Once a year, on August 5, Nin’s small sleep in Northern Delmetia becomes the heart of Croatia’s life. The political and military aristocrats of the country gather under the flag on the ravines of the palace above the city, and Pathos are patriotic speeches with Galore.
This has been done since August 4, 1995 in memory of “day of day and homeland thanxgling” and “the day of Croatian Guards,” Military Operation “Oluja” (Hurricane).
Overseized flag over Nin’s fort is a symbol of the victory of Croatian soldiers over Serbia during the 1990s Yugoslav wars to date. At the time, the Croatian Army and Police units removed the entry Crazina region along the border with Bosnia in large-scale aggressive within 85 hours-that is how the largest part of the third part of the region of Croatia was captured, which was captured in Serbes Sign 1991.
Operation Storm then brought a military turn in the neighboring war in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian forces limited a coordinated action by the NATO aerial support-aerial air support-western Bosnian city of Bosnia and all the Western siege and western what western did all the western. Shortly thereafter, Croatian-Bosnian forces brought other parts of Bosnia under his control. The Serbian controlled sector shrunk from 70% to 49% of the country, eventually the US broke the Daton Peace Agreement.
Pressure on both sides
War in East Yugoslavia, which began in 1991 with declarations of freedom from Slovenia and Croatia’s Yugoslavia and later in Slovenia ten days, ended provisionally. They did not abolish Unstil after four years, when NATO fought against Serbia in Kosovo, which eventually led to Estasabalis of an independent state of Kosovo.
Operation Storm brought a deep and permanent change to the country: during these 85 hours and immediately after, around 200,000 Serbas extended the Crazina region towards Serbia. Many were forcibly expelled, but the Croatian soldiers fled for fear of taking revenge on carrying forward. In the earlier years, over 170,000 crots had bees performing from Croatia’s Serbian-Bhutus region, mainly at the beginning of the war. And hundreds of crimes against Croatian citizens were committed by Serbian soldiers.
As this gymnastics is out, this fear was appropriate: according to the Croatian Human Rights NGO document, there was a lot of looting during the operation store. Many Serbian houses and even the entire villages were destroyed and set on fire. More than 1,000 Serbian citizens who lagged behind were murdered.
War crime tribunal in the hags
Even though most thesis crimes are well documented, hardly anyone is prosecuted or convicted for them. The post -war Croatian judicial authorities showed very little interest in the investigation of crimes committed by Croatian soldiers.
Nor did the International Criminal Tribunal find responsible for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. While Ante Gateovina, one of the Croatian commanders, and another Croatian Army General sentenced to long prison in 2011 on war crimes, both were acquitted in the second example and released from custody.
Even thought that many refugees have returned to Croatia since the war, now the Serbas have only marginal significance in the Croatian society.
Croatia: A brave victory
Although three decades have passed since Oluja, there is a great variation in the assessment of Serbian and Croatian sides. In Croatia, it is clearly positively seen, lakes as a valid, appropriate and brave military operation with a defensive structure.
For the 30th anniversary, a large military parade was a hero in the capital Zagreb on July 31, 2025. A long column today displays all military equipment available for the Croatian Army. Many soldiers participated, and a lot of techniques were shown, in which the newly acquired French Rafale fighter jets were flying on the spectator. For the first time, other NATO soldiers counted in such a performance, as Croatia is a member of the alliance since 2009. The two leopard tanks were borrowed from Germany for the parade: while the Croatian Army is not yet, they have ordered bees.
Croatian President Joran Milavik wrote about the parade on Facebook, “We celebrate our victory; we hate someone. We are completely aware – and I want them to be after us – that it was also a victory of Croatian soldiers, Croatians and Croatia leadership.”
Serbia: A Pogrome
On the Serbian side, the Operation Storm is considered not only the most important military defeat in the Yugoslav war, but is synonymous with removal and war crimes and destruction. In this skett, Serbian President Alexander Wusic repeated the old story during this year’s memory, under the motto “Oluja is a pogrome – we remember forever,” that the Serbs are suffering from a bee under the heavier uncertainty from the international community for 30 years.
“We will not allow anyone again to endanger the freedom of the Serb,” Person said, saying that foreign countries are strengthening all the states around Serbia and only weakening their country. Vucic stated that Serbia threatens anyone, but on September 20, it will show everyone “what kind of army we have formed” and that Serbia is strong enough to defend itself. On this day there will be a large military parade in Belgrade. And once again, the French Rafale fighter jets will fly over the audience in this performance, as they did in Zagreb.
This article was the original published in German.
