Posted by Sunic responds to historical priorities on Sun, 08 May 2016 12:21 | #

To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Editors in Chief, FP

Mr. David Rothkopf

Mr. Ben Pauker

Re:  “Croatia’s Far Right Weaponizes the Past,” by Paul Hockenos, FP, May 6, 2016

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/06/croatias-far-right-weaponizes-the-past-ustase-hasanbegovic/

Madams, Sirs, –Mr. Hockenos;

Whenever an article appears in the foreign media dealing with the role of Croatia during WWII, the reader must be ready for a deluge of surreal body counts. For its part, to show its democratic and ‘unweaponized’ certificate, official Croatia is expected to constantly wallow in apologetic disclaimers and self-accusatory, mea culpas.  When drawing parallels between former WWII Croatia and the present day Croatia your contributor Mr. Paul Hockenos uses the standard memes of former Yugoslav communist scribes. What in fact are the empirical sources that he mines when he slams the minister of culture Zlatko Hasanbegovic for being the “apologist for the country’s World War II-era fascist regime”?  Is Mr. Hockenos fluent in Croatian and German? Well, if he is—well - then, of course, I do understand the standard German self-denial prose.  Has he ever visited the German Federal Archives in Koblenz and double checked his allegations?  Mr. Hockenos piece smacks of the old-style Yugoslav or DDR communist “normative agitprop locution,” or the Soviet-styled “double talk” – which my B- students would have a hard time swallowing.

He might have added that the present day administration in Croatia, along with its ms media and higher education, is still well staffed with never ageing ex-Communist ex-snitches and their modern divine leftist progeny. Once it was in Moscow and Belgrade they looked for inspiration; now their pilgrim places of preference seem to be DC and Brussels.  For the sake of modest convenience Mr. Hockenos might have added a word or two on the anniversary of large-scale massacres of hundreds of thousands of Croatian and German civilians by the Yugoslav communist strongmen Josip Broz Tito, in May-June 1945. Some of Tito’s surviving cutthroats, although senile, are still quite vocal in Croatia.  Instead of wasting time on the rise of would-be right- wingers in Croatia, a serious FP correspondent should focus on the catastrophic legacy of the former Western darling, the ex-communist Yugoslavia.

Feel free to run this comment—or call, or write.

Sincerely

Tom Sunic, Ph.D

Zagreb, Croatia

http://www.tomsunic.com

Posted by Croatia builds border fence on Sat, 02 Jul 2016 06:23 | #

TNO, “Croatia Builds Border Fence as Invasion Steps Up”, 1 June 2016:

The Croatian government is building a fence along a part of its border with Serbia to stop nonwhite invaders still trying to reach Western Europe, local media have reported.

The fence was started after Serbian authorities said that about 700 invaders were crossing the border every day.

The mess left at the Croatian border last year during the mass invasion of July 2015.

The border is being erected along the Batina crossing, near where the borders of Croatia, Serbia, and Hungary come together.

The invaders have started heading for Croatia after Hungary again tightened controls at its border with Serbia, which it fenced off in September.