Honest agreement or behind-the-scenes political games? New contributions to the research of Milošević-Tuđman talks in Karađorđevo and Tikveš in 1991.

Abstract

During the 1980s of 20th century, socialist Yugoslavia faced various social problems, which disintegrated the fragile tissue of Tito's state-political legacy. In the early 1990s, when the unstoppable phase of dissolution of this country began, national-chauvinist quasi-elites surfaced, with the aim of realizing their great-nation ambitions in a period of general unrest. Although in this whirlwind of social events the possibility of military intervention by the JNA was used as an indispensable threat factor, the behind-the-scenes political agreements of republican leaders were often much more effective in achieving certain goals. Sometimes conducted in public, and sometimes secretly, such negotiations violated the authority of state bodies and made their existence meaningless. In this context, one can certainly observe the most famous separate negotiations from the beginning of the 1990s on the territory of the disintegrating Yugoslavia, conducted between Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman. Although due to the lack of transcripts we have no insight into the details of these talks, many close associates of the Serbian and Croatian presidents, as well as participants in various political sessions, clearly indicate the presence of a high degree of mutual agreement on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, today, three decades after Karadjordjev and Tikves, there is a reasonable suspicion that it was just a double political game of Slobodan Milosevic, who entered into such talks with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, not to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina with him but to confront him with the Bosniaks and thus weaken the front against Serbian hegemony in Yugoslavia. In this paper, the author sought to shed light on these events through statements by Tudjman and Milosevic, and addresses by their close associates and participants in numerous political talks, and thus help to take a more relevant view of Bosnia and Herzegovina's positioning in Serbian and Croatian politics in the early 1990s. year of the 20th century.