Deblokada

Ask any Croat what "deblokada" means and you'll get the same answer: "Deblokada would be the end of Slovenia's criminal obstruction of Croatia's EU negotiations". The word has dominated the headlines for a long time: Deblokade now! Soon deblokada! Soon deblokada? - and many other versions.
Today Slovenia and Croatia agreed, finally, on a deblokada. Prime ministers Pahor (Slovenia) and Kosor (Croatia) hammered out a deal that allows Croatia to continue its negotiations with the EU. The border dispute itself is not solved, but the two parties agreed on the rules of the game. First, anything that has been said or written about the border after 25 June 1991 (when both Slovenia and Croatia proclaimed independence) has no legal status. This is a Croatian concession to Slovenia, as the latter country blamed Croatia of producing documents with falsified borders. Slovenia accused Croatia of using these "post 26.06.91" documents in its EU negotiations and so prejudice the border. Second, Croatia and Slovenia will seek international arbitration for their conflict. This had been often proposed by the EU, but Slovenia, for some reason, always objected. Pahor said that in that way the conflict will be solved before Slovenia ratifies Croatia's EU accession.
The last sentence is a bit tricky, I'd say. One could also read it as follows: Slovenia will not ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty unless the border conflict is solved (in a for Slovenia satisfactory way). For now, however, optimism prevails.

Air space

When Chinese president Hu Jintao left Croatia, his presidential plane was escorted by two Croatian fighter jets. These two jets seems to have violated Slovenian air space. Hardly surprising, I thought. You almost need a helicopter to take off from Zagreb airport if you don't want to enter Slovenian air space, as Zagreb is very close to the Slovenian border.
Some Slovenes are very angry about the violation. I am not going to dwell on it, as I have no idea how normal or exceptional such violations are. I just want to show you the language that was used by a Slovenian member of European Parliament. It is exemplary of the sour relations between Croatia and Slovenia.
"The theatrical incursion into our airspace that Croatia permitted itself, by abusing the military escort of a Chinese protocol state aircraft, is an abuse of that state and, at the same time, a display of arrogance that cannot be practice either in the EU or NATO," said Jelko Kacin.
I don't think Croatia will enter the EU in 2011, even if Slovenia lifted the blockade right now. I suspect the Sanader government uses the blockade to turn attention away from other pressing problems in Croatia: corruption, organized crime and lack of cooperation with the Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague. The EU, meanwhile, has given up on trying to find a solution for the border conflict, after its numerous proposals were blocked by either Zagreb or Ljubljana.
Sanader uses big words in complaining about the Slovenian attitude. He said that if the EU negotiations with Croatia fail, also the idea of Europe (that is: uniting nations) fails. I can understand Sanader's frustration over Slovenia, but his words show a chronic overestimation of Croatia's importance to the Europe. Even if Croatia never joins the EU, the EU is and will be a uniquely successful project. (Although I sincerely hope Croatia will join the EU). Secondly, Croatia's entry into the EU hinges upon many more things, as I mentioned above. As soon as Slovenia lifts it unfair blockade these things will come to the fore once again.

Old Europe, New Europe

Train travelers in the Balkans are used to waiting at borders. Officials check your passport and ask: "Nešto za prijaviti?". Something to declare? No one ever declares anything, last of all the Croatian women who smuggle cheap textile from Italy to Zagreb.
When Slovenia joined the Schengen area I expected the endless waiting to be over. But no. Villa Opicina, at the Slovenian-Italian border is one of those notorious places where you stare out of the window and think: "Are we really in the EU?" After an hour or so the train finally starts moving to Venice.
I had to think of this as I read an article in Die Tageszeitung, published on Presseurope. Presseurope translates articles from several European newspapers into the main EU languages. Something like the International Herald Tribune, but than online and very limited in scope.
The fall of the Iron Curtain should have united two towns, but Italian Gorizia and Slovenia's Nova Gorica continue to snub one another with great distinction. While Nova enjoys an economic boom, old Gorizia tearily remembers the rare old times.
The enormous car park is almost completely deserted. It has enough space for hundreds of cars, but only a few stray vehicles are parked under the pale light of the street lamps. And save a handful of guests at the nearby pizzeria, there isn’t a soul in sight.
A cab? The waiter frowns as though he’d been asked an utterly absurd question. “After eight you can’t get a taxi anywhere in Gorizia.” Gorizia has called it a day...
We'll consider the phrase Iron Curtain a slip of the tongue.

Wolfram Alpha reduces Croatia

It is clear now: the Brits have started a war against Croatia. After negative reports and articles, the Brit Stephen Wolfram (the guy behind search engine Wolfram Alpha) tries to rewrite Croatian history and enlarge Slovenia at the expense of Croatia. Take a look at Wolfram's map of Croatia.
You will notice that Slovenia gained the northern part of Istria and in that way secured its access to international waters. And who was president of Croatia in 1994? Franjo, sorry, dr. Franjo Tuđman, you would say. But no! It's Milan Martić, according to Wolfram. A četnik! (says Večernji list).
To stop Wolfram from further tarnishing Croatia, I invite you to report any (deliberate? malicious?) mistakes and any information that might reveal this Great British-Slovenian-Serbian-German conspiracy. German? Yes. Look at the far East of Croatia and find out that some Croatian territory (around Ilok) was rendered to Serbia. The village of Nijemci was always safely in Croatian territory, but it now dangerously close to the Serbian border. Nijemci is Croatian for "Germans". And guess what? Stephen Wolfram's parents were German Jews. I expect the village will soon be spelled "Nemci".

Croatia in NATO

"Following the English alphabet, Croatia's flag flies after the Canadian and before the Czech," was one of the comments that was repeated over and over again in Croatian news programs yesterday. Below is a report from Nova TV. Even if you don't understand Croatian, the flags, anthems and speeches make clear that Croatia is very proud of being a full member of NATO as of yesterday. Croatia's flag was hoisted in Brussels and, in turn, NATO's flag in Zagreb, where many gathered in front of the Ministry of Defense. Looking at the facade of the building, you'll see the EU flag waving too. I don't know if there are any rules concerning the right to fly the EU flag. I guess not, since you can see them all over the country, even though Croatia won't join the club before 2012.

Despite opposition from some Slovene nationalists, Croatia belongs now to the "world's most elite club", as prime minister Sanader once called NATO. Croatia's own elite gathered in the evening in the National Theatre to celebrate the entry with a concert.
Croatian satisfaction with NATO membership is more than understandable. Next time the Serbs, or whoever, attack "our beautiful homeland" (a very normal way of saying in Croatia) American, Turkish, Canadian and Dutch troops will kick in to kick out the enemy. So we hope...
Less understandable is the habit of Croatia's political elite to link NATO membership with EU accession. I heard people saying that "Croatia is now half way" and Sanader even thinks that EU countries will reconsider the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute, to Croatia's advantage of course.
Personally, I don't see why. First, not all EU members are NATO members. More important, not all NATO allies belong to the EU. Turkey is a great example of the latter categorie. Despite old promises about EU membership and unwavering support from the United States, Turkey is not an EU member and maybe will never be one. Although Turkey is a NATO ally since 1952!
As the Croatian-Slovenia border dispute is concerned: Marrti Ahtisaari was tipped as mediator, but he himself says he has never been formally asked to solve the crisis. Asked what his answer would be to a possible request, he said: "Highly unlikely. I am tired of the Balkans".

From ally to enemy: Slovenia (3)

Slovenia had the chance, earlier this week, to literally become Croatia's ally. Or rather, to ratify Croatia's NATO membership so that Croatia could join the club Slovenia is already in. However, instead of easing tensions NATO membership proved to be another source of discontent between the two countries.
Slovenia did ratify the protocol that extends NATO membership to its neighbor, but it hasn't send the necessary documents to Washington yet. Responsible for this delay are two Slovenian groups, The Institute of the 25th of June (a reference to the day in 1991 on which Slovenia declared independence) and the non-parliamentary Party of the Slovenian Nation. These groups were afraid that Croatia's accession to NATO (and the EU) would imply Slovenia's consent with the current, heavily contested Croatian-Slovenian border. To make clear that Slovenia does not accept the Croatian territorial claims, the two groups demanded an explicit statement on this matter from the Slovenian parliament. Without this statement, they would try to organize a referendum on Croatia's NATO membership.
They got their way: "Slovenia's Parliament on Wednesday afternoon adopted a declaration on the protection of the Slovene national interests during the procedure of Croatia's admission into NATO which reads that at the time when Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, it had access to the high seas and that it had control over some other "disputable" points along its border with Croatia."
Case closed? Not really. The Party of the Slovenian Nation insisted that Croatia should withdraw from some territory and dismantle a border crossing that it considers illegal. This demand is not included in the adopted declaration and therefore the Party of the Slovenian Nation will still try to organize a referendum. A referendum will become inevitable if the party collects 40.000 signatures. Slovenian premier Borut Pahor, meanwhile, is doing his best to convince the Party of the Slovenian Nation that a referendum will further damage Slovenian-Croatian relations.
Like with Croatia, Slovenia is largely ignored by the Western media. I don't think we will see another Balkan war, but if you want to understand why Croats and Slovenes turned into political adversaries, you better keep an eye on Slovenia these days.

A quarrel over cracklings

Please watch the short video below and answer the following question. Do you think this dish should receive the label Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), like Gorgonzola?
According to Wikipedia PDO aims to "protect the reputation of the regional foods and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of different flavour".
You might not know what the substance in the pot is. The floating brown cubes you see are čvarci, or cracklings in English. My Longman dictionary says a crackling is "the hard skin on a piece of pig meat when it has been cooked for a long time". Please note that this is the British English definition. In American English cracklings exist in plural only: "pieces of skin, usually from a pig or chicken, that have been cooked in hot oil and are eaten cold".
In either case, it sounds disgusting. You would guess people are ashamed to admit that this dish is part of their cuisine. Not in the Balkans! On the contrary, Croats and Slovenes even argue about the origins of cracklings. Croatian entrepreneur Tomo Galević tried to get European permission to label cracklings as an authentic Croatian product, but he got the Slovenes in his way. According to Slovenian ethnologist Bogataj cracklings are being made "almost all over Europe, and especially in Central Europe. They differ only in preparation and thickness".
I don't care. Give the Croats their cracklings! Maybe you'll get the Bay of Piran in return.

From ally to enemy: Slovenia (2)

The dispute between Croatia and Slovenia over the Bay of Piran is not been solved yet. On the contrary, the relationship between the former Yugoslav republics worsens by the day. About a month ago Slovenia blocked Croatia's advancement towards EU-membership and Slovenia hasn't budged yet. Slovenian prime minister Borut Pahor said yesterday that his country will not yield to pressure from Zagreb or Brussels.
Croatian president Mesić responded in a way that is not untypical for him. He said that if there had not been Croatian partisans the Slovenes would be looking at the sea from a twenty kilometer distance, referring to the fact that Croatian partisans liberated Istria and the Slovenian coast. Out of 60.000 soldiers of the Fourth Yugoslav Army, almost 40.000 were Croats.
Slovenian politicians were, of course, not amused with Mesić's remark. "Scandalous", is the general political opinion. One historian said that it is regrettable that Mesić destroyed the Slovenian and Croatian brotherhood that existed during the war.
That brotherhood is long gone. Almost half of the Slovenes would now vote against Croatian EU-membership in a referendum. Slovenia threatens to organize a referendum if the border issue is not resolved to its satisfaction.
The satirical show Laku noć, Hrvatska (Good night, Croatia) mocked Mesić and the partisans in one of its sketches. We see how Mesić finds a strategy to kill Italians after Tito's complaint that the partisans didn't shoot a single Italian yet. If I heard it well, Mesić says that Italians are as naive as Albanians, using the derogatory term "Shiptar" but then changes the word into "šiperica" - a flapper. But I am not quite sure about that, so help from a native speaker is appreciated.

Boycott of Slovenian products

I read in the newspapers that Croats on the internet call for a boycott of Slovenian products to revenge for the Slovenian blockade of Croatia's negotiations with the European Union. I didn't know at first where on "the internet" the boycott is being promoted. Papers here are not very strong in listing their sources.
After a bit of searching I found the Facebook community "BOJKOT Slovenskih proizvoda", which has almost 19.000 members. There is a website too.
No need to say that I did not join the Facebook community. Boycotts are not only stupid and ineffective, but also show that some Croats can't make a distinction between Slovenian politicians on the one hand and Slovenian manufacturers that make better products than Croats on the other hand. I bet almost all 19.000 "BOJKOT Slovenskih proizvoda" members wash their dirty laundry with a Gorenje washing machine and fix a meal on a Gorenje cookers.
Croatian prime minister Sanader said that a boycott is unacceptable and added generously that Croatia will not behave towards Serbia as Slovenia does towards Croatia. Political analist Davor Gjenero observed wittily that Milošević was the first to boycott Slovenian products and "we know how that ended".

From ally to enemy: Slovenia

Once upon a time Slovenes and Croats said they lived in a country that stretched "od Triglava do Vardara", from the Triglav mountain in the extreme north-west of Slovenia to the Vardar river in south-eastern Macedonia. Close to the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, or Đevđelija, the Vardar crosses the Greek border to empty into the Aegean Sea, not far from Thessaloniki. Therefore, also the variant "od Triglava do Đevđelije" was popular among the partisans who created Yugoslavia on the ruins of World War II.
It's easy to forget how large a county the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was. With its area of 255,804 square kilometers it was bigger than the United Kingdom or Romania. Austria fitted almost three times into it and only eight American states are bigger. Today, Serbia without Kosovo is smaller than Austria, and Ireland outsizes Croatia.
Slovenia and Croatia were the two leading republics in the break-up of Yugoslavia. Both felt exploited and dominated by Belgrade and declared independence on the same day, 25 June 1991. What followed is history and so is their close cooperation from those days. Now safely in the EU, Slovenia seems to have turned into Croatia's main external obstacle to a quick entry into the Union. As you can read everywhere Slovenia blocked the opening and closing of some chapters of Croatia's accession negations.
It's not the first time that the Slovenes anger Croats. Last year Slovenia introduced a vignette for its highways and motorways. As the vignette is available for either six or twelve months, many Croats feel injured for several reasons. First, going to Ljubljana for shopping or just refueling (Slovenia has lower fuel prices than Croatia) became more expensive. Second, many Croats suspect that Slovenia intentionally delays building highways in order to isolate Croatia from the rest of Europe. Looking at the map of Slovenian roads, that suspicion is maybe not without justification. As an impartial observer I can safely say that the speed of highway construction in Slovenia is staggeringly slow. Third, most tourists come to Croatia by car, passing through Slovenia. They need to pay a relative large sum to use a little stretch of highway.
And now Slovenia blocked Croatia's progress towards EU membership. It accuses Croatia of using certain documents in the negotiations that claim an unfair share of the Adriatic Sea close to the Slovenian town of Piran. One look at the map below and it is clear why the Bay of Piran is crucial to Slovenia. Without it, Slovenia doesn't have access to international waters.
Croats used to make fun of Slovenia's coast and sea (read more here) which they find hugely inferior to their majestic coast. I don't think they laugh any more. Of course, the Slovenian veto against Croatia is petty-minded, but so is, if you ask me, Croatia's reluctance to grant Slovenia the Bay of Piran. Croatian coastal beauty is in another league anyway, with of without that bay.