3416 - Piran


People in the various parts of former Yugoslavia may have different opinions about that, but I never understood why the country exploded in such a burst of violence. Of course I saw documentaries on it and of course I read all about it in newspapers at that time, but still I wonder what exactly has turned to the better.

Slovenia has recovered very early. There was almost no war in this northernmost former province, and obviously the Serbs were not interested in holding them in the federation. Slovenia had no Serbian population and no historic ties to Serbia. After all it had just been a part of Austria for much of its history.

Serbia and Croatia were the big opponents. They share a language, but historically they had belonged to different spheres of influence for more than a thousand years.

The Serbs have first been vasalls of the Eastern Roman Empire, and when Constantinople fell, they were swallowed up by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The first five hundred years gave them their Orthodox religion, the next five hundred left them with a strong desire for independence and self-determination, paired with a fair amount of paranoia and a glorification of their fallen heroes of the past.

Croatia on the other hand had been a part of Catholic Hungary, a state in union with Austria.

Together they had been joined in the comparatively short-lived Yugoslavian state. Still, that time had been long enough to mingle populations. In the end, after a bloody war, Serbia lost its access to the sea, the very mixed Bosnia is hardly more than a protectorate instead of a functioning state, and Croatia has recovered, mostly due to the beauty of its coastline and the resulting tourism.

Today both Slovenia and Croatia are members of the European Union, but there are still disputes about Slovenia’s access to the sea. The problem is, that Slovenia’s short coast is within a small gulf and that its connection to the sea is so narrow, that it leads through Croatian and Italian waters. I’m not even sure what the whole dispute really is about. Most likely it is about fishing rights.

In any case I find it unfortunate that Yugoslavia broke up at all. If it had not, if it had just made a transition from communism to moderate capitalism, for instance like Slovenia did, everybody would have been better off and a huge number of lives would have been spared.

Today’s pictures were taken in the small, picturesque town of Piran, one of the most beautiful places on Slovenia’s coast. I used the Panasonic 12-32, an extremely light and small collapsible lens that rarely sees the light any more.


There are 4 comments

jj   (2016-02-26)

"Slovenia had no Serbian population and no historic ties to Serbia." Actually there was and is a Serbian population in Slovenia. But many Serbs (and other non-Slovenians) became the "erased people" where Slovenia took away their rights once it declared independence. People were left without pensions, insurance, legal access, etc. The main Slovenia bank also kept the deposits of non-Slovenia Yugoslavs and refused to allow these people their money back to this day. Croatia had a major lawsuit against Slovenia to try and get Croats' money back, but I think it failed.

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andreas   (2016-02-26)

Oh dear! So, basically similar to what happened to Russians in the new Baltic states. Didn't know that.

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jj   (2016-02-26)

Here are links in regard to the bank situation and the "erased" from wikipedia, which I think downplays and excuses it to a fair degree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana_Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Erased Also, Serbs do have a church there which was built in the 1930's called Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cyril_and_Methodius_Church_(Ljubljana) This is a photo of it: http://s11.postimg.org/bj3nikyqb/DSC_2159.jpg Also, according to Wikipedia, Serbs are 1.98% of Slovenia's population today, which is small, yet makes them the largest minority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbs_in_Slovenia Serbs in Slovenia are, by large, first or second generation immigrants from other republics of former Yugoslavia. In the 2002 census, 38,964 people of Slovenia declared Serb ethnicity, corresponding to 1.98% of the total population, making them the largest ethnic minority in the country. And there are some Serbs whose ancestors arrived in Slovenia much, much, much earlier as refugees fleeing the Ottomans. They are called "Serbs of White Carniola" but they have slowly become more and more assimilated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbs_of_White_Carniola Apart from the immigrant community that makes up the vast majority of Serbs in Slovenia, there are a few villages in the southern region of White Carniola inhabited by descendants of Serbs that fled from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, beginning in 1528 and permanent by 1593. These immigrants founded settlements in which descendants of Serbs live to these days: Bojanci, Marindol, Paunovi?i, Adleši?i, Žuni?i, Mili?i and others. The majority of the community (Slovene: Srbi v Beli krajini) have kept the Serbian Orthodox faith and their distinctive culture, although they have been almost completely assimilated to their Slovene-speaking environment. Some of them became Uniate (Eastern Catholic) in the 17th and 18th century.

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andreas   (2016-02-26)

Very interesting! I didn't know about the "Serbs of White Carniola" either. Thanks!

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