerbs living in Croatia, 3.2% of the total population. Their number was reduced by more than two-thirds in the aftermath of the 1991–95War in Croatia as the 1991 pre-war census had reported 581,663 Serbs living in Croatia, 12.2% of the total population.
In the 10th-centuryDe Administrando Imperio (DAI), the lands ofKonavle,Zahumlje andPagania (which included parts of southern Dalmatia now in Croatia) is described as inhabited by Serbs who immigrated there froman area near Thessaloniki previously arrived there fromWhite Serbia.[4][5] However, some scholars likeFrancis Dvornik,Tibor Živković, andNeven Budak doubt such a claim and consider that a closer reading of theDAI suggests that the Constantine VII's consideration about the regional population ethnic identity is based on Serbian political rule during the expansion ofČaslav in the 10th century and does not indicate ethnic origin.[6][7][8][9]John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. andNoel Malcolm believe that what is today western and proper Bosnia and Herzegovina was part ofCroatia, while the rest was divided between Croatia andSerbia.[10][11] Some members of theSerbian royal family took refuge in Croatia amid dynastic rivalry and war with theFirst Bulgarian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries.[12]
Stefan Vojislav (r. 1018–1043) ruled a territory that included the coastal region fromSton in the north down toSkadar by 1040 after his rebellion against Byzantine rule.[13]Mihailo Vojislavljević (1050–1081) built the St. Michael's Church inSton, which has a fresco depicting him.[14] Croatia entered union with Hungary in the beginning of the 12th century.[15] Serbia also entered close relations with Hungary (Béla II married a Serbian princess,Helena).Beloš, a member of the Serbian royal family, became the "Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1142.[16] By the early 13th century, the territory of Hum was under the jurisdiction of the Western i.e. Roman Church,[17] while theSerbian Orthodox Church established the diocese of Hum in 1219, seated at Ston, that linked thePelješac peninsula with Hum which lasted until 1321 when Serbian Orthodox bishop had to withdraw from Ston.[18] Serbia continued to hold parts of southernmost Dalmatia into the 14th century. In 1333 King of SerbiaStefan Dušan sold the Pelješac peninsula and the coastland between Ston and Dubrovnik to the Republic of Ragusa, while Ragusa had to pay an annual tribute and also had to guarantee freedom of worship for Eastern Orthodox believers in this territory.[19]
According to Yugoslav ethnologistJovan Erdeljanović, members of theOrlović clan settled inLika andSenj in 1432, later joining theUskoks.[20] In 1436 on theCetina, Croats, Vlachs, and Serbs appeared at the same time living on the estate ofIvan Frankopan.[21] Serbs are reported in Hungarian documents as living in Croatia in 1437 (three documents call the Serbs in Syrmia and Slavonia asRascianos–Rascians)[22] and on 22 November 1447, the Hungarian King Ladislaus V wrote a letter which mentioned: "Rascians, who live in our cities ofMedvedgrad,Rakovac, bothKalinik and inKoprivnica".[23]Matthias Corvinus complained in a letter from 1462 that 200,000 peoples during the previous three years had been taken from his country by Turks, but this information was mistakenly used in Serbian and other historiographies as a reference for Serb migration to Hungary.[24][25] After the Ottoman conquests of Serbia and capture ofSmederevo fortress in 1459 and fall of Bosnia 1463 different populations of Eastern Orthodox Christians moved intoSyrmia and by 1483 perhaps 200,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians moved into central Slavonia and Syrmia. The Turkish conquest of Bosnia also pushed refugees and migrants into eastern Croatia.[26][27]
The origins of the Serbs of Croatia in the modern era lie primarily in the historical region ofHerzegovina (includingOld Herzegovina), from whichOrthodox families who spoke theEastern Herzegovinian dialect ofShtokavian migrated en masse to the north and west[28] during the 16th and 17th centuries. The ethnolinguistically Slavic settlers were variously termed by contemporary sources asRascians,Vlachs,Morlachs,Serbs, orUskoks.[29] Scholars such as Marko Šarić have stressed that the nameVlach was used not in an ethnic context, but rather to designate "a particular [pastoral] social structure and way of life."[30] The group's ethnogenesis in Herzegovina was the outcome of interactions between Slavs and the original Vlachs, who mixed with the surrounding Slavic-speaking population while other Slavs in the region adopted pastoralism as well.[31] Šarić characterizes the resulting migrant stream as "heterogenous" in nature.[32]
As many former inhabitants of the Austrian-Ottoman borderland fled northwards or were captured by the Ottoman invaders, they left unpopulated areas behind them, which were filled by the newcomers. In the first half of the sixteenth century, settlements of Eastern Orthodox Christians were established in modern-day western Croatia[33] as well as the Ottoman part of Slavonia; in the second part of the century, they moved to the Austrian part of Slavonia.[34][35] In 1550 they established theLepavina Monastery[36] in northern Croatia. Other "Vlach" settlements in the region included Mali i Veliki Poganac (Poganetz), mentioned in 1610, and Marča Monastery (Eparchy of Marča).[37]
TheHabsburg Empire encouraged people from theOttoman Empire to settle as free peasant soldiers, establishing theMilitary Frontiers (Militärgrenze) in 1522 (hence they were known asGrenzers,Krajišnici).[38][39][40][41] The militarized frontier, which included territory in present-day Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, and Romania, was intended to serve as a buffer against Ottoman incursions.[39] Colonists were granted small tracts of land, were exempted from some obligations, and were to retain a share of all war booty.[39] The Grenzers elected their captains (vojvode) and magistrates (knezovi). All Eastern Orthodox settlers were promised freedom of worship.[42][43] By 1538, theCroatian andSlavonian Military Frontier were established,[39] and colonization of Habsburg lands continued well into the seventeenth century. The Military frontiers were virtually identical to modern-day Serbian settlements (war-timeRepublic of Serbian Krajina).[44] Serbian communities were dotted about until the twentieth century, preserving memories of their origin.[24]
There was an additional population movement from the Ottoman territories intoVenetian Dalmatia during the late 17th century. The Venetian government welcomed the immigrants, as they protected possessions against the Ottomans. The so-calledMorlachs, former Ottoman subjects, helped Venice triple its size in Dalmatia. In July 1684, around 9000 Serbs settled around the borders of Dalmatia. By the end of the same year, 1500 Serb families had moved from theDalmatian Hinterland into Venetian territory, and a similar migration happened in March 1685, when 600 families moved fromCetina under their chieftain Peraičić.[45] In the summer of 1685,Stjepan I. Cosmi, the Archbishop of Split, wrote that Morlach leaderStojan Janković had brought 300 families with him to Dalmatia, and also that around Trogir and Split, there were 5000 refugees from Ottoman lands without food; this was seen as a serious threat to the defense of Dalmatia. Grain sent by the Pope proved insufficient, and expeditions were launched into Ottoman territory.[46]
Throughout the history of the Serbs in Dalmatia, the Catholic clergy, particularly through the efforts of the Archbishop of Split, sought to assert their supreme authority over the "schismatics."[47] Some scholars have argued that the formation of the Serbian identity of the migrants' descendants in Croatia only began in the 18th century under the influence of theSerbian Orthodox Church (SPC). Most of the local Eastern Orthodox priests of theMetropolitanate of Karlovci were educated in monasteries outside Croatia under the guidance of SPC clergy who came to the southwestern region of theHabsburg monarchy during theGreat Migrations of the Serbs (1690–1739). In 1695, Serbian PatriarchArsenije III Čarnojević organized the SPC's hierarchy in Croatia. The territory of theMilitary Frontier was 'subjugated' to theEparchy of Gornji Karlovac, andVaraždin Generalate and the rest of Croatia to theEparchy of Pakrac (since 1705). Thus, theSerbianisation of the Orthodox settlers of southern Croatia was in part the result of the hierarchical linkage between them and the SPC in northern Croatia.[48]
Among the oldest Eastern Orthodox churches in Croatia are the monasteries ofKrupa,Krka andDragović, and other smaller churches (in settlementsKula Atlagića,Pađene,Golubić,Miranje, Biljane,Ostrovica, Karin,Biovičino Selo,Đevrske,Kistanje,Žagrović,Radučić,Mokro Polje,Benkovac, Dragišić-Grabovci, Bratiškovci, Kosovo-Markovac, Morpolača,Žegar,Plavno,Drniš,Ervenik, Kolarina, Brgud, Vrbnik,Kričke,Islam Grčki, Dobropoljci among others). These churches were converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the mid-16th century and later, during the Ottoman period were forbidden to build new Christian churches.[49] The claim byNikodim Milaš that they date back to the 14-15th century is controversial and unlikely, as they display Romanesque and Gothic architectural features that are unusual for Byzantine-Orthodox churches. Additionally, Eastern Orthodoxy did not exist in Croatia before the Ottoman conquest, which further challenges such dating of these churches.[50][51][52]
In the 1860s, Serbian thought began spreading among the Eastern Orthodox Christians in theKingdom of Dalmatia. At first through the religious denomination, and over time as a sign of national affiliation. There was also a brief occurrence when certain Catholic intellectuals, predominantly inDubrovnik, were won over by the Serbian thought. They were known as "Serb Catholics".[53] The reason for this was that Dalmatia and theKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, at the time ruled byKároly Khuen-Héderváry, were extremely disadvantaged so intellectuals did not want to link themselves to them, while at the same time, they found newly created Kingdoms ofSerbia andMontenegro with their idea of unification of the South Slavs, appealing. With the creation ofYugoslavia, their political goals were achieved, and after that, these "one-time Serbs" disappeared from the political stage.[54] Such developments in the spread of Serbian thought in the Croatian lands were the result of Serbian politicians' plans dating back to the first half of the 19th century when Serbia wasn't an independent country, but a province of theOttoman Empire. According to the 1844Ilija Garašanin's Načertanije, they intended to establish a Serbian Empire on the territory of the collapsed Ottoman Empire. At first, its borders were supposed to be the borders of the Ottoman Empire and the Slavs in them, but they gradually expanded to the territory of present-day Croatia (including the Military Frointaire and Dalmatia).[55] To accomplish this, the ground had to be prepared, so that diplomacy and the military would have a stronger base for taking action. The basis for this was the Serbian state law, and where it wasn't possible to appropriate the land with it, the argument of nationality, and when that argument couldn't be applied, then it was necessary to "create" the Serbs among the target population, if not among all, then among the majority. The main target was Eastern Orthodox Christians in the neighbouring, non-Serb countries. In 1848/50, the Serbian government organized a secret network of agents who propagated the Serbian ideas. Those agents were concealed as cultural workers. The famous agents wereGeorgije Nikolajević andStjepan Mitrov Ljubiša.[55] The 'creation' of new Serbs was carried out by identification of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina only with Serbs.[56] Another argument used in the areas with no Eastern Orthodox Christians was identifying people who spokeShtokavian with the Serbs. The idea "all Shtokavians are Serbs" was created by German Slavists in the 1850s, and was promoted by the Austrian government who wanted to equalize Croats and Serbs so that it could more easily rule the Croatian lands and in the next stage conquer Serbia and penetrate acrossMacedonia toThessaloniki.[57] The idea was that it was easier to "govern Belgrade and Zagreb if the same language was spoken in them". Geostrategic position of Belgrade to Zagreb further contributed to favouring the Serbs whom Austrians did not perceive as a danger, unlike Croats who had their language, politicians, national consciousness, laws, military tradition and prepared army, as well as internationaltreaties which have affirmed their rights, so Austrians needed someone (Serbs) to discipline the Croats. The same was done by Hungary which became a strong political factor after 1848 and wished to expand into theSoutheast Europe, which was particularly strong during the reign ofKároly Khuen-Héderváry over Croatia.[57]
The revolutionary 1848 and the process of building a modern Croatian nation resulted in closer cooperation between Croats and Serbs and recognition of their equality in the sense ofIllyrian Movement (also known as the Croatian National Revival) andYugoslavian ideas. In the 1830s, ideas of the Illyrian Movement spread to Dalmatia. In 1835, Božidar Petranović began publishing theSerbo-Dalmatian Magazine. In the following thirty years, Croats and Serbs worked together in the 'national movement' (by using this neutral name they avoided conflicts) against the Austro-Hungarian unitarian andItalian nationalists. However, sinceVuk Karadžić,Ilija Garašanin andJovan Subotić started writing of Dalmatia as a "Serbian land", and the recognition of Serbia as an independent state in 1878Congress of Berlin, the differences between Croats and Serbs in Dalmatia increased. Following Croat enthusiasm with the successful 1878Austro-Hungarian conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during which many Croatian soldiers died, and them seeking unification of Dalmatia and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, the conflict between Croats and Serbs was inevitable.[58] In 1879, Serbs from Bukovica voted for the Italian candidate instead of CroatMiho Klaić.[58] This event was called by People's Party's supportersBukovica betrail. Shortly thereafter, separate Croatian and Serbian parties emerged, but Croatian parties managed to keep the majority in theDiet of Dalmatia while Serbs started cooperating with the Italian nationalists.[56] Before this, Serbs in Dalmatia started emphasizing Serbianism more often, and for the Croats emphasize "Slovene, Yugoslavian, Slavic, Illyrian", whichMihovil Pavlinović considered destructive to Croatia so he used only attributes "Croatian" in his political program.[59]
BanIvan Mažuranić abolished Serbian education autonomy, which was carried out by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as part of his educational reforms and liberal endeavours. Despite the interpretation of this move as anti-Serbian, some of the most senior governmental positions during Mažuranić's reign were held by the Serbs;Jovan Živković was Deputy Ban,Livije Radivojević president of the Table of Seven (Supreme Court), andNikola Krestić President of the Croatian Parliament.[60]
During his 20-year-long reign, marked by violence and aggressivemagyarization, BanKároly Khuen-Héderváry encouraged ethnic conflicts between Croats and Serbs. He introduced Cyrillic in grammar school and equalized it with Latin, and allowed the use of Serbian flags. He has changed the official language in the Kingdom from Croatian to "Croato-Serbian" and appointed SerbVaso Đurđević to the position of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament. In 1884, Parliament enacted the so-called "Serbian laws" by which SPC gained the right to independently conduct education on the Croatian territory. In addition, Khuen-Héderváry financially assisted the Serbs. During his reign, four out of eight Croatian county prefects, Deputy Ban and Speaker of the Croatian Parliament were Serbs, and Serbs occupied the highest ranks in the judiciary. The main goal of favouring the Serbs was to encourage inter-ethnic (Croat/Serb) conflicts which would lead to the prevention of Croatian resistance against the Austrian Empires' state policies.[61][62] By the end of the 19th century, on theVladimir Matijević's initiative, Serbs established several institutions such as theSerbian Bank in Zagreb, the Association of Serbian Agricultural Cooperatives and theSerbian Business Association 'Privrednik'.[63]
In 1894, Srbobran, a journal of Serbs in Croatia, which was funded by the Serbian government,[64] published an article titledOur First Decennial in which the author described the awakening of Croatian national consciousness and aspirations to Western values among the Eastern Orthodox Christians and the lack of indoctrination with Serbianism among the clergy; "In the Serbian church, we found many priests who didn't know who theSaint Sava was, let alone they wanted to be Sava's apostles, neither safeguard his behests, Eastern Orthodox faith and Serbian nationality nor nourish their flock within them. Among them, we found "Orthodox Croats" who preached from the Serbian enlightener Sava's ambon Croatian thought, and Latin was more dear to them then Cyrlic."[65][66] The Croatian-Serbian conflict culminated on 10 August 1902, when, after years of controversial writing,[67] Srbobran published a text titledTo Investigation Yours or Ours in which authorNikola Stojanović, President of the Serbian Academic SocietyZora, denied the very existence of the Croatian nation and predicted the result of the conflict between Croats and Serbs, calling for destruction: "That struggle must lead to the investigation ours or yours. One party must fall. Their geographical position, circumstances in which they live everywhere mixed with the Serbs, and the process of general evolution where the idea of Serbianism means progress, guarantees us that those [falling] will be Croats." Enraged crowds reacted by burning Serbian flags and attacking Serb-owned shops, and buildings used by the Serbian institutions.[68][69]
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Formation of the so-calledNew Course Policies in the first decade of the 20th century was a turning point for the resumption of cooperation between Croats and Serbs to fight for common interests, as confirmed by the 1905 Zadar Resolution when the Croats agreed on broad concessions regarding flags, education, language and equality of Serbs. This led to the creation of theCroat-Serb Coalition (HSK) whose policy was based on cooperation with Hungary, the Italian parties in Dalmatia and the Serbs in Croatia and Slavonia, guaranteeing broad concessions regarding the Serb minority in Croatia.[70][71] Serbs played a disproportionately large role in the political life of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Electoral units were not created according to the population but were gerrymandered according to the Governments' interests so, for example, in the1913 parliamentary election, theCroatian Peasant Party received 12,917 votes and only 3 seats, while theSerb Independent Party received 11,704 votes and 17 seats. Serbs Mišćević, Pribićević, Krajnović, and Budisavljević received 1,062 votes, which was enough for all four of them to get elected, while Croat M. Uroić from the Party of Rights won 1,138 votes but hadn't been elected.[72] According to the 1910 census, 644,955 Serbs lived on the territory of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, accounting for 24.5% of the population. In 1900, 95,000 Serbs, accounting for 16% of the population, lived in the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Immediately upon the outbreak of theWorld War I, all organizations that the government considered favoured the unification of South Slavs or Serbia, which was on the side of theAllied Powers, were banned.Josip Frank's associates took advantage of some provocations and the anger of the people after theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by SerbGavrilo Princip and organized anti-Serbian demonstrations. After a stone was thrown on a parade in which the image of Franz Ferdinand was carried through Zagreb, many cafés and gathering places of pro-Yugoslav politicians as well as Serb-owned shops were demolished.[73][74] Croat-Serb Coalition MP's were also attacked.[75] On the other hand, members of theSocial Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia held a rally in which they spoke against the violence.[76] Simultaneously with the large anti-Serbian protests held in Vienna, Budapest and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which there were wounded and dead, protests against pro-Yugoslav oriented citizens were held in many Croatian cities, includingDubrovnik, in which protesters attackedSerbian Society "Dušan Magnificant"[77] Riots have been reported inZadar,Metković,Bjelovar,Virovitica andKonavle where protesters burned the Serbian flag. InĐakovo andSlavonski Brod riots become so violent that the army intervention was requested.[76] In addition, a curfew was imposed in the town ofPetrinja. InVukovar andZemun police managed to prevent more clashes. MostSerbs in Croatia approved assassination. Cases of provocation, such as showing images of KingPeter I of Serbia, joy, insults and celebrations, have been reported.[78][79] 14 Serbs were arrested in Zadar for celebrating the assassination.[80]
Following the end of World War I, previously independentState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs andKingdom of Serbia merged in 1918 into theKingdom of Yugoslavia. The creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led to the formation of stronger ties between Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with Serbia. Immediately after 1918, the influx of Serbs from Serbia into the territory of Croatia, in particular in the areas ofSyrmia andLika-Krbava County, increased.[81] Relative growth in the number of Serb citizens was recorded inVirovitica (35% increase), andSyrmia andModruš-Rijeka counties, mainly due to the migration of Serbian war veterans who fought onMacedonian front to Slavonia during agrarian reform which was organized by the authorities. Thus, 25 settlements for volunteers were erected, and 8,000 families settled on the land in the areas of agrarian offices inOsijek andVukovar.[82] Although most of the Serbian parties in Croatia have been co-operating withCroatian Peasant Party in the struggle against Serbian unitarianism for years, following the creation ofBanovina of Croatia in 1939, part of Serbs showed a lack of willingness to live in a country with Croat majority. There were also requests for joining the Lika and Kordun districts with theVrbas Banovina which had a Serb majority.[83]
Following theInvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, theAxis powers occupied the entire territory of theKingdom of Yugoslavia and established a puppet state, the so-calledIndependent State of Croatia (NDH) on the territory of present-dayBosnia and Herzegovina andCroatia. TheUstaše government saw Serbs, Jews, Romanis and antifascist Croats as a disruptive element and enemies of the Croatian people, and immediately started with their prosecution. One-third of Serbs were to be killed, one-third expelled and one-third forcibly converted to Catholicism, according to a formula devised by Ustaše ministers.[84] Upon the establishment of the NDH, Ustaše officials immediately began making harsh statements against the Serbs.[85] Although some of the prominent Serbs first offered cooperation to the new Ustaše government, Serbs were outlawed. During the first months of NDH's existence, numerous legal decisions were made against the Serbs: they had to leave the public service, had to move to the northern parts of Zagreb,[86] could walk through Zagreb only during the day,[87] had to wear a badge with the letter "P" (stood for "Pravoslavni", meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians),[88] The name of their faith was changed from Serbian Orthodox to Greek-Eastern, and usage of the Cyrillic script was prohibited.[89] Ustaše were making lists of Serbs which they used for deportations toSerbia. About 175,000 Serbs were deported from NDH to Serbia during the first two years of NDH's existence.[90] The regime systematically and brutally massacred Serbs in villages in the countryside, using a variety of tools.[91] In addition, Nazi-style concentration camps were set up for enemies of the state, the most notorious beingJasenovac where some 50,000 Serbs were killed.[92]Sisak andJastrebarsko concentration camp were speciallyformed for children.[93][94][95] During the war, around 300,000 Serbs are estimated to have been murdered under theUstashe regime as a result of theirgenocide campaign.[96]Diana Budisavljević, a humanitarian of Austrian descent, carried out rescue operations and saved more than 15,000 children from Ustashe camps.[97][98]
Budisavljević and her team was assisted by theCroatian Red Cross and theZagreb Archdiocese branch ofCaritas. Thousands of rescued Serb children were placed with ethnic Croat families from Zagreb and rural communities.[99]
The Ustasha policy towards Serbs further drove a number of them to join eitherChetniks or theYugoslav Partisans who were particularly strong in the regions ofLika,Kordun andBanovina. In 1941–42, the majority of Partisans in Croatia were Serbs, but by October 1943 the majority were Croats. This change was partly due to the decision of a keyCroatian Peasant Party member,Božidar Magovac, to join the Partisans in June 1943, and partly due to the surrender of Italy in September 1943.[100][101][102][103] Furthermore, Ustashe authorities ceding Northern Dalmatia to fascist Italy, Italian terror of the population and misrule of the Ustashe and Axis invaders would further push Croats towards the partisans. At the moment of the capitulation of Italy to the Allies, the Serbs and Croats were participating equally according to their respective population sizes as it was in Yugoslavia as a whole.[104] Eventually, Serbian percentage dropped in favour of Croats by the end of the war amounting to 28.6% in 1944 in Croatia. The Serb contribution to Croatian Partisans represented more than their proportion of the local population.[105][106]
After the invasion of Yugoslavia by Axis forces, Serbian uprisings broke out under the Chetnik leadership inGračac,Srb,Donji Lapac,Drvar andBosansko Grahovo. The uprisings in the NDH were a reaction to the genocide policies of the Ustaše towards the Serbs.[107][108] The policy of the Chetniks under the leadership ofDraža Mihailović varied from the struggle with the Nazis to tactical or selective collaboration with them in different periods throughout the war. The Chetnik movement operated as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control.[109] They had collaboration agreements with theItalians in occupiedDalmatia and, after theItalian capitulation in September 1943, with theGermans directly.[110] They also collaborated with some of the Ustashe forces in northern Bosnia and they fought together against the Yugoslav Partisans during theCase White.[110] Contracting parties obliged to a joint struggle against the Partisans, in return, Serb villages would be protected by the NDH authorities together with the Chetniks from "attacks by communists, so-called Partisans".[111] The goal of the Chetniks, based on a 1941 directive, was the creation of an ethnically homogeneousGreater Serbia. The largest Chetnik massacres took place in eastern Bosnia within the NDH where they preceded any significant Ustashe operations.[112] In the territories they controlled, Chetniks committedgenocide[113][114] against the Croat and Muslim civilian populations.[115][116][117] Estimates of the number ofdeaths caused by the Chetniks in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina range from 50,000 to 68,000.[118] In April 1943,Đujić's Chetniks set up a prison and execution site in the village of Kosovo (todayBiskupija), near Knin.[119] Thousands of local civilians, (both Croats and even Serb Anti-Fascists) including women and children, as well as captured Partisans, were held and mistreated at this prison, while hundreds of prisoners (as many as over 1,000[120]) were tortured and killed at an execution site near a ravine close to the camp.[121] Chetnik propaganda claimed that the Partisan resistance consisted of Jews.[122] SomeJews who hid in the countryside were killed and robbed by Chetniks.[123] As the Chetniks increased their cooperation with the Germans, their attitude toward the Jews in the areas under their control deteriorated, and they identified the Jews with the hated Communists. There were many instances of Chetniks murdering Jews or handing them over to the Germans.[124]
A certain change in relations towards Serbs in NDH took place in the spring of 1942 on German demand, as the Germans realized that the Ustaše policy towards Serbs strengthened their rebellion, which was putting pressure on the German army that had to send more of its troops to the NDH territory.[125] Afterwards, Ustaše founded theCroatian Orthodox Church and Serbs were recruited to theCroatian Home Guard units.[126] Ustaše stopped with deportations of Serbs and their forced conversions to Catholicism. However, these measures did not significantly affect the Serb rebellion. The establishment of the Church was done to try and pacify the state as well as toCroatisize the remaining Serb population once the Ustaše realized that the complete eradication of Serbs in the NDH was unattainable. Persecution of Serbs continued, however, but was less intense.[127] At the beginning of 1942, NDH authorities started making agreements with the Chetniks to avoid conflicts and coordinate actions against the Yugoslav Partisans.[128][129] In 1944 the Chetniks recognized the sovereignty of the Independent State of Croatia and became a legalized movement in it.[130] The necessary ammunition and provisions were supplied to the Chetniks by the Ustaše military. Chetniks who were wounded in such operations would be cared for in NDH hospitals, while the orphans and widows of Chetniks killed in action would be supported by the Ustaše state. The agreements did not stop crimes against Serbs by the Ustaše or against Muslims and Croats by the Chetniks. In early May 1945 Chetnik forces withdrew through Ustaše-held Zagreb; many of these were later killed, along with captured Ustaše, by the Partisans as part of theBleiburg repatriations. On 8 May 1945, Yugoslav Partisans entered Zagreb, which marked the collapse of the Ustaše regime and the liberation of Croatia from the Nazi occupation. Following the end of the war, Croatia entered union with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia and formed theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
During the Second World War, at the Second and Third sessions of the National Anti-Fascist Council of the Peoples Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) held in October 1943 and May 1944 respectively, the equality of the Serbian and Croatian nations, as constituent nations of the federal unit of Croatia, was recognized in every aspect.[131] Later, in 1963, the Croatian Constitution did not mention the Serbs in Croatia as a constituent nation of SR Croatia. Constitution of 1974 defined Croatia as a "national state of Croatian people, state of Serbian people in Croatia and state of other nationalities that live in it".[citation needed]
Amid rising Serbian nationalism and tensions between Yugoslav republics during thebreakup of Yugoslavia, on 8 July 1989 Serbs held a rally inKnin during which numerous Chetnik symbols were exhibited and a JNA military intervention against Croatia was invoked. With the introduction of the multiparty system, the first ethnic Serb parties were founded in Croatia, the largest beingSerb Democratic Party (SDS). Soon afterwards, extremist leaders of the Serb movements in Lika, Northern Dalmatia, Kordun, and Podunavlje called for armed rebellion against the Croatian government, and violence against Croats and refused to recognize legally elected Croatian authorities.[132] By this point, several opposition parties in Serbia, such asVojislav Šešelj'sSerbian Radical Party, were openly calling for aGreater Serbia that would incorporate Serbs living in different regions of Yugoslavia into one state, rejecting the then existing boundaries of the republics as the artificial creation of Tito's Partisans. The crisis in Yugoslavia was further fueled by Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević, who supported these groups. Milošević "endorsed aSerbian nationalist agenda" and "exploited a growing wave of Serbian nationalism to strengthencentralised rule in theSFRY".[133] The republics of Croatia and Slovenia eventually sought to secede from Yugoslavia following disagreements between the republics regarding the structure of the federal government.[134]
Tension grew following theCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ) 's victory in the1990 general election, led byFranjo Tudjman, since one of its political goals was Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.Jovan Rašković, leader of SDS, refused to participate in the work of theCroatian Parliament in May 1990. Some prominent Serbian politicians and scientists, such asSimo Rajić andJovan Bamburać, called for coexistence, de-escalation and peace, while others organized Serb parties in the Croatian government-controlled areas, likeMilan Đukić, while others, likeVeljko Džakula, unsuccessfully tried to organize the parties in the rebelled areas, but their work was prevented by Serb nationalists.[135] On 17 August 1990, part of the Croatian Serbs, supported by Serbia, rebelled against Croatian government in the so-calledLog Revolution.
On 22 December 1990, the Croatian Parliament ratified a new constitution in which Serbs were classified as anational minority.[136][137][138][139][140] Previously Serbs were considered autochthonous constituent of Croatia. In the first paragraph of Article 12, Croatian was specified as the official language and alphabet, and dual-language road signs were torn down even in Serb-majority areas.[141] Furthermore, a number of Serbs were removed from the bureaucracies and the police and replaced by ethnic Croats.[141] Many Serbs in government lost their jobs, and HDZ made themselves target of Serbian propaganda by having party members attempting to rehabilitate the WWII Croatian fascist movement Ustaše, or by saying that the numbers of people killed inJasenovac, one of the largestextermination camp in Europe, were inflated.[142] The proclamation of the new constitution was considered by Serbian leaders as evidence of Croat hostility towards Serbs. Thus, SDS, which rejected the new constitution,[141] began building its national governmental entity to preserve rights that Serbs saw as being stripped away and to enhance the sovereignty of the Croatian Serbs.[143] A Norwegian historian Øyvind Hvenekilde Seim stated that status of Serbs in Croatia, who made important contributions to Croatian cultural, scientific, and political history, was annulled by actions of president Franjo Tuđman during the 1990s.[144]Sabrina P. Ramet wrote that Tuđman's regime "promoted a traditionalist and exclusive vision of Croatia" as a Croat state in which Serbs were "unwelcome", while journalistChris Hedges claimed to have transcript documents of a meeting that supposedly showed Tuđman had "planned ethnic cleansing and other war crimes", including "Croatia’s final solution" of its Serbian problem.[145] Under the influence of propaganda and with the support fromSerbia as well as in response to actions by President Tudjman's administration,[146] rebelled Serbs established an unrecognized state calledRepublic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) in hopes of achieving independence and complete self-governance from Croatia. As the popularity of the unification of RSK with Serbia into a Greater Serbia increased, the rebellion against Croatia became more intense. The RSK hadde facto control over one-third of Croatian territory during its existence between 1991 and 1995 but failed to gain any international recognition. According to theICTY, the RSK implemented policies "which advanced the objective to forcibly and permanently remove the majority of Croat and other non-Serb populations from approximately the one-third of Croatia".[147]
In the spring of 1991, anopen war broke out. Serb forces, in cooperation with the local Serb authorities, commenced persecutions to drive the Croat and other non-Serb populations from areas such as Krajina, controlled by rebelled Serbs.[147] Nearly all non-Serbs were expelled; between 170,000 (according to the ICTY), 250,000 (according toHuman Rights Watch) and 500,000 (according to theUNHCR),[148][149][150] and hundreds of Croat and other non-Serb civilians were killed.[147][148] There were numerous instances ofwar crimes against Croat civilians and prisoners of war perpetrated by Serb and Yugoslav forces in Croatia.[151] Among them, theDalj massacre,[152] theLovas killings,[153][154] theBaćin massacre,[152] theVoćin massacre,[152][155] theVukovar massacre, theŠkabrnja massacre, theTovarnik massacre, theŠiroka Kula massacre,Petrinja killings and theZagreb rocket attacks. According to theCroatian Association of Prisoners in Serbian Concentration Camps, a total of 8,000 Croatian civilians andprisoners of war (a large number after the fall ofVukovar) went through Serb prison camps such asVelepromet camp,Sremska Mitrovica camp,Stajićevo camp,Begejci camp and others where they were subjected to abuse and torture. A total of 300 people died in them.[156]
Meanwhile, Serbs living in Croatian towns, especially those near the front lines, were subjected to various forms of discrimination and harassment.[157] Croatian Serbs in Eastern and Western Slavonia and parts of the Krajina, were also forced to flee or were expelled by Croatian forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers.[158] The Croatian Government sought to stop such occurrences and were not a part of the Government's policy.[159] War crimes were also committed by Croatian forces against Serb civilians. Serb prisoners were detained and tortured in camps such asLora,Pakračka Poljana, andMarino Selo.[160] The war ended with a Croatian military success inOperation Storm in 1995 and subsequent peaceful reintegration of the remaining renegade territory ineastern Slavonia in 1998 as a result of the signedErdut Agreement from 1995. Local Serbs, on the ground that the Agreement established theSerb National Council and gained the right to establish theJoint Council of Municipalities. During and in the aftermath of Operation Storm about 200,000 Serbs fled from the RSK[161] and hundreds of mainly elderly Serb civilians were killed in the aftermath.[162] Throughout the war, nearly 7,950 Serbs were killed including 2,344 civilians while almost 16,000 Croats were killed, of which 6,605 were civilians. The conflict led to the displacement of 250,000 Croats and between 250,000 and 300,000 Serbs.[163]
In February 2015, during theCroatia–Serbia genocide case, theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously dismissed the Serbian lawsuit claim that Operation Storm constituted genocide,[164][165] ruling that Croatia did not have the specific intent to exterminate the country's Serb minority, though it reaffirmed that serious crimes against Serb civilians had taken place.[164][166] The judgment stated that it is not disputed that a substantial part of the Serb population fled that region as a direct consequence of the military actions.[167] Although it has also been noted that there was an evacuation order given by the RSK's "Supreme Defence Council", based on the testimony by commanderMile Mrkšić at the ICTY.[168] The Croatian authorities were aware that the operation would provoke a mass exodus; they even to some extent predicated their military planning on such an exodus, which they considered not only probable but desirable.[167] Fleeing civilians and people remaining in United Nations protected areas were subject to various forms of harassment, including military assaults and acts by Croatian civilians. On 8 August, a refugee column was shelled.[169] Although it was very difficult to determine the number of properties destroyed during and after Operation Storm since a large number of houses sustained some degree of damage since the beginning of the war,Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that more than 5,000 houses were destroyed in the area during and after the battle.[170] Out of the 122Serbian Orthodox churches in the area, one was destroyed and 17 were damaged. HRW also reported that the vast majority of the abuses were committed by Croatian forces. These abuses, which continued on a large scale even months after Operation Storm, includedsummary executions of elderly and infirm Serbs who remained behind and the wholesale burning and destruction of Serbian villages and property. In the months following the August offensive, at least 150 Serb civilians were summarily executed and another 110 persons forcibly disappeared.[171]Three Croatian generals, involved in the Operation Storm, were later acquitted by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of charges of committing war crimes and partaking in ajoint criminal enterprise to force the Serb population out of Croatia.[172] The ICTY stated that the Croatian Army and Special Police committed a large number of crimes against the Serb population after the artillery assault, but that the state and military leadership was not responsible for their creation and organizing.[173] Examples of crimes are massacres, most often elderly Serb villagers killed by theCroatian Army, such as theVarivode massacre, theKijani massacre and theGolubić massacre.[174]
At the ICTY, Milan Babić was indicted, pleaded guilty and was convicted for "persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, a crime against humanity".[147][175] Babić stated during his trial that "during the events, and in particular at the beginning of his political career, he was strongly influenced and misled by Serbian propaganda".[176] RSK President,Milan Martić, was also trialled by the ICTY for variousCrimes against humanity andwar crimes, including murder, persecution, inhumane treatment, forced displacement, plunder of public or private property, and wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, as well as ordering an indiscriminaterocket attack on Zagreb, in 1995.[177] On 12 June 2007, Martić was sentenced to 35 years in prison.[177][178] His sentence of 35 years in prison was confirmed by ICTY appellate council on 8 October 2008. He was found to have been part of a "joint criminal enterprise" which includedBlagoje Adžić, Milan Babić,Radmilo Bogdanović,Veljko Kadijević,Radovan Karadžić, Slobodan Milošević,Ratko Mladić, Vojislav Šešelj,Franko Simatović,Jovica Stanišić, andDragan Vasiljković.[178]
A small minority of the pre-war Serb population has returned to Croatia. Today, the majority of the pre-war Serb population from Croatia settled in Serbia andRepublika Srpska.[179] After Croatian and otherYugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to highest number of refugees (Serbs who fled from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia) in Europe.[180][181][182]
The percentage of those declaring themselves as Serbs, according to the 1991 census, was 12.2% (78.1% of the population declared itself to be Croat). Although today Serbs are formally able to return to Croatia, a majority choose to remain citizens of other countries in which they gained citizenship. However, Croatia also adopted discriminatory measures to prevent the return of Serbs after the war, while the Croatian forces continued with abuses on a large scale for months afterwards, which included the destruction of Serb property.[183][171] Also, Serbs still face significant barriers to employment and to regain their property.[184] Consequently, today Serbs constitute 4% of Croatian population, down from the prewar population of 12%. The majority of the remaining population is elderly, which indicates that the negative demographic trend will persist.[144]
Currently, the official status of "autochthonous national minority" for the Serbs of Croatia is recognized by theCroatian Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities from 2002 which supplemented the Constitutional Act on the Human Rights and Freedoms and on the Rights of Ethnic and National Communities or Minorities in the Republic of Croatia from 1992.
Tension and violence between Serbs and Croats has reduced since 2000 and has remained low to this day, however, significant problems remain.[185] The main issue is thought to be due to high-level official and social discrimination against the Serbs.[186] In 2005, the Republic of Croatia ratified a bilateral agreement withSerbia and Montenegro on the protection of the Serbian and Montenegrin minority in Croatia and the Croatian national minority in Serbia and Montenegro.[187] Some Croats, including politicians, continue todeny and minimise the magnitude of the genocide perpetrated against Serbs in theIndependent State of Croatia.[188] At the highest levels of the Croatian government, new laws are continuously introduced to combat this discrimination, demonstrating an effort on the part of the government.[185] For example, lengthy and in some cases unfair proceedings,[185] particularly in lower-level courts, remain a major problem for Serbian returnees pursuing their rights in court.[185] In addition, Serbs continue to be discriminated against in access to employment and in realizing other economic and social rights.[189] Also some cases of violence and harassment against Croatian Serbs continue to be reported.[185]
The property laws allegedly favour Bosnian Croats refugees who took residence in houses that were left unoccupied and unguarded by Serbs afterOperation Storm.[185]Amnesty International's 2005 report considers one of the greatest obstacles to the return of thousands of Croatian Serbs has been the failure of the Croatian authorities to provide adequate housing solutions to Croatian Serbs who were stripped of their occupancy rights, including where possible by reinstating occupancy rights to those who had been affected by their discriminatory termination.[185]
TheEuropean Court of Human Rights decided against Croatian Serb Kristina Blečić and stripped her of occupancy rights after leaving her house in 1991 in Zadar.[190] In 2009, the UNHuman Rights Committee found a wartime termination of occupancy rights of a Serbian family to violateICCPR.[191] In 2010, the European Committee on Social Rights found the treatment of Serbs in Croatia in respect of housing to be discriminatory and too slow, thus in violation of Croatia's obligations under theEuropean Social Charter.[192] In 2013, theAnti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia were a series of protests in late 2013 against the application of bilingualism inVukovar, whereby Serbian and the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet were assigned co-official status due to the local minority population.
In 2015Amnesty International reported that Croatian Serbs continued to face discrimination in public sector employment and the restitution of tenancy rights to social housing vacated during the war.[193] In 2017 they again pointed out that Serbs faced significant barriers to employment and obstacles to regain their property. Amnesty International also said that the right to use minority languages and scripts continued to be politicized and unimplemented in some towns and that heightened nationalist rhetoric and hate speech contributed to growing ethnic intolerance and insecurity.[184]
Since 2016, anti-fascist groups, leaders of Croatia's Serb, Roma and Jewish communities and former top Croat officials have boycotted the official state commemoration for the victims of theJasenovac concentration camp because, as they said, Croatian authorities refused to denounce the Ustasha legacy explicitly and they downplayed and revitalized crimes committed by Ustashe.[194][195][196][197]
Following the2020 Croatian parliamentary election,Boris Milošević, member of theIndependent Democratic Serb Party and President of theSerb National Council, was elected one of the fourDeputy Prime Ministers of Croatia in charge of social affairs and human and minority rights in the newcabinet ofAndrej Plenković.[198] On the 25th anniversary of the Operation Storm, thecelebrations were attended for the first time ever by an ethnic Serb political representative, Boris Milošević.[199] On 25 August 2020,Zoran Milanović (President of Croatia),Tomo Medved (Minister of Croatian Veterans), along with members of the Independent Democratic Serb Party,Milorad Pupovac and Deputy Prime Minister Milošević, attended a commemoration of theGrubori massacre, the mass murder of elderly Serbs civilians.[200]
According to the 2021 census, 123,892 ethnic Serbs were living in Croatia, 3.20% of the total population. Their number was reduced by more than three-quarters in the aftermath of the 1991–95War in Croatia as the 1991 pre-war census had reported 581,663 Serbs living in Croatia, 12.2% of the total population.
| Year | Serbs | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1900[202] | 548,302 | 17.35% |
| 1910[202] | 564,214 | 16.60% |
| 1921[202] | 584,058 | 16.94% |
| 1931[202] | 636,518 | 16.81% |
| 1948[203] | 543,795 | 14.47% |
| 1953[204] | 588,411 | 15.01% |
| 1961[205] | 624,956 | 15.02% |
| 1971[202] | 626,789 | 14.16% |
| 1981[202] | 531,502 | 11.55% |
| 1991[202] | 581,663 | 12.16% |
| 2001 | 201,631 | 4.54% |
| 2011 | 186,633 | 4.36% |
| 2021 | 123,892 | 3.20% |
Counties with significant Serb minority (5% or more):[citation needed]
| County | Serbs | % |
|---|---|---|
| Vukovar-Srijem County | 19,309 | 13.49% |
| Lika-Senj County | 4,062 | 9.50% |
| Sisak-Moslavina County | 12,153 | 8.71% |
| Šibenik-Knin County | 8,064 | 8.37% |
| Karlovac County | 8,683 | 7.74% |
| Osijek-Baranja County | 15,486 | 6.00% |
Cities with significant Serb minority (10% or more):
Municipalities with a significant Serb population (10% or more):
Serbs in Croatia have cultural traditions ranging fromkolo dances and singing, which are kept alive today by performances by various folklore groups. Notable traditions includegusle,diple,[206]Ojkanje singing, andČuvari Hristovog groba.Days of Serbian Culture are organised annually since 2006.
Many Serbs contributed to the Croatian culture, such as trader Hristofor Stanković who founded the first permanent theatre building in Gornji Grad,Zagreb.[207]
The Serbs of Croatia are predominantly of theSerbian Orthodox faith. There are many Eastern Orthodox churches and monasteries across Croatia. Most notable and historically significant are theKrka monastery,Krupa monastery,Dragović monastery,Lepavina Monastery andGomirje monastery. Many Eastern Orthodox churches were demolished during World War II and the Croatian War of Independence, while some were rebuilt with EU funding, the Croatian government, and Serbian diaspora donations.[208]
In the 1560s a Serbian Orthodox bishop was installed in the Metropolitanate of Požega, seated in the monastery of Remeta.[209] In the 17th century, theEparchy of Marča was founded atMarča, in the Croatian frontier.[209] These were part of theSerbian Orthodox Patriarchate of Peć, which was re-established in 1557 and lasted under Ottoman governance until 1766.[209] Other bishoprics were founded, although their approval by the Habsburgs hinged on the belief that they would facilitate the union of these Eastern Orthodox Christians with the Catholic Church, and, many, including some Eastern Orthodox bishops, did unify with Rome.[209]
Serbs in the Croatian Military Frontier were out of the jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and in 1611, after demands from the community, the Pope established theEparchy of Marča (Vratanija) with a seat at the Serbian-builtMarča Monastery, with a Byzantinevicar instated as bishop subordinate to the Catholic bishop of Zagreb – working to bring Serbian Orthodox Christians into communion with Rome, which caused struggle of power between the Catholics and the Serbs over the region.[210][211]
In 1695 Eastern Orthodox Eparchy ofLika-Krbava andZrinopolje was established by metropolitanAtanasije Ljubojević and certified by EmperorJosef I in 1707. In 1735 the Serbian Orthodox protested in the Marča Monastery and became part of theSerbian Orthodox Church until 1753 when the Pope restored the Catholic clergy. On 17 June 1777 theEparchy of Križevci was permanently established byPope Pius VI with itsEpiscopal see atKriževci, nearZagreb, thus forming theCroatian Greek Catholic Church which would after World War I include other people; theRusyns and ethnic Ukrainians ofYugoslavia.[210][211]
According to the2021 Croatian census, 101,250 (81.72%) Serbs declared themselves as Eastern Orthodox, 11,406 (9.02%) declared themselves as atheists or non-religious, and 2,342 (1.89%) declared themselves as agnostics. The smaller portion of Serbs declared themselves to be of different confessions, with 2,042 (1.64%) identifying as Catholics and 2,076 (1.67%) as members of other Christian churches. There are 4,004 (3.23%) Serbs whose confession remained undisclosed or unknown.[212]
The Serbian language is officially used in 23 cities and municipalities in Croatia.[213]
In April 2015 theUnited Nations Human Rights Committee urged Croatia to ensure the right of minorities to use their language and alphabet.[214] The committee report stated that particularly concerns surrounded theuse of Serbian Cyrillic in the town of Vukovar and municipalities concerned.[214] Serbian Foreign MinisterIvica Dačić stated that Serbia welcomed the UN Human Rights Committee's report.[215]
Although the 2021 census in Croatia listed Serbs as the largest national minority in Croatia, with 3.2% of the total population, the number of people who had declared Serbian language as their native was only 1.16% of the total population (45,004).[216]
Serbs are officially recognized as an autochthonous national minority, and as such, they elect three representatives to theCroatian Parliament.[217]
All elected special representatives since1995 Parliamentary elections.
| Election | Representative | Party | Term | Representative | Party | Term | Representative | Party | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Milan Đukić | SNS | 1995–2003 | Veselin Pejnović | SNS | 1995–2000 | Milorad Pupovac | ASH | 1995–2000 |
| 2000 | not elected under the law | ||||||||
| 2003 | Vojislav Stanimirović | SDSS | 2003–2015 | Ratko Gajica | SDSS | 2003–2011 | Milorad Pupovac | SDSS | 2003– |
| 2007 | |||||||||
| 2011 | Jovo Vuković | 2011–2015 | |||||||
| 2015 | Mile Horvat | 2015–2020 | Mirko Rašković | 2015–2016 | |||||
| 2016 | Boris Milošević | 2016–2024 | |||||||
| 2020 | Dragana Jeckov | 2020– | |||||||
| 2024[218] | Anja Šimpraga | 2024– | |||||||
The major Serb party in Croatia is theIndependent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS). In the elections from2003, the SDSS has won all Serbian seats in the parliament. In theCabinet of Ivo Sanader II, the party was part of the ruling coalition led by the conservativeCroatian Democratic Union, and SDSS memberSlobodan Uzelac held the post of Deputy Prime Minister.[219] After that Serbs again entered government duringCabinet of Andrej Plenković II, in which Boris Milošević become Deputy Prime Minister and responsible for Social Affairs and Human and Minority Right.[220]
Some ethnic Serb politicians are members of mainstream political parties, such as the centre-leftSocial Democratic Party's MPs andMilanović cabinet membersŽeljko Jovanović,Branko Grčić andMilanka Opačić.
During the Second World War, theUstaše regime systematically engaged in the extermination, expulsion and forced conversion of Serbs in Croatia.[221][222] Facing discrimination after theCroatian War of Independence (1991–95), several anonymous Serbs from Zagreb testify that some young Serbs have converted to Catholicism and changed their surnames in order to 'become Croats'.[223]
Approximately 250,000 Serbs from Croatia were resettled in Serbia during and after the Croatian War of Independence, of which the larger part took Serbian citizenship.[224] In 2011, there were 284,334 Serbs from Croatia living in Serbia (excludingKosovo), with the majority living in Vojvodina (127,884), followed by Central and South Serbia (114,434). In 2013, approximately 45,000 Serbs from Croatia were still listed as refugees in Serbia.[224][225] The largest part of the Croatian Serb community in Serbia stated that they wished tointegrate (60.6%), only 4.3% wanted to return to their homes in Croatia, while 27.4% who were undecided.[226]
Glavnu poteškoću uočavanju etničke raznolikosti Slavena duž jadranske obale činilo je tumačenje Konstantina Porfirogeneta, po kojemu su Neretvani (Pagani), Zahumljani, Travunjani i Konavljani porijeklom Srbi. Pri tome je car dosljedno izostavljao Dukljane iz ove srpske zajednice naroda. Čini se, međutim, očitim da car ne želi govoriti ο stvarnoj etničkoj povezanosti, već da su mu pred očima politički odnosi u trenutku kada je pisao djelo, odnosno iz vremena kada su za nj prikupljani podaci u Dalmaciji. Opis se svakako odnosi na vrijeme kada je srpski knez Časlav proširio svoju vlast i na susjedne sklavinije, pored navedenih još i na Bosnu. Zajedno sa širenjem političke prevlasti, širilo se i etničko ime, što u potpunosti odgovara našim predodžbama ο podudarnosti etničkog i političkog nazivlja. Upravo zbog toga car ne ubraja Dukljane u Srbe, niti se srpsko ime u Duklji/Zeti udomaćilo prije 12. stoljeća. Povjesničari koji su bez imalo zadrške Dukljane pripisivali Srbima, pozivali su se na Konstantina, mada im on nije za takve teze davao baš nikakve argumente, navodeći Dukljane isključivo pod njihovim vlastitim etnonimom.
Тридесетих година XVI в. многи Срби из Босне су се населили у Крањској, Штајерској и Жумберку. ... Сеобе Срба у Славонију и Хрватску трајале су кроз цео XVI, XVII и XVIII в. У првој половини XVI в. су се најпре засељавали у турском делу Славоније, а у другој половини истог века су се пресељавали из турског у аустријски део Славони- је.
МАНАСТИР ЛЕПАВИНА, посвећен Ваведењу Пресвете Богородице, подигнут 1550.
... Krajem 1684. godine Stojan Janković realizovao je prelazak 1500 srpskih porodica iz Zagore na mletačku teritoriju.
Dejan Medaković (1922.-2008.), profesor na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu i akademik SANU ... konstatira općenito za sva tri dalmatinska manastira kako je teško reći kada su osnovani i da je pretjerano dovoditi ih u vezu s periodom srpske srednjovjekovne države (Медаковић, 1950.: 184)
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