Memory Wars and Political Rifts: The Balkan Dispute over Recognizing Genocide

More than one year ago, in June 2024, Croatia banned three senior Montenegro officials after Montenegro passed a non-binding resolution which labeled the Jasenovac concentration and extermination camp as genocide.

The Jasenovac camp (1941-1945) was operated by the fascist Ustaše (Ustasha) regime in the Independent State of Croatia, a part of the Former Yugoslavia and a Nazi Germany puppet state. There were up to 100,000 victims of the camp including Jews, Roma, Serbs, and any anti-fascist Croats. The Ustaše regime concealed their crimes by deliberately destroying files and burning the evidence—including the bodies. Yugoslav authorities denied and suppressed details of the genocide in the years following World War II.

The fact that Montenegro passed a non-binding “Resolution on the genocide in the Jasenovac, Dachau and Mauthausen camp systems” triggered a maelstrom of reactions.

Andrija Mandić, the President of the Montenegrin Assembly, said: “This proposal we have made is not directed against anyone, except against human evil, and its purpose is not to judge but to bring closer and better understand the realization that evil is indeed evil, regardless of who committed it, which side, people, or politics, and it is not a demand to correct historical injustices. There is no justice for the victims without the right to remembrance.”

The resolution condemns the genocide, establishes a day of remembrance on April 22, condemns denial and revisionism, and calls for active commemoration. It is non-binding, with no legal enforcement, so it is largely symbolic.

The Croatian government argued that Montenegro undermined efforts for reconciliation and political relations by politicizing the issue of genocide. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the resolution “unacceptable, inappropriate, and unnecessary.” Then, Croatian politician Miro Bulj said that Montenegrins should be declared persona non grata—an unwelcome person—in Croatia.

The Foreign Ministry in Croatia banned Andrija Mandić, Aleksa Bečić, and Milan Knežević because they were perceived to be disrupting good-neighborly relations

Others have criticized the move because Andrija Mandić and other parliament members are pro-Serbian and pro-Russian. Even Montenegrin intellectuals disagreed with the resolution, saying that “the power centers in Serbia and Russia. . . have only one goal – to cause instability and conflicts in the Balkans and turn brothers against one another.” Political moves remain incongruent; Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 in defiance of Russia and Serbia, but they have realigned their pro-EU government to include parties in favor of Russia and Serbia.

Because of this, Croatia blocked negotiations in late 2024 regarding Montenegro’s accession to the European Union. Croatia and Slovenia are the only Former Yugoslavian countries currently in the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina has also been vying for EU membership, but roadblocks by the Republic Srpska (within Bosnia and Herzegovina) have prevented a smooth accension.

In the Balkans, political disagreements or rivalries often invoke history, and the memory of atrocities is used as a political weapon. They use the memory of World War II and the Ustaše regime to lift up national identity.

Croatia had, and still has, a strong sense of nationalism, and despite official memorials and commemoration, there is a resurgence in the use of, and the tolerance of, Ustaše-era symbols.

Recently, a music concert has sparked controversy in Croatia because of the use of such symbols. Thompson, a Croatian nationalist rock singer, used phrases like “Za dom Spremni,” an Ustaše salute meaning “For the homeland, ready.” While concert-goers and fans praised him as being a proud Croatian nationalist, the concert—which had over half a million people—was condemned as a “state-endorsed celebration of genocide.”