Naslov
Croatian public opinion toward Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars

Autori
Despot, Igor

Izvornik
Études balkaniques (Sofia) (0324-1645) 46 (2010), 4; 138-165

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Balkan Wars; press; Croatian public opinion; Bulgaria; crimes

Sažetak
Several different aspects of the Croatian public opinion towards Bulgarians in the Balkan Wars were analyzed in this paper. The first aspect was the differences in the press reports of the wars themselves compared with the Serbian-Bulgarian war in 1885. During that war Croatia, almost without exception, took the Bulgarian side for several reasons. The first one was the then relationship of Croatia to both Serbia and Bulgaria. The period in which the Serbian King Milan Obrenović fostered cooperation with the powers of the Monarchy was not suitable for any cooperation between the Croatian politicians (the dissidents) and the Serbian government. These dissidents, having been forced to leave the Monarchy, found their new home (among other countries) in Bulgaria, as for example did Krunoslav Heruc, the reporter from Bulgarian-Serbian war, who had settled there. The second reason was that in those times the Serbian ethnic community in Croatia championed the politics of the Monarchy and refused any cooperation with the Croatian politicians in the unification of Croatia and Dalmatia. The argument of the righteous struggle of the Bulgarian people for their independence, which reminded a greater part of the Croatian public of their own situation, takes only the third place. Significantly different were the relations in 1912. The politicians of Serbian ethnicity in Croatia worked together on gaining a greater level of independence of Croatia, and the Serbian public opinion was supportive of Croatia’s struggle for a greater independence inside the Monarchy so that Croatian dissidents (and later reporters) resided in Serbia (Ujević and Marjanović). During the First Balkan War absolute support was given to the Balkan allies and there were reporters only on Serbian and Montenegrin battlefields. Whereas during the Inter-alliance War the public opinion was divided, so that the circles gathered around the Croatian-Serbian Coalition and some of the Party of Rights members openly took the Serbian side, with the rest of the Party of Rights members and the clerical circles taking the side of Bulgaria, while the journal of the Peasants' Party Dom and the independent Obzor only expressed their regrets for the conflict’s commencement whilst remaining neutral.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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