First time “Croatia” as a country existed, was as a Nazi puppet state during WWII. 🧵 The lands called “Croatia” today originally belonged to many different states, including ancient Serbian kingdoms, Roman Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Croats are a Slavic tribe that has mixed wth domestic Balkan populations, just like Serbs, and the distinction between the two is mainly in the type of Christianity they adopted - Catholicism vs Orthodoxy - although there’s always been an overlap too. So, the country known as “Croatia” today was never “Croatian”. It is a land that had majority Serb population in areas like Dalmatian hinterland, Dubrovnik, and Slavonia, while Croats tended to be the majority elsewhere, but the populations were always intertwined. The moment Croats got their Nazi puppet state in WWII, they enacted a monstrous genocide against Serbs. They also targeted Jews and Roma - as was required by their Nazi overlords - but their primary obsession was eradicating the Serbs and fabricating a non-existent history, which was a mangled and stolen version of Serbian and Balkan history, rebranded as “Croatian”. For this, Serbs needed to disappear. In that sense, the only way Croats could imagine having their own independent statehood was at the expense of lives, humanity and history of their closest neighbours, the Serbs. Since WWI, Croats repeatedly “ethnically cleansed” Serbs from areas that Croats tried to claim as “Croatia”, always under the auspices and with help of the Germans, Austrians and other former Axis powers. In the 1990s, Germany again played a major role but Croats were also enabled by NATO, to further expel quarter million Serbs, killing many. This resulted in one of the most ethnically “pure” states in Europe - Croatia, soaked in blood of Serbian civilians. As they are now used to doing, Croats have completely re-written the history of these events, mainly to misrepresent their aggression toward the Serbs as a “thousand-year dream for statehood and independence”, and “defensive war against Serbian aggression” - in which the Serbs seem to have committed “aggression” by simply existing in their ancestral homes and daring to defend themselves when Croats tried to genocide and ethnically cleanse them. My family comes from areas in today’s Croatia where Serbs were a majority. This area was the epicentre of WWII genocide and again in 1990s ethnic cleansing campaign Croats enacted against the Serbs. I witnessed the escalating threats of repeated genocide toward Serbs in 1990s. I witnessed attacks on our people and homes (including my grandparents in the middle of Zagreb, and relatives in Plitvice, Rijeka and Osijek) which actually kicked off the war - there are Croatian politicians and former chiefs of police who are on record admitting this. Serbs reacted by trying to defend themselves and by trying to use provisions in Yugoslav constitution designed to prevent this exact victimisation by the Croats. But Croats were armed and enabled by Germany and later NATO, so eventually Serbs ran for their lives. Croats are now laughing at the Serbs who ran - with their tractors and bare belongings, in massive convoys that were bombed from above by NATO-enabled Croats, and they are ridiculing and blaming the victims, pretending that Serbs left of their own volition. So no, Croatia is NOT a “Croatian land”. It’s a crime scene. Croatia is an area in the Balkans where Serbs and Croats both lived, which Croats repeatedly soaked in innocent Serbian blood in order to call it “Croatia”. Croats don’t get to murder, pillage and exile the Serbs who have lived there for centuries, “clean” the demographics of Serbian population, look at the wreckage they created, notice there are hardly any Serbs left and then pretend it is and always has been “Croatian land”. They don’t even get to be the custodians of this beautiful land, because they disrespected and wrecked it. Maybe one day, if the wrong is righted, if the crime is acknowledged, if Serbs are invited to return and if Croats can conceive their own statehood that includes their real history - one where Croats were mostly vassals to great powers and committed unspeakable atrocities against their closest neighbours - this could change. Until then, the crime scene will remain tainted and the victims and descendants will be seeking justice and access to their own homes and history. Because it’s not “Croatia” that is our home. It is the land, the mountains, the cities, the rivers, the lakes and the valleys, that birthed us and fed our bodies and souls for centuries. Our blood is there and it continues calling to us. I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to one of the very rare Croats today who is trying to right these wrongs toward Serbs - an iconic Croatian film director Lordan Zafranović. A persona-non-grate in Croatia, he has doggedly pursued the issue of truth and justice, horrified by the crimes Croats have committed and keep committing against the Serbs. His latest film Golden Cut '42 - The Children of Kozara is a harrowing masterpiece about Croatian genocide against Serbs, that explores inhumanity and incomprehensible hatred, through a story about a concentration camp for children. Names of some of my family appear in it too, and I only wish those who are no longer alive could see it. Amidst the greatest evil, the greatest good arises, and Lordan epitomises it, with his courage, heart and integrity to try and heal a wound that is so deep, it would be easy to assume it would remain forever. imdb.com/title/tt21923958/