Free Republic

June 27, 2013 By Aleksandra Aleksandra's Note: Today is Thursday, June 27, 2013. Exactly 99 years ago today was the day before everything in the world changed forever. History tells us that it was a beautiful summer in 1914 - everything a summer should be. The peaceful atmosphere in Europe had only 24 hours left. The next day, June 28, 1914 was Vidovdan, a most sacred day in Serbian history. It was also the day that an Austrian Archduke and his wife would come visiting and go for a carriage ride in a city in Bosnia. It was a day...

Aleksandra's Note: On October 25, 2010, Lt. Col. Milton Friend (USAF, ret.) and his wife Shirley embarked on a very important trip overseas to Serbia. It would turn out to be the trip of a lifetime and the first time Milton Friend was returning to Serbia since World War Two! The main objective of the visit to Serbia was for Halyard Mission veteran Lt. Col. Milton Friend to testify at the October 29th hearing in Belgrade regarding the Rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich. Following this note you will find a photo essay courtesy of Milton and Shirley Friend of this...

Aleksandra's Note: June 10th marks the anniversary of when the Mihailovich Trial began in Belgrade in 1946. This trial would end in a "Guilty" verdict, a "Conviction", an "Appeal Denied", and an execution that would be carried out on July 17, 1946, only two days after the verdict and conviction were handed down. The trial was a sham, one of the biggest of the 20th century. It didn't last long by today's standards - just over a month. I'm convinced that General Mihailovich knew he was a "dead man walking" from day one, but he remained calm and testified and...

Ultimately, the Ustashe murdered more than 30,000 Jews, or 75 percent of the country’s [Croatia's] prewar Jewish community. Photo by: (Reuters) Just over a month from now, on July 1, a historic event will take place in the heart of Europe, when the EU welcomes Croatia as its 28th member state. The move will mark the culmination of a grueling decade long process, one in which the former Yugoslav republic had to implement widespread changes in a number of fields – ranging from intellectual property law to the free movement of capital – to bring itself in line with accepted...

Painting of Kaiser Wilhelm II by Max Koner 1890 Aleksandra's Note: It never ceases to amaze me how decades, and in this case an entire century, of cataclysmic change can run its course through the world and the history of its nations and peoples, but some things truly don't change. For the Serbs, "Deja Vu" has become a constant common denominator in the course of their history. This important bit of history from a 100 years ago should serve as a reminder to the Serbs that the passage of time, even a full century of time, really means nothing when...

Christ opening the gates of Dachau In 1945, a Paschal Liturgy like no other was performed. Just days after their liberation by the US military on April 29, 1945, hundreds of Orthodox Christian prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp gathered to celebrate the Resurrection service and to give thanks. The Dachau concentration camp was opened in 1933 in a former gunpowder factory. The first prisoners interred there were political opponents of Adolf Hitler, who had become German chancellor that same year. During the twelve years of the camp's existence, over 200,000 prisoners were brought there. The majority of prisoners at...

Aleksandra's Note: One of the best publications ever issued about the Kosovo legacy is KOSOVO by William Dorich, published in 1992. If you can find the book, get it. Dorich's beautiful tribute includes an essay by Thomas Emmert which should be a must-read for anyone searching to understand what the legacy of Kosovo is all about. It should also be a must-read for Serbs who need to be reminded about this legacy and why it is essential to preserve and protect their sacred KOSOVO. Sincerely, Aleksandra Rebic ***** "THE KOSOVO LEGACY" By Thomas Emmert On 28 June, 1389 an alliance...

Alyse Radenovic (http://www.alyseradenovic.com) was born in 1973 therefore during her early adult life the war in the former Yugoslavia was blazing. This extremely talented artist was born in America and her adorable fine art covers many different themes and often flows in many directions. Many strong passions exist within Alyse Radenovic and this applies to her love of art and her deep respect towards many political issues. Of major concern for Alyse Radenovic is the distortion of reality when it comes to the coverage of what happened to the Serbs in Bosnia, Krajina and Kosovo. Therefore, this article is about...

"...Outside my windows, the dark-browed Serbian peasants, the men in somber black, the women in their bright embroidered clothes, passed unhurriedly but more silently, more grimly than usual to the early Sunday market. I watched them thoughtfully as I began to pour my tea and turned the short-wave radio knob... ...I heard no sound but the jingling of milk carts in the streets and the shuffling of peasant feet. But it was coming, this raucously heralded doom. ...Bomb after bomb exploded all round us, some not more than twenty yards away. The effect was almost inconceivable. It wasn’t the noise...

<p>SARAJEVO, BOSNIA — Turkey conquered the Balkans five centuries ago. Now Turkish power is making inroads through friendlier means.</p> <p>Two Turkish-run universities have opened in Bosnia’s Ottoman-influenced capital in recent years, bringing an influx of Turkish students and culture to a predominantly Muslim country still reeling from a brutal ethnic war almost two decades ago.</p>

BELGRADE -- Today marks the 14th anniversary since the start of the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia, i.e. the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ.A heating plant in New Belgrade is seen after being hit by NATO missiles (Tanjug, file) The bombing lasted 79 days and resulted in at least 2,500 deaths and more than 12,500 injuries. The attacks on Serbia started on March 24, 1999, and the last one took place near Kosovska Kamenica on June 10 at 13:15 CET. The death toll among the military and police forces reached 1,008, including 659 soldiers and 349 policemen. Around 6,000...

Aleksandra's Note: This increasingly timely analysis by historian Carl Savich was written in 2002, over a decade ago. At that time, it was being said that Gavrilo Princip "was all but forgotten." Now, as we near the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One, Gavrilo Princip will be anything but forgotten, as his name will once again become prominent as we mark a huge historical milestone. He was and remains permanently "infamous" for a single act on a single day in a single moment in time. The question of who he was will not be the controversial issue....

The former gravesite of King Peter II in St. Sava Monastery before his remains were exhumed and transferred to Serbia. This was his gravesite for 42 years, from the time he died in November of 1970 to January of 2013. Photo by Aleksandra Rebic, February 25, 2012.The former gravesite of King Peter II in St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville, IL U.S.A. after his remains were exhumed, January 17, 2013. Photo courtesy of Vera Dragisich.Aleksandra's Note: It's been almost a month since the remains of the only European king buried on American soil, HM King Peter II Karageorgevich, were exhumed at...

Curtis Diles (left), with a friend in Italy, 1945, returned to safety and survived the war after being rescued by the Mihailovich Serbs.There are those people in life that are born unto their destiny, that come into life to be something special. They choose not their path, nor do they accept it willingly, it just is for them, despite their not even seeking it. You cannot create these people; you cannot groom them for their destiny is contained within every cell of their being. They cannot be drawn into a comic book or cast into a made for TV movie...

Two men who changed history never met, but they should have. They had an enormous impact on each other’s lives. They both were men of war. One would survive. The other would not. The following gives voice to General Draza Mihailovich, the one who did not survive, and what he might have said to the one who did, the great Statesman Winston Churchill, had he had the chance to do so.Dear Winston, During a critical period in the history of the world, our paths crossed in a fateful way, though we would never meet. I would die first, without any...

On November the 16th the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) outrageously reversed convictions, acquitted and ordered immediate release of the Croatian Colonel General Ante Gotovina, commander of a military offensive known as Operation Storm (Oluja in Serbian), and Colonel General Mladen Markac, Operation Commander of the Special Police in Croatia. Gotovina was on the run until 2005, when he was arrested in Spain and transferred to the ICTY. Needless to say the acquitted generals returned to Zagreb to a hero’s welcome with the 100,000 large crowd chanting “Victory, Victory.” In Belgrade there was a...

Beautiful Montenegro Source: http://www.discover-montenegro.com/ Aleksandra's Note: In the beginning of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Prime Minister of Serbia began talks with the other Balkan nations of Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro. When a pro-Russian government was formed in Bulgaria in March 1911, these talks became serious and evolved into a series of secret treaties. On March 13, 1912 a pact was signed between Serbia and Bulgaria. The plan was to jointly attack the Turks as soon as it was feasible to do so. On May 29, a military convention was signed between Bulgaria and Serbia, thus formalizing...

The Roman philosopher Seneca observed, "It is human to err, but stupid to persist." It has been a serious mistake to get involved in the Middle East the way America did after the activation of NATO and its make-believe "success" in the Balkans in the decade of the 1990s. The war in Afghanistan is lost; Iraq is rapidly leaving our sphere of influence; Pakistan, in fact, has been out of reach all along. Iran is nearing possession of the atomic bomb. Most of all, the majority of people of the Islamic faith there do not want us in their houses...

Aleksandra's Note: A great job by Nick Tintor in summarizing an often polarizing issue that is in need of resolution after all these years. I wanted to extend a special note of gratitude to The Jerusalem Post for publishing this important piece, and keeping it online despite the hostility it has evoked in some of the Post's readers. The Post is to be commended for this. Anyone who refers to Serbian "anti-Semitism" during WWII or General Mihailovich's alleged "collaboration with the Nazis" clearly is repeating the usual communist propaganda that has so infiltrated the historical record regarding the Chetnik movement...

Julia Gorin Aleksandra's Note: Julia Gorin, an opinion columnist with a focus on the Balkans and consistent journalistic integrity, has put together yet another excellent response to the boilerplate musings of the Serb demonizers who never quit. This time she addresses the Washington Times editorial of Jeffrey T. Kuhner published on May 24, 2012 in response to the election of Serbia's new president, Tomislav Nikolic: "Did Serbia Vote for War: New ultranationalist president promotes instability". http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/24/did-serbia-vote-for-war/ Gorin tackles head on the analogy to the Mihailovich Serbs of WWII that Kuhner includes in his current hit piece. Because she incorporates a...