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The War that is not allowed to be forgotten: Nationalist discourse on the Homeland War (1991-1995) in contemporary Croatia

The article focuses on the analysis of the dominant discourse on the Croatian “Homeland War” (1991-1995) as developed within the contemporary doctrine of Croatian nationalism. The character of Croatian nationalism is predominantly conservative, and thus the official interpretation of previous wars is founded on conservative ideology. The essence of this interpretation is in celebrating, rather than commemorating the war that was rather successful for Croatian nationalism. Croatian nationalism has achieved three major objectives in this war: It succeeded in taking Croatia out of Yugoslavia, it secured territorial integrity for the newly independent Republic of Croatia, and it made Croatia more ethnically homogeneous than ever before. Croatian nationalism had a good war. The author argues that this is the reason why conservative nationalists do not allow the “Homeland War” to be forgotten. In addition, they also keep official memories of the Second World War alive, and use these “memories” primarily to argue that Croatian history prior to the 1990s was tragic. The leading nationalist politicians reject any challenge of the official discourse as an attempt of historical revisionism. This narrative is still able to mobilise voters, albeit not to the extent as was the case in the 1990s. However, the anti-nationalists are trying to ignore it. They hope that the fate of the nationalist discourse will be the same as the fate of Marxist ideology.

Homeland War; nationalism; Croatia; Conservatism

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