<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-822151" decoding="async" class="wp-image-822151 size-large" alt="Statuettes of Draža Mihailović, Josip Broz Tito and Nikola Tesla featured in tourist shop in Niš, Serbia. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY 3.0.” width=”800″ height=”538″/>
Statuettes of Josip Broz Tito, Draža Mihailoviće Nikola Tesla [it] displayed in a tourist souvenir shop in Niš, Serbia. (RSD 1450, which is about $14) Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY 3.0.
The appeal of the mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, to remove the grave of the Yugoslav anti-fascist leader Josip Broz Tito [it] from the city and to erect a monument to his bitter enemy, the collaborationist Draža Mihailović [it]triggered a wave of criticism in Serbia and throughout the former Yugoslavia region.
“I cannot influence it publicly, nor can the city of Belgrade influence it legally, but I think that moving the grave of Josip Broz from the Museum of Yugoslavia is an extremely important thing for the Serbian people and for the future of this country,” he said. said [en[encome tutti i link successivi, salvo diversa indicazione]at the town meeting on September 17.
The mausoleum of the late Yugoslav leader, called House of flowers [it]is one of the main tourist attractions in Belgrade, attracting 120,000 visitors per year, as reported l’AFP.
The Casa dei Fiori mausoleum houses the tombs of Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito and the first lady Jovanka Broz [it]. It is part of the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, and is a major tourist attraction. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY 3.0.
In a statement released to the “Balkan Investigating Network” (BIRN), historian Milovan Pisarri he stated that the move is “unfortunately another act of the continuity of that policy that has been going on at an official level for 20 years, which involves the rehabilitation of those war criminals, of that nationalist ideology and of the project that the Chetniks themselves had to create a Greater Serbia”, as well as “erasing every link with Yugoslavia, with communism, with that period which however led, among other things, to great progress not only for Serbia but also for all the peoples on the territory of that country ”.
Serbian citizens and opposition politicians accused Šapić of trying to divert attention from the real problems [bs]:
I will support Šapić’s idea of erecting a monument to Draža Mihailović, as soon as I see pictures of Chetniks liberating Belgrade.
From tada:
– the monument to Chetnik butchers in Belgrade – will not be able to;
– diverting citizens’ attention from the increase in the price of basic foodstuffs to historical topics – will not… pic.twitter.com/wZfgFdmJvE— Kosta Konstantinović 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇬🇪 (@KostaKonstan) September 17, 2024
Photo: Liberation of Belgrade [it] by the Nazis by the Yugoslav partisans and the Red Army.
Text: I will support Šapić’s idea to erect a monument to Draža Mihailović, after seeing the photos of the Chetniks liberating Belgrade. Until then:
– a monument to the Chetnik murderers cannot be erected in Belgrade
– no to the use of historical arguments to divert citizens’ attention from the increase in prices of basic foodstuffs
No market! [it] [Non passeranno!]
Dragana Rakić, vice president of the Democratic Party, he declared to the Danas newspaper that “when Šapić is unable to offer Belgraders functional and safe public transport or to guarantee regular funding for the city’s most basic institutions, it brings back an age-old debate: Chetniks or partisans”.
The BNE Intellinews he reported that Šapić’s proposal also attracted criticism from his coalition partners. Ivica Dačić, Interior Minister and leader of the Serbian Socialist Party, distanced himself from the plan, declaring that his party “will not support the removal of communist monuments”.
Reactions also came from abroad, with numerous posts on social media and official statements, such as those of the anti-fascists of Montenegrowho condemned the idea.
It is not the first time that Šapić proposes the removal of Tito’s tomb. When proposed to send Tito’s remains to his hometown Of Kumrovec [it] in Croatia in April 2024, officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina they responded in kind [hr] that Sarajevo, as an anti-fascist city, would welcome the remains. The renewed negative reaction indicates that attempts at historical revisionism by the nationalists in power in Serbia since the 1990s have not been fully successful.
The debate was “resolved” by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who has declared to Politico that “it won’t happen”. During an interview published on September 23, he said:
I have never been a big fan of communists and the communist regime, but Josip Broz is a part of our history, he lived here and he was buried here, and he will remain a part of Serbian and Yugoslav history.
I have never been a big supporter of communism and the communist regime but Josip Broz is part of our history, he lived here and was buried here, and he will continue to be part of Serbian and Yugoslav history.
Afterwards, Mayor Šapić apparently put his initiative to remove Tito’s tomb on hold. However, on September 26, he officially submitted to the Commission for Monuments and Names of Squares and Streets of the Belgrade City Assembly the proposal [sr] to erect a monument to Draža Mihailović in the city center.
Why is Draža Mihailović so controversial?
During World War II, Mihailović was leader of the Serbian nationalist movement Četnik [it] (in Italian Chetnik), who on the one hand claimed to fight the occupiers on behalf of King Peter II and the Yugoslav government in exile (they had taken refuge in the United Kingdom at the beginning of 1941), while in practice he collaborated with the German Nazis and their local proxies against the anti-fascist resistance movement led by the Yugoslav communists.
The Museum of Yugoslavia’s historical exhibition on the Second World War shows the 1941 posters of the Nazi occupation authorities, which offered rewards of 100,000 Reichsmarks for Draža Mihajlović and Josip Broz Tito as leaders of the resistance. Mihailović later transformed his Chetniks in collaboration with the Nazis. Photo at Global Voices, CC-BY 3.0.
While collaborating with the Nazis, the Chetniks also sought support from the Western Allies and participated in the rescue of downed British and US pilots (later recognized by American President Truman with posthumous medals). However, in 1944, the British fact-finding missions and other damning evidence of the Chetniks’ service to the Nazis brought the Allies to give up to ties with Mihailović and others collaborators Serbia.
After the war, the internationally recognized Yugoslav authorities declared this guilty and executed him for treason and war crimes in 1946.
In one address book widely followed on Radar, the historian Pissari explained that “the Chetnik ideology, like many other nationalist and even fascist ideologies, survived the Second World War just as many other nationalist and even fascist ideologies survived the same conflict” in how much the Serbian diaspora “continued to cultivate the cult of real anti-communist forces” and the idea of ”establishing Great Serbia [it]”.
At the end of the 1980s most Serbian political parties converted to nationalism, while during the Yugoslav wars [it] of the 1990s, Serbian extremist groups calling themselves “revived” Chetniks were responsible for attacks and war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina it’s Kosovo.
Pissari he noted than when the more radical parties they assumed full power in 2000“nationalism took over the state, and therefore power”, leading to the full rehabilitation of the Chetniks in the political and public sphere of Serbia. The Mihailović’s rehabilitation processwhich included a new trial concluded in 2015formally overturned the 1946 verdict.
The campaign of glorifying Mihailović as a hero continued in Serbian political discourse and media, attracting condemnation of human rights organizations like the Helsinki Committee for being “morally unacceptable” and provocative towards Serbian neighbors who suffered the ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Chetniks in various wars.
The latest revisionist initiatives of the mayor of Belgrade demonstrate that the political forces that perpetrated war crimes in the 1990s are still in power in Serbia. Populism that evokes the legacy of the Chetniks further polarizes Serbian society and sends negative and belligerent signals throughout the Balkan region, hindering efforts for reconciliation, justice and peaceful coexistence.
