If the Serbs had never existed...
At the beginning there is an idyllic atmosphere betweenthe actors on the stage and the audience. In February 1991 we read:
Democratic Croatia's reception in the world is very promising.
At approximately the same time the president of theCroatian parliament, on the opening of new consulate in Stuttgart proudlyemphasised:
With the victory of democracy and the transition to a parliamentary system, the final step was taken in the return of the Croatian nation to the political, cultural and economical area of Europe.
But at home the same theme, namely the return of Croatiato Europe, respectively its European identity had another use. Europe wasused here as the terminus technicus for the procedure of exclusion:
If the Serbs had never existed, we would already have been Europeans for seventy years by now,
says one letter to the editor at the end of January.
In an attempt to say something essential about nationalidentity, some Croatian intellectuals pointed out:
The Croats are not an aggressive nation. They are in general industrious, honest, diligent people who are bound together by their strong feelings for their homeland.
This would have full meaning only if compared to thecharacteristic features of the Other in the same Lebensraum, that is tosay, compared to the Serbs and the Serbian political culture the sight ofwhich makes
... the old good Europe feel sick.
Fortunately, as the Croatian intellectuals think,
...we do have our President Tudjman who has stressed that difference which separates two worlds on the territory of Yugoslavia, two politics, two ideas and two irreconcilable Weltanschauungen, democracy and bolshevik dictatorship.
Here too, any attempt to assert identity depends stronglyon the procedure of exclusion
The same expression occured again during confrontationwith the danger of war.
Shall we have to step into the war or not? In other words, the question is, should we rather europeanise ourselves or are we to stay in the Balkan tavern
Europe still had a great deal of trust at that moment,in March 1991.
There is no objective danger that Europe would allow itself to become balkanised (...) Europe is mature enough, strong and wise and can no more be stopped on its way to welfare and progress (...) In order not to let ourselves be pushed further away from Europe, we have to understand what Europe and the whole Western world are saying to us.
It is very important because from the other side thereare threats of the well known 5 B-monster:
Balkanism, Barbarism, Byzantinism, Bolshevism and Balvanism *
* Croatian word balvan means beam. The street barricades were built with them near Knin in summer 1990.