Yugoslav Wars

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Images of the various conflicts that comprised the Yugoslav Wars.

The Yugoslav Wars, also sometimes called the Third Balkan War, were a series of wars that occurred throughout 1990 until 2006 in the region that made up the former country of Yugoslavia (now Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo).

It is commonly referred to as the "last war in Europe" (which is wrong since years later the War in Donbass would occur), and it has been the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. I stand out for the large number of war crimes perpetrated by all parties, which included the indiscriminate murder of civilians, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.

Background

Yugoslavia had been a country located in Eastern Europe, created after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the World War I, during those years, and under a monarchical system, the country would have experienced great instability, which made that when the World War II broke out, Yugoslavia was the focus of invasions by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, which ended in its disintegration after it split into puppet states of the Nazis. It is there that the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, led by Josip Broz Tito and with the support of the Soviet Union, managed to expel the Nazis and reunify Yugoslavia. After the war, Tito seizes power in Yugoslavia, turning it into a federative socialist dictatorship, and due to the great ethnic differences in the country, the main groups being Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians, Tito used repression to avoid nationalist uprisings. After the death of Tito, Yugoslavia lost that system that repressed nationalisms, which led to the rise of ultranationalist figures, such as the President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević, who promoted Serbian nationalism and centralism within a federal system, set the stage necessary to start the war.

One of the main factors for the start of the wars was the idea of ​​"Greater Serbia", which proposed the union of all the territories inhabited by Serbian minorities.

Ten-Day War

The wars began in 1991, when Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. The government first decides to send the army to recover Slovenia, but the police and the Territorial Defense manage to defend the Slovenian territory, which means that the main armed confrontations are in the border area. The war only lasted 10 days, because Slovenia was not a strategic objective for the Serbs, due to the lack of an imposing Serb minority in Slovenia, and the army was preparing for war in Croatia. In the end, through negotiations, the war is ended and Slovenia achieves its full independence.

Croatian War of Independence

After the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia began, which unlike the previous war, this was much more bloody due to the large Serbian minorities in Croatia, and the rise of Serbian and Croatian nationalisms with figures like Slobodan Milošević on the Serbian side and Franjo Tuđman on the Croatian side. During the war, the Serbian minority in Croatian created the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina, which, supported by the Yugoslav army, faced the newly created Croatian army. During the course of the war, the Serbs achieved victories such as the taking of the city of Vukovar, and there began to be displacements and massacres against Serbs and Croats alike. Since 1992, the UN starts a ceasefire, but the confrontations would not end, and the Croats from 1993 began a progressive advance until ending up overwhelming Krajina in 1995, ending the war.

It should also be noted that at the end of 1991 Macedonia became independent in a peaceful way (as it was not an area of ​​interest for the Serbs and could provoke a war with other countries), and Yugoslavia changed its name from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (abandoning socialism in the process).

Bosnian War

Influenced by the war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence in 1993, and similarly to what happened in Croatia, the Serbs in Bosnia created their own republic, the Republika Srpska lead by Radovan Karadžić, and on the other hand, the Croatian minority in Bosnia created the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, which ends up causing Croatia to enter the war and the Croat-Bosniak War occurs. This war stood out above all others for being the war where the worst war crimes were committed, in events such as the Siege of Sarajevo or the Srebrenica Massacre, as an attempt to exterminate the Muslim Bosnians in what was known as the Bosnian Genocide. Although during most of the war the Serbs had the upper hand, after the peace between Croatia and Bosnia, these 2 joined forces against the Serbs, which added to the support of NATO, they ended up advancing against the Serbs. In the end, after a peace agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina achieves its independence, and the Republika Srpska becomes a federative entity within the new country.

Kosovo War

After 1995, Yugoslavia (or what was left of it), did not go through any other war, until in 1998, Kosovo, a region of Serbia that was inhabited by an Albanian minority, declared its independence, which made the region will be involved in a war again. After clashes and battles between the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian authorities, NATO (an ally of Kosovo), on the grounds of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs against the Kosovars, decides to bomb Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, in the which many civilians die. The war ended in 1999, and Kosovo would gain its independence in 2008 (although without UN recognition).

Insurgency in the Preševo Valley and Insurgency in Macedonia

Inspired by what happened in Kosovo, Albanian nationalists decide to initiate insurgencies to attacks in the Preševo ​​Valley and Macedonia, with multiple skirmishes and clashes between state forces and Albanian insurgents. These conflicts end in 2001, thus ending the Yugoslav Wars.

Total dissolution of Yugoslavia and present

After the wars, Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro, because most of what made up Yugoslavia became independent and the name was very stained internationally, but it was still the same country. Finally, Montenegro, the only republic that was loyal to Serbia, became peacefully independent in 2006, ending everything related to Yugoslavia.

Currently, the area is quieter, but that has not prevented violent incidents, such as the 2015 Kumanovo Clashes in North Macedonia.