Former Days in Former Yugoslavia part 1 Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014

Former Days in Former Yugoslavia

Introduction Part 1

Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014

It has been 10 years to be exact since I first went to Croatia and the region of former Yugoslavia.
I knew nothing about Yugoslavia except from what I had heard from the various media reports and broadcasts. The cultural melting pot of such nations are the sediments and fractures of various empires for which consequences have been dire and these peoples have been born into a backdrop of ruthless idealism, blind nationalism and into repetition of history that was forged and moulded by the courses and actions of various empires. These people are a little people and yet simultaneously they are a great people, each one has in its possession the power to love and forgive the guilty neighbour -if they choose to- for all are guilty, part in parcel in some effect in the great scheme of things. There is great poverty behind the facade of the growing tourist industry. There are architectural and historical gems to be found piled upon the layers of history and dominion each empire has imposed and left treasures upon the face of the land and the heart of the southern Slavic peoples.

The Balkans has its unique heritage, its cultures, its beauty, its poverty, its rustic and rough struggle for independence, a land of passions within gardens of immense beauty. No wonder Byron once remarked " At the moment of the creation of our planet, the most beautiful merging of land and sea occurred at the Montenegrin seaside... When the pearls of nature were sown, an abundance of them were strewn all over this area". Similarly G.B Shaw was besotted by the beauty of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.....exclaiming it to be "the pearl of the Adriatic."

Across the Adriatic, covering the span of the border between Bosnia and Croatia you will gaze with wonder at the ugly,barren, lunar like Dinaric Alps, that scrape and tear the sky apart with their jagged Karst formations, but they are a definitive feature that dominates and defines the Dalmatian coast of western Yugoslavia. Their beauty lies in the wild remoteness and sheer size of these stony giants that greet you, when you step off the plane, in part Dalmatia is a land of stones and shrubs, but these mountains are filled with raptors, with hidden floral delights and fauna that have their own uniqueness on this particle part of the planet. There are coves and turquoise lagoons that make one think of Homer's Odyssey with the dwelling of the cyclops and some believe St.Paul was shipwrecked on the southern Dalmatian island of Mljet (meaning honey) which was at the time snake infested.

There is natural beauty in the midst of real social issues that rage on despite issues of corruption in Zagreb and the reminders of long-standing hatreds and scores that have existed between various peoples, creeds and causes that have been at the core of great travails and tragedies that were heated to boiling point some twenty years ago. Each people wants representation and fears that they will fall under the control of the other...and we must not forget that in each empire (particularly the Habsburg empire) one people, one class and one language has dominion over all others, as minorities lose their cultural identity as a people. when one gets on top...the others suffer in a game of revolving paranoia between the stronger nation and the vassals and in such cases hatred turns to genocide, as people can be dehumanized into mere rats or mere animals. This is a history lesson which has been played out in the Balkans -this too has even happened during the last Graeco-Turkish war.

I have traveled primarily through Croatia, but have ventured into Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro on various day trips. From my travel readings and my conversations with the different peoples of the region I have come to gather a fascination for these lands and their stories are rich in meaningful insight, sorrow and restoration for a new time to come.