Mesić: Croatia exists thanks to WW2 Communists

Stjepan Mesic says Croatia owes its existence to the so-called People's Liberating Struggle (NOB). The term was coined in the post-Second World War communist Yugoslavia to describe the 1941-1945 role that Josip Broz Tito's Communists, known as Partisans, had in the war. Mesic: Croatia exists thanks to WW2 Communists Croatia was in that historical period a Nazi puppet state, known as the NDH, but a significant number of Croats also joined Partisans to fight for the opposite side. The Croatian president made his statement in a ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary since the establishment of a Partisan formation known as the 1st NOB Corps of Croatia. This unit, Mesic said, "fanned the flames of anti-Fascist combat", and called on those present to support his country's EU membership bid, in order for it "to join the anti-Fascist club of a united Europe, where there is no shameful conquering of foreign territory and where borders are open." "If there wasn't for the NOR, and if we weren't on the side of the winning coalition, Croatia would today be only a historical reference, like the Thracians, Illyrians or Celts," Mesic believes. "The fact is that its units were made up of both Serbs and Croats, and that national minorities had their units too, that it was a broad popular movement, led by Tito," he continued. The Fascist movement, on the other hand, the Croatian president told his audience, "as an idea and as practical action, is a crime from its first to its last day." "Ante Pavelic's Independent State of Croatia [NDH], a quisling formation, was neither independent, Croatian, nor a state," Mesic concluded. Last December, however, he was involved in a scandal when tapes of a 1990s speech he held in Australia for the members of the Croatian emigration there were made public, when he mentioned Pavelic's Ustasha movement favorably. The Ustasha were responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed by Croats in the Second World War against Serbs, Jews, and Romas. "This thing they’re asking Croats to do, go kneel in Jasenovac… We have no reason to kneel anywhere," Mesic said in Australia. "We Croats have won twice in the WW2, while all the others did it only once. We won on April 10, when the Axis powers recognized Croatia’s independence, and we won after the war since we once again found ourselves with the victors”, he said. Mesic questioned the authenticity of the recording, although he acknowledged that he might have said "something like that."

Mesić: Croatia exists thanks to WW2 Communists

Croatia was in that historical period a Nazi puppet state, known as the NDH, but a significant number of Croats also joined Partisans to fight for the opposite side.

The Croatian president made his statement in a ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary since the establishment of a Partisan formation known as the 1st NOB Corps of Croatia.

This unit, Mesić said, "fanned the flames of anti-Fascist combat", and called on those present to support his country's EU membership bid, in order for it "to join the anti-Fascist club of a united Europe, where there is no shameful conquering of foreign territory and where borders are open."

"If there wasn't for the NOR, and if we weren't on the side of the winning coalition, Croatia would today be only a historical reference, like the Thracians, Illyrians or Celts," Mesić believes.

"The fact is that its units were made up of both Serbs and Croats, and that national minorities had their units too, that it was a broad popular movement, led by Tito," he continued.

The Fascist movement, on the other hand, the Croatian president told his audience, "as an idea and as practical action, is a crime from its first to its last day."

"Ante Pavelić's Independent State of Croatia [NDH], a quisling formation, was neither independent, Croatian, nor a state," Mesić concluded.

Last December, however, he was involved in a scandal when tapes of a 1990s speech he held in Australia for the members of the Croatian emigration there were made public, when he mentioned Pavelić's Ustasha movement favorably.

The Ustasha were responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed by Croats in the Second World War against Serbs, Jews, and Romas.

"This thing they’re asking Croats to do, go kneel in Jasenovac… We have no reason to kneel anywhere," Mesić said in Australia.

"We Croats have won twice in the WW2, while all the others did it only once. We won on April 10, when the Axis powers recognized Croatia’s independence, and we won after the war since we once again found ourselves with the victors”, he said.

Mesić questioned the authenticity of the recording, although he acknowledged that he might have said "something like that."