Within three and a half years of its inception, the Bosnian army succeeded in fighting the Serbian army to a standstill; Serbia was forced to recognise Bosnia's independence. Yet the victory was ambiguous, leaving two thirds of the country under the control of Serb and Croat extremists while the remainder became a predominantly Muslim Bosniak-inhabited area.
The story of the Bosnian Muslims in World War II is an epic frequently alluded to in discussions of the 1990s Balkan conflicts, but almost as frequently misunderstood or falsified. This first comprehensive study of the topic in any language sets the record straight. Based on extensive research in the archives of Bosnia- Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia, it traces the history of Bosnia and its Muslims from the Nazi German and Fascist Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941, through the years of the Yugoslav civil war, and up to the seizure of power by the Communists and their establishment of a new Yugoslav state. The book explores the reasons for Muslim opposition to the new order established by the Nazis and Fascists in Bosnia in 1941 and the different forms this opposition took. It de- scribes how the Yugoslav Communists were able to harness part of this Muslim opposition to support their own resistance movement and revolutionary bid for power. This Muslim element in the Communists' revolution shaped its form and outcome, but ultimately had itself to be curbed as the victorious Communists consolidated their dictatorship. In doing so, they set the scene for future struggles over Yugoslavia's Muslim question.
This book combines new material from the Ottoman archives with narrative sources from the region to provide a better understanding of Ottoman administrative practices in eighteenth century Bosnia.
This book describes the build-up to the Bosnian War, which took place from 1992-95, and the relation it had with the war in Croatia between 1991-95. The Bosnian war is viewed from two different angles. The first one is the perspective from inside the conflict area, describing the war in the field and its effects. The second one is the perspective of international high politics, where former Yugoslavia is just an object in the world power-game. It describes the Bosnian War's four phases (author's definition), the first phase being the Serbs' struggle to keep as much as possible of the disintegrating state, the second phase being the uncontrolled ethnic war, the third phase being that of corruption and stagnation where the war had a life of its own without much real fighting, and the last phase when the dividing lines were redrawn and formal fighting ended, almost like a pre-planned game of chess. The book concludes by a reflection on future developments and problems in the region.
A young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to confront the people who betrayed his family. The story behind the YA novel World in Between: Based on a True Refugee Story. At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbors and teammates all turned on him. Pero - Kenan's beloved karate coach - showed up at his door with an AK-47 - screaming: "You have one hour to leave or be killed!" Kenan’s only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant, searing memoir chronicles Kenan’s miraculous escape from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia. After two decades in the United States, Kenan honors his father’s wish to visit their homeland, making a list of what he wants to do there. Kenan decides to confront the former next door neighbor who stole from his mother, see the concentration camp where his Dad and brother were imprisoned and stand on the grave of his first betrayer to make sure he’s really dead. Back in the land of his birth, Kenan finds something more powerful—and shocking—than revenge.
In this study Col Mark A. Bucknam examines the role that theater-level commanders in the UN and NATO played in influencing airpower over Bosnia between April 1993 and December 1995. He presents it in a chronological order that offers a coherent account of Operation Deny Flight. This study challenges assumptions about military leaders, their motivations, and the state of civil-military relations during the Bosnia conflict.