Nostalgic 'Yugoslavs' Mark Sober Anniversary Updated: 1 day 1 hour ago
Print <javascript:void(0)> http://o.aolcdn.com/os/sphere/art/textresizeText Size E-mail <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=&v=250&source=tbx-250&tt=0&s=digg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fworld%2Farticle%2Fnostalgic-yugoslavs-mark-30th-anniversary-of-titos-death%2F19463864&title=Nostalgic%20%27Yugoslavs%27%20Mark%2030th%20Anniversary%20of%20Tito%27s%20Death%20-%20AOL%20News&content=&lng=en> More Joost van Egmond AOL News BELGRADE (May 4) -- The country Josip Broz Tito saved from Nazi occupiers in World War II and then reunited under his repressive and fiercely independent hand has ceased to be. But Yugoslavia still has its die-hard fans, and they were out in force today on the 30th anniversary of Tito's death. At first glance, Igor Pacpalj appears a bit out of time at the commemoration. The 17-year-old high school student is dressed in a bright blue partisan's cap with a red star, the kind worn by the former country's former president, whose grave he just visited in its former capital, now the capital of the rump state of Serbia. "Life was just better in Tito's days," he says, as if he clearly remembered. A supporter of Josip Broz Tito pays tribute to the late leader on the 30th anniversary of his death in Belgrade on Tuesday. It is easy to dismiss the crowd gathered at the Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade, which comprises Tito's tomb, as hopelessly nostalgic. But in fact they have serious issues with the patchwork of seven countries that emerged after the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and a genuine longing for the now-defunct federation. Yugoslavia was established after World War I as a kingdom built of remnants of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The kingdom collapsed during World War II and was remodeled after 1945 by Tito and his partisans as a socialist state independent from the Soviet Union. Tito ruled Yugoslavia until his death in 1980, at which point it declined into ever more bitter ethno-religious conflict among Orthodox Christian Serbs, Muslim Bosnians and Kosovars, and Catholic Slovenes and Croats. As socialist Yugoslavia collapsed, waves of nationalism washed over the region. In the 1990s the constituent republics fought violent proxy wars that left hundreds of thousands dead. All that makes the old times look rosy to some. "Everybody could go to college in the old Yugoslavia," says Pacpalj, acknowledging that his judgment leans heavily on his parents' experiences. "We had a future, we were part of a respected country and we could travel everywhere. Now we're a small Third World country. I don't see a future for me here in the next five or six years." As the self-styled Yugoslavs assemble at the museum in a Belgrade suburb, a middle-aged woman sells Tito memorabilia from the back of her station car, and a man in full socialist regalia hands out pictures of Tito posing with the likes of Winston Churchill and Gerald Ford. Many visitors have tears in their eyes, including Igor Cacija. He is with his father, who stands silently, a flag of socialist Yugoslavia wrapped around his shoulders. Cacija says his Serbian passport doesn't mean anything to him. "If a census is held, I'd much rather register as a Yugoslav," he says. What does it mean to be a Yugoslav? It's usually a mixture of a belief in the socialist system the country had after World War II and the internationalism that united the populations of the western Balkans into one federation. All this is often personified in Tito, a socialist from Croatia who held Yugoslavia together, often brutally, and made its presence felt in the world. At the 2002 census in Serbia, some 80.000 people registered as "Yugoslavs," making them the fifth largest ethnic group in the country (even though they're not an ethnic group at all). The phenomenon is not confined to Serbia. Throughout the former Yugoslavia many gather on the day of Tito's death and his birthday, coming up on May 25. Blasko Gabric, a printer from the northern Serbian town of Subotica, simply refused to acknowledge the end of Yugoslavia, a term employed until 2003 for the now-defunct union of Serbia and Montenegro. Gabric simply re-established the state in his backyard. His 9 acres of land was the first mini-Yugoslavia; eight others have been established since. Gabric says his country has 8,000 honorary citizens and counting. "If we have enough citizens, we'll go to the U.N.," he says. "Italy already has the Vatican and San Marino, why wouldn't Serbia have a Yugoslavia within its borders?" He is at work on a Yugoslavia theme park and plans to lure North American pensioners to an affordable retirement community to be built on the premises. Gabric's being Yugoslav has much to do with the "right to a decent life" that he says socialism offered, but also the inadequacy of the national categories left over after the breakdown of socialism. "Take my wife and me -- our eight grandparents had eight different nationalities," he argues. "What does that make us? We're South Slavs," emphasizing the literal meaning of the word Yugoslav. Ratko Pavasovic, 46, concurs. Sitting on the stairs to the museum, he might be described as a Serb from Croatia who lives in Austria. But he says he has been a Yugoslav for too long to feel comfortable with another nationality. He timed his holiday to Serbia to coincide with the Tito anniversary. "Call me a Yugonostalgic; call it what you want," he says. "I'm proud to be a Yugo. Titoland was good." Filed under: World <http://www.aolnews.com/category/world> , Politics <http://www.aolnews.com/category/politics> Nostalgic 'Yugoslavs' Mark 30th Anniversary of Tito's Death - AOL News <http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/nostalgic-yugoslavs-mark-30th-anniversary-of-titos-death/19463864>
<<image001.gif>>
_______________________________________________ News mailing list News@antic.org http://lists.antic.org/mailman/listinfo/news
