Homeland War Museum, Turenj, Croatia

 

Vision of a greater Serbia in Eastern Croatia

We left the Artemus this morning to head to Zagreb. On the bus trip, we continued our education on the recent wars between the Balkan nations. Some call the Balkans the “gunpowder of Europe” having a war every 50 years. This area has gone back and forth between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe for over 500 years. During this time Bosnia was ruled by the Ottomans and over 50% of its population became Moslem, but a mild form of the faith, avoiding pork, but not wearing the hijab. In fact, Mirza’s grandfather was the Reis-Ul-Ulema (the ranking cleric) of Bosnia. Bosnia was never considered a separate culture, you were Croat (catholic), Serb (Orthodox), or Moslem, in the census. After the breakup of the Iron Curtain, both Slovenia and Croatia had elections to break away as separate democratic republics. Serbia became a socialist republic and believed that there should be a greater Serbia which included the Serbian population in eastern Croatia.

Homeland War Museum 

Our stop was the Homeland War exhibit in Turenj. This was the front line between the Croats and Serbians, the western most point of Greater Serbia. The former Yugoslav army became the Serbian army, the Croats had to build an army from scratch converting equipment into armored vehicles. The Serbs also occupied almost 70% of Bosnia. The Croats joined the Bosnians and recovered the borders of their territory. The remains of the air raid shelter nicknamed “Hotel California”, have been converted into a museum. There is still concern that Bosnia has a corrupt government that could cause the next Balkan War.

Tanks made from trucks

We reached our hotel, the Zagreb Sheraton about 3 PM.