Serbia ( ), officially the
Republic of
Serbia ( ), is a country located in both
Central and
Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers
the southern part of the
Pannonian
Plain and central part of the
Balkans.
Serbia
borders Hungary
to the
north; Romania
and Bulgaria
to the east;
the Republic of
Macedonia
to the south; and Croatia
, Bosnia and
Herzegovina
and Montenegro
to the west; its border with Albania
is disputed.
Belgrade
is the
capital of Serbia and the largest city.
After
their settlement in the
Balkans, Serbs formed a
medieval kingdom that evolved
into a
Serbian Empire, which reached
its peak in the 14th century. In the 16th century Serbian lands
were
conquered by
Ottomans. Serbia regained independence from the Ottoman Empire
in a
19th century revolution and
subsequently expanded its territory.
Former Habsburg
crownland of Vojvodina
joined Serbia in 1918. Following the end of
World War I, the country united with
other South Slavic peoples into a
Yugoslav
state which would exist in several formations up until 2006,
when Serbia once again became independent.
In
February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo
, Serbia's
southern province with an ethnic Albanian
majority, declared independence. The
response from the international community has been mixed.
Serbia regards Kosovo as its autonomous province
governed
by the United Nations.
Serbia is a member of the
United
Nations, the
Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the
Council of Europe which it presided over
in 2007. It is also a potential
candidate for
membership in the
European Union and
a militarily
neutral country.
History
Prehistory & Early
The
Vinča and
Starčevo cultures were early neolithic
civilizations in Serbia between the 7th and the 3rd millennium BC.
Many
Archeological sites show a long history of culture in Serbia, such
as the Lepenski
Vir
.The ancient (
Paleo-Balkan)
Illyrians,
Thracians,
Dacians and
Celts
inhabited Serbia prior to the
Roman
conquest in the 1st century BC.
The Celts had built many fortifications,
foundations of many modern cities in Serbia, such as Kalemegdan
(Singidunum
, Belgrade).
Greeks expanded into the south of modern
Serbia in the 4th century B.C., the northernmost point of the
empire of
Alexander the Great
being the town of
Kale-Krševica.
Contemporary Serbia comprises (in total or in part)
classical provinces of
Moesia,
Pannonia,
Praevalitana,
Dalmatia,
Dacia and
Macedonia.
The northern Serbian
city of Sirmium
was one of
the capitals of the Roman Empire during
the Tetrarchy. No less than 17
Roman Emperors were born in what is now Serbia.
Medieval kingdoms and Serbian Empire
The beginning of the Serbian state starts with the
White Serbs settling the
Balkans led by the
Unknown Archont, who was asked to defend the
frontiers from invading
Avars. Emperor
Heraclius granted the Serbs a permanent
dominion in the
Sclavinias of
Western Balkans upon completing their
task.At first heavily dependent on the
Byzantine Empire as its
vassal,
Raška gained
independence by expulsion of the
Byzantine troops and heavy defeat of the
Bulgarian army. The last and
full Christianization of Serbia took place in 867-869 when
Byzantine Emperor Basil I sent priests after
Knez Mutimir had acknowledged Byzantine
suzerainty. At about the same time, the
western Serbs were subjugated to the
Frankish Empire. The
First dynasty died out in 960
A.D: the wars of succession for the Serb throne led to
incorporation into the Byzantine Empire (971).Around 1040 AD an
uprising in the medieval state of
Duklja
overthrew Byzantine rule. Duklja then assumed domination over the
Serbian lands between the 11–12th centuries. In 1077 A.D.
Duklja became the first Serb Kingdom following the
establishment of the Catholic Bishopric of Bar
.From late 12th century onwards
Raska rose to become the paramount Serb state. Over
the 13th and 14th century, it ruled over the other Serb lands.
During
this time, Serbia began to expand eastward and southward into
Kosovo and northern Macedonia and northward for the first
time.
The Serbian Empire was proclaimed in 1346 under
Stefan Dušan. During Dušan's rule, Serbia
reached its territorial peak, becoming one of the larger states in
Europe.
Dušan's Code, a universal
system of laws, was enforced.Dušan was succeeded as emperor by his
son
Uroš Nejaki . Rather
young and too incompetent to maintain a strong grip on the empire
created by his father, he watched the Serbian Empire fragment into
a conglomeration of principalities. Stefan died childless in
December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been
destroyed by the
Turks in the
Battle of Marica earlier that
year.Some of Serbia's greatest
Medieval
arts were created during this period, most notably St. Sava's
Nomocanon.
The Houses of
Mrnjavčević,
Lazarević and
Branković ruled the Serbian lands in
the 15th and 16th centuries. Constant struggles took place between
various Serbian kingdoms and the
Ottoman
Empire.
After the fall of Constantinople
to the Turks and the Siege of Belgrade, the Serbian Despotate fell in 1459 following
the siege of the provisional capital of Smederevo
. After repelling Ottoman attacks for over 70
years, Belgrade finally fell in 1521. Forceful conversion to
Islam became imminent, especially in the
southwest (
Raška, Kosovo and
Bosnia).
To the
south, the Republic of
Venice
grew stronger in importance, gradually taking over
the coastal areas.
Ottoman and Austrian rule
After the loss of independence to the
Kingdom of Hungary and the
Ottoman Empire, Serbia briefly regained
sovereignty under
Emperor Jovan
Nenad in the 16th century. Three Austrian invasions and
numerous rebellions, such as the
Banat
Uprising, constantly challenged Ottoman rule.
Vojvodina endured a century long Ottoman occupation before
being ceded to the Habsburg Empire
in the 17th-18th centuries under the Treaty of Karlowitz.As the Great Serb
Migrations depopulated most of Kosovo and Serbia proper, the Serbs sought refuge in the
more prosperous Vojvodina in
the north and Military Frontier in the West where they
were granted imperial rights by the Austrian crown under measures
such as the Statuta Wallachorum of 1630.
The
Ottoman persecutions of Christians culminated in the abolition and
plunder of the Patriarchate of Peć
in 1766. As Ottoman rule in the
Pashaluk of Belgrade grew ever more
brutal, the
Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I formally
granted the Serbs the right to their autonomous crown land.
Serbian Revolution and independence
The first modern independent Serbia was established in the course
of the
Serbian national
revolution (1804–1817), and it lasted for several decades. For
the first time in
Ottoman history an
entire
Christian population
had risen up against the
Sultan.
The entrenchment of
French troops in the western Balkans,
the incessant political crises in the Ottoman Empire, the growing intensity of the
Austro-Russian
rivalry in the Balkans, the intermittent warfare which consumed the
energies of French and Russian
Empires
and the outbreak of protracted hostilities between
the Porte and Russia are but a few of the
major international developments which directly or indirectly
influenced the course of the Serbian
revolt.
During the
First Serbian
Uprising (first phase of the revolt) led by
Karađorđe Petrović, Serbia was independent for
almost a decade before the
Ottoman
army was able to reoccupy the country. Shortly after this, the
Second Serbian Uprising
began. Led by
Miloš
Obrenović, it ended in 1815 with a compromise between the
Serbian revolutionary army and the Ottoman authorities. The famous
German historian
Leopold von Ranke
published his book "The Serbian revolution" (1829). They were the
easternmost bourgeois revolutions in the 19th-century world.
Likewise, the
Principality of
Serbia was second in
Europe to abolish
feudalism- after France.
The Convention of Ackerman (1826), the Treaty of Adrianople (1829)
and finally, the
Hatt-i Sharif of
1830, recognized the
suzerainty of
Serbia with
Miloš Obrenović I as its
hereditary
Prince. The
struggle for liberty, a more modern society and a
nation-state in Serbia won a victory under
first
constitution in the Balkans on 15 February 1835. It was
replaced by a more conservative Constitution in 1838.
In the two following decades (temporarily ruled by the
Karadjordjevic dynasty) the
Principality actively supported the
neighboring
Habsburg Serbs,
especially during the
1848 revolutions.
Interior minister
Ilija
Garašanin published
The Draft (for South Slavic
unification), which became the standpoint of Serbian foreign policy
from the mid-19th century onwards. The government thus developed
close ties with the
Illyrian
movement in
Croatia-Slavonia
(Austria-Hungary).
Following the clashes between the Ottoman army and civilians in
Belgrade in 1862, and under pressure from the
Great Powers, by 1867 the last Turkish soldiers
left the
Principality. By
enacting a new constitution without consulting the Porte,
Serbian diplomats confirmed the
de facto
independence of the country.
In 1876, Montenegro and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, proclaiming their unification
with Bosnia. The formal
independence of the country was internationally recognized at the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, which
formally ended the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78;
this treaty, however, prohibited Serbia from uniting with
Principality of Montenegro, and
placed
Bosnia and
Raška region under
Austro-Hungarian occupation to prevent
unification.
Kingdom of Serbia
From 1815
to 1903, Kingdom of
Serbia
was ruled by the House of Obrenović (except from 1842
to 1858, when it was led by Prince Aleksandar
Karađorđević). In 1882, Serbia, ruled by King Milan,
was proclaimed a Kingdom. In 1903, the
House of Karađorđević,
(descendants of the revolutionary leader
Đorđe Petrović) assumed power.
Serbia was the only country in the region that was allowed by the
Great Powers to be ruled its own
domestic dynasty.
During the Balkan
Wars (1912–1913), the Kingdom of Serbia tripled its territory by acquiring part of
Macedonia, Kosovo, and parts
of Serbia proper.
As for Vojvodina, during the
1848 revolution in
Austria,
Serbs of Vojvodina
established an autonomous region known as
Serbian Vojvodina. As of 1849, the region
was transformed into a new Austrian crown land known as the
Serbian
Voivodship and Tamiš Banat. Although abolished in 1860,
Habsburg emperors claimed the title
Großwoiwode der Woiwodschaft Serbien until the
end of the monarchy and the creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes in 1918.
World War I
On 28
June 1914 the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria at Sarajevo
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
by Gavrilo Princip (a Yugoslav
unionist member of Young Bosnia) and an
Austrian citizen, led to
Austria-Hungary declaring war on Kingdom of Serbia. In defense of its ally Serbia, Russia started to
mobilize its troops, which resulted in Austria-Hungary's ally
Germany
declaring war on Russia. The retaliation by
Austria-Hungary against Serbia activated a series of
military alliances that set off a
chain reaction of war declarations across the
continent, leading to the outbreak of World War I within a
month.
The
Serbian Army won several
major victories against Austria-Hungary at the beginning of World
War I, such as the
Battle of
Cer and
Battle of
Kolubara - marking the first
Allied victories against the
Central Powers in World War I.
Despite initial
success it was eventually overpowered by the joint forces of the
German
Empire, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria in 1915.
Most of
its army and some people went into exile to Greece and Corfu
where they
recovered, regrouped and returned to Macedonian front to lead a
final breakthrough through enemy lines on 15 September 1918,
freeing Serbia again and defeating Austro-Hungarian Empire and
Bulgaria. Serbia (with its major
campaign) was a major
Balkan Entente Power which
contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the Balkans in
November 1918, especially by enforcing Bulgaria's
capitulation with the aid of France. The
country was militarilly classified as a
minor Entente
power. Serbia was also among the main contributors to the
capitulation of Austria-Hungary in
Central Europe.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
World War II and civil war in Serbia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was in a precarious position in World War
II. Fearing an invasion by Germany, the Yugoslav Regent,
Prince Paul, signed the
Tripartite Pact with the
Axis powers on 25 March 1941, triggering
demonstrations in Belgrade. On March 27, Prince Paul was overthrown
by a military
coup d'état and
replaced by
King Peter II.
General
Dušan Simović became
Peter's Prime Minister and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia withdrew its
support for the Axis.
In response
Adolf Hitler launched the
invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April. By 17 April, unconditional
surrender was signed in Belgrade. After the invasion, the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia was dissolved and, with Yugoslavia partitioned,
Serbia became part of the
Military
Administration of Serbia, under a joint German-Serb government
led by
Milan Nedić.Aside from being
occupied by the
Wehrmacht from 1941 to
1945, Serbia was the scene of a
civil war
between
Royalist Chetniks commanded by
Draža Mihailović and
Communist Partisans commanded
by
Josip Broz Tito. Against these
forces were arrayed Nedić's units of the
Serbian Volunteer
Corps and the
Serbian State
Guard. By the beginning of 1944, the partisans became the
leading force in Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Herzegovina. In
Serbia however, especially in rural areas, the population remained
loyal to
Draza Mihajlovic.
The joint
Soviet and Bulgarian
occupation in 1944 swung in favour of the partisans, who were
then established as the ruling elite, with the
Karadjordjevic dynasty banned from
returning to Serbia. The Syrmia front was the last sequence of the
civil war in Serbia.
Genocide of Serbs by the Ustaše regime in WWII Croatia
The ultranationalist and fascist
Ustaše
sought to purge the Independent State of Croatia of Serbs,
Jews, and
Roma who were
subjected to large-scale persecution and genocide, most notoriously
at the Jasenovac concentration camp. The Jewish Virtual Library
estimates that between and
Croatian
Serbs were killed at Jasenovac and that between and were
victims of the entire genocide campaign. The estimated number of
Serbian children who died is between 35,000 and 50,000. The Yad
Vashem center reports that over Serbs were killed overall in the
NDH, with some people of many nationalities and ethnicities
murdered in one camp Jasenovac. After the war, official Yugoslav
sources estimated over victims, mostly Serbs. Misha Glenny suggests
that the numbers of Serbs killed in the genocide was more than
400,000.
In April 2003 Croatian president
Stjepan Mesić apologized on behalf of
Croatia to the victims of Jasenovac. In 2006, on the same occasion,
he added that to every visitor to Jasenovac it must be clear that
"
Holocaust, genocide and war crimes" took place
there.
Serbia within Socialist Yugoslavia
After the war ended, the election law was passed, scheduling them
for November 1945. According to that law, the voting right was
granted to all citizens of Yugoslavia over 18 years of age, as well
as all members of the People's Front and partisan units
regardless of their age. Voting right were denied to
former royalist forces, pro-independist parties in Serbia and
Croatia, (assumed) collaborators and Germans and Italians.
Opposition parties have been encouraged to dismantle and join the
list of the People's Front. Strict censorship was enforced, as all
members of the Election Committee belonged to the People's front.
All opposition parties have reported abuse from Ozna, the secret
police. Most parties were dismantled and incorporated onto the
single list of the People's front, as they were inhibited to apply
on their own, with the remainer of the opposition boycotting the
elections. Single list, as a single candidate who participated in
the elections, won decisively. By 1947, the People's Front was
"cleansed" from their formerly individual leaders, and all
opposition parties outside the list have been abolished. At the
same time, the supreme leadership formally accepted the programme
of the Communist party as its own.
On the
basis of the elections, the constitutional assembly established by
the Yugoslav Communist party proclaimed the abolition of the
Serbian-led
monarchy of Yugoslavia
– and the royal family was banned from returning to
the country. A communist regime was established under a
dictatorship led by Yugoslavia's Communist Party leader
Joseph Broz Tito. Tito, who was of
Croat-
Slovene descent
personally sought inter-ethnic unity in the aftermath of the
violent division of the country in World War II through a policy
called
Brotherhood and Unity
which sponsored cooperation between the peoples and promoted a
united
Yugoslav identity over existing
ethnic or religious identities, repressed nationalists of any
nationality, and forced the different peoples to work with each
other to solve their differences. This would become highly
controversial in Serbia in the latter years of Tito's rule.
Serbia
was one of 6 federal units of the state, the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(Socijalistička Federativna Republika
Jugoslavija
, or SFRJ). Over time Serbia's influence
began to wane as reforms demanded by the other republics demanded
decentralization of power to allow them to have an equal say in the
centralized system.
This began with the creation of the
autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina which initially held modest powers. However,
reforms in 1974 made drastic changes, giving the autonomous
provinces nearly equal powers to the republics, in which the
Serbian parliament held no control over the political affairs of
the two provinces, and technically only held power over
Central Serbia. Many Serbs, including those
in the Yugoslav Communist party, resented the powers held by the
autonomous provinces. At the same time, a number of Kosovo ethnic
Albanians in the 1980s began to demand that Kosovo be granted the
right to be a republic within Yugoslavia, thus giving it the right
to separate, a right which it did not have as an autonomous
province. The ethnic tensions between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo would eventually have a major influence in the collapse of
the SFRY.
Dissolution of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav Wars
Slobodan Milošević rose
to power in Serbia in 1989 in the
League of Communists of
Serbia through a serious of coups against incumbent governing
members. Milošević promised reduction of powers for the autonomous
provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina.
This ignited tensions with the communist
leadership of the other republics that eventually resulted in the
secession of Slovenia
, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Macedonia from Yugoslavia.
Multiparty democracy was introduced in Serbia in 1990, officially
dismantling the former one-party communist system. Critics of the
Milošević government claimed that the Serbian government continued
to be authoritarian despite constitutional changes as Milošević
maintained strong personal influence over Serbia's state media.
Milošević issued
media blackouts of
independent media stations' coverage of protests against his
government and restricted freedom of speech through reforms to the
Serbian Penal Code which issued criminal sentences on anyone who
"ridiculed" the government and its leaders, resulting in many
people being arrested who opposed Milošević and his
government.
The period of political turmoil and conflict marked a rise in
ethnic tensions and between Serbs and other ethnicities of the
former Communist Yugoslavia as territorial claims of the different
ethnic factions often crossed into each others' claimed territories
Serbs who had criticized the nationalist atmosphere, the Serbian
government, or the Serb political entities in Bosnia and Croatia
were reported to be harassed, threatened, or killed by nationalist
Serbs. Serbs in Serbia feared that the nationalist and separatist
government of Croatia was led by
Ustase
sympathizers who would oppress Serbs living in Croatia.
This view
of the Croatian government was promoted by Milošević, who also
accused the separatist government of Bosnia and
Herzegovina of being led by Islamic fundamentalists. The
governments of Croatia and Bosnia in turn accused the Serbian
government of attempting to create a
Greater Serbia. These views led to a
heightening of
xenophobia between the
peoples during the wars.
In 1992,
the governments of Serbia and Montenegro agreed to the creation of a new Yugoslav federation
called the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia
which abandoned the predecessor SFRY's official
endorsement of communism, and instead endorsed
democracy.
In response to accusations that the Yugoslav government was
financially and militarily supporting the Serb military forces in
Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia,
sanctions were imposed by the
United Nations, during the 1990s,
which led to political isolation, economic decline and hardship,
and serious
hyperinflation of
currency in Yugoslavia.
Milošević represented the
Bosnian
Serbs at the
Dayton peace
agreement in 1995, signing the agreement which ended the
Bosnian War that internally partitioned
Bosnia & Herzegovina largely along ethnic lines into a
Serb republic and a
Bosniak-Croat
federation.
When the ruling
Socialist
Party of Serbia refused to accept municipal election results in
1997 which resulted in defeat in municipal municipalties, Serbians
engaged in large protests against the Serbian government,
government forces held back the protesters.Between 1998 and 1999,
Serbia's official peace was broken when the situation in Kosovo
worsened with continued clashes in Kosovo between the Serbian and
Yugoslavian security forces on one side and the ethnic Albanian
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
on the other, which was known as the
Kosovo
War.
Political transition
In September 2000, opposition parties claimed that Milošević
committed fraud in routine federal elections. Street protests and
rallies throughout Serbia eventually forced Milošević to concede
and hand over power to the recently formed
Democratic Opposition of
Serbia (
Demokratska opozicija Srbije, or DOS). The DOS
was a broad coalition of anti-Milošević parties. On 5 October, the
fall of Milošević led to end of
the international isolation Serbia suffered during the Milošević
years.
Milošević was sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia
on accusations of sponsoring war crimes and crimes
against humanity during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo
which he was held on trial to until his death in 2006. With
the fall of Milošević, Serbia's new leaders announced that Serbia
would seek to join the
European Union
(EU). In October 2005, the EU opened negotiations with Serbia for a
Stabilization
and Association Agreement (SAA), a preliminary step towards
joining the
EU.
Serbia's political climate since the fall of Milošević remained
tense. In 2003, the prime minister
Zoran Đinđić was
assassinated as
result of a plot originating from circles of organized crime and
former security forces. Nationalist and EU-oriented political
forces in Serbia have remained sharply divided on the political
course of Serbia in regards to its relations with the European
Union and the West. However, the tensions between those political
poles gradually eased since, as the issues of Kosovo independence,
economical crisis and aspiration towards
accession to the
European Union forced the parties to find more common
ground.
From 2003 to 2006, Serbia has been part of the "State Union of
Serbia and Montenegro." This union was the successor to the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ). On 21 May 2006, Montenegro held a
referendum to determine whether or not to end its union with
Serbia. The next day, state-certified results showed 55.4% of
voters in favor of independence. This was just above the 55%
required by the referendum.
Republic of Serbia
On 5 June
2006, following the referendum in Montenegro, the National Assembly of Serbia
declared the "Republic of Serbia" to be the legal successor to the
"State Union of Serbia and Montenegro." Serbia and
Montenegro became separate nations. However, the possibility of a
dual citizenship for the
Serbs of
Montenegro is a matter of the ongoing negotiations between the
two governments.
In April 2008 Serbia was invited to join the
intensified dialogue programme
with NATO
despite the
diplomatic rift with the Alliance over Kosovo.
Geography
Mountain ranges and major rivers of
Serbia.
Serbia is at the crossroads between
Central-,
Southern- and
Eastern Europe, between the
Balkan peninsula and the
Pannonian Plain.
The province of Vojvodina, occupying the northern third of the
country, is located entirely within the Central European Pannonian
Plain. The easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the
Wallachian Plain.
The northeastern
border of the country is determined by the Carpathian
Mountain range
, which run through the whole of Central
Europe. The Southern Carpathians
meet the Balkan Mountains
, following the course of the Velika Morava
, a 500 km long (partially navigable)
river. The Midžor
peak is the
highest point in eastern Serbia at 2156 m. In the
southeast, the Balkan Mountains meet the
Rhodope Mountains.
The Šar
Mountains
of Kosovo form the border with Albania, with one of
the highest peaks in the region, Djeravica
(2656 m). Dinaric Alps
of Serbia follow the flow of the Drina river
(at 350 km navigable for smaller vessels only)
overlooking the Dinaric peaks on the opposite shore in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Although
landlocked, there are around 2000 km of navigable rivers and
canals, the largest of which are: the Danube,
Sava, Tisa, joined
by the Timiş River and Begej, all of which connect Serbia with
Northern and Western Europe (through the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal
– North
Sea
route), to Eastern Europe (via the Tisa, Timiş,
Begej and Danube Black Sea
routes) and to Southern Europe (via the Sava
river). The two largest Serbian cities – Belgrade and Novi
Sad
, as well as Smederevo – are major regional Danubian
harbours.
Over a quarter of Serbia (27%) is covered by forest. In 2010, as
projected, the
national parks will
take up 10% of the country's entire territory.
Climate
Kopaonik
The Serbian climate varies between a continental climate in the
north, with cold winters, and hot, humid summers with well
distributed rainfall patterns, and a more Adriatic climate in the
south with hot, dry summers and autumns and relatively cold winters
with heavy inland snowfall.
Differences in elevation, proximity to the
Adriatic
Sea
and large river basins, as well as exposure to the
winds account for climate differences.Vojvodina possesses typical continental climate, with air
masses from northern and western Europe which shape its climatic
profile. South and South-west Serbia is subject to
Mediterranean influences. However, the
Dinaric Alps and other mountain ranges
contribute to the cooling down of most of the warm air masses.
Winters are quite harsh in
Sandžak
because of the mountains which encircle the plateau.
Mediterranean microregions exist throughout southern Serbia, in
Zlatibor and the Pčinja District around valley and river
Pčinja.
The average annual air temperature for the period 1961–90 for the
area with an altitude of up to 300 m is 10.9
°C. The areas with an altitude of 300 m to
500 m have an average annual temperature of around
10.0 °C, and over 1000 m of altitude around 6.0 °C.
The
lowest recorded temperature in Serbia was –39.5 °C
(-39 °F, January 13 1985, Karajukića Bunari in Pešter
), and the highest was 44.9 °C (113 °F,
July 24 2007, Smederevska Palanka
). In the summer of 2007, temperatures were
as high as 46 °C in Serbia (July 23, 114.8 °F).
Environment
Danube at Đerdap (Iron Gate)
Serbian environmental protection is monitored by the Republic of
Serbia Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), a part of the
Ministry for Science and Environmental Protection of the Republic
of Serbia.The NATO bombings of 1999 caused lasting damage to the
environment of Serbia, with several thousand tons of toxic chemical
stored in factories that were targeted being released into the
soil, atmosphere and water basins affecting humans and the local
wildlife.Recycling is still a fledgeling activity in Serbia, with
only 15% of its waste being turned back for re-use, while the
Ministry for Science and Environmental Protection is moving towards
improving the situation.The Serbian Energy Efficiency Agency (SEEA)
was founded in May 2002. A national non-profit organization, it
develops and proposes programmes andmeasures, co-ordinates and
stimulates activities intended to achieve rational use and saving
ofenergy, as well as the increase in efficiency of energy use in
all sectors of consumption.The country is looking towards making
wider use of renewable energy, a 20 megawatt wind farm is being
developed in Belo Blato as part of a 300 megawatt development
plan.
Serbia has 5
national
parks:
Government
On 4 February 2003 the
parliament of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia agreed to a weaker form of cooperation
between Serbia and Montenegro within a
confederal state called Serbia and Montenegro.
The Union ceased to exist following Montenegrin and Serbian
declarations of independence in June 2006.
After the ousting of
Slobodan Milošević on 5 October
2000, the country was governed by the
Democratic Opposition of
Serbia. Tensions gradually increased within the coalition until
the
Democratic Party of
Serbia (DSS) left the government, leaving the
Democratic Party (DS) in overall
control.
Serbia held a two-day
referendum on 28
October and 29 October 2006, that ratified a new constitution to
replace the Milošević-era constitution.
The current
President of Serbia
is
Boris Tadić, leader of the
center-left
Democratic
Party (DS). He was reelected with 50.5% of the vote in the
second round of the
Serbian presidential
election held on 4 February 2008.
Serbia held parliamentary elections on 21 May 2008. The coalition
For a European Serbia led by
DS claimed victory, but significantly short of an absolute
majority. Following the negotiations with the leftist coalition
centered around
Socialist
Party of Serbia (SPS) and parties of national minorities (those
of Hungarians, Bosniaks and Albanians) an agreement was reached to
make-up a new government, headed by
Mirko Cvetković.
Present-day Serbian politics are fractious and extremely divided
between nationalist and liberal European Union advocating parties.
Issues include proposals to restore the Serbian monarchy whose
family members have stated that they are interested in forming a
constitutional monarchy in
Serbia. However, none of the larger parties actively support
restoration.
Administrative subdivisions
Serbia is
divided into 24 districts
(excluding Kosovo) plus the City of Belgrade
. The districts and the City of Belgrade are
further divided into
municipalities.
Serbia has 2
autonomous provinces: Vojvodina with (7 districts, 46 municipalities) and Kosovo and
Metohija
. Kosovo has declared independence, which
Belgrade opposes, and is presently under the administration of
EULEX (see Kosovo status process).
The part of Serbia that is neither in Kosovo nor in Vojvodina is
called
Central Serbia. Central Serbia
is not an administrative division, unlike the two autonomous
provinces, and it has no regional government of its own.
In
English this region is often called "Serbia proper" to denote "the part of the
Republic of Serbia not including the provinces of Vojvodina and
Kosovo", as the Library of Congress
puts it. This usage was also employed in
Serbo-Croatian during the Yugoslav
era (in the form of "uža Srbija", literally: "narrow Serbia"). Its
use in English is purely geographical, without any particular
political meaning being implied.
Military
The
Armed Forces of Serbia
are subordinated to the
Ministry of Defense. The Armed
Forces are divided into the
Land
Command,
Air and
Defense Command and
Training Command. As a
landlocked country, Serbia does not have a navy but operates a
Serbian River
Flotilla as an independent service. Constitutionally, the
commander of Armed Forces is the incumbent
President of Serbia.
The wars and crisis of the 1990s have significantly hampered the
Army, which has since suffered lack of financing, personnel
reduction from 150,000, to 30,000 and low enrollment rates. Serbian
military expenditures dropped
from around 5% of GDP in the late 1990s to a mere 2.1% in 2009.
Thorough reforms and full professionalization (whose completion is
scheduled for the end of 2010) are underway, but the lack of funds
has slowed the process. Conscription is still mandatory and regular
service takes 6 months, but a high number of recruits take the
opportunity to put forth
conscientious objection and serve 9
months in civil service.
Serbia
participates in the Partnership
for Peace program, but does not aspire to full NATO membership,
due to significant public objections, largely stemming from the
1999 NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia.
Demographics
.png/180px-Census_2002_Serbia,_ethnic_map_(by_localities).png)
Ethnic map of Serbia according to the
2002 Census
- Serbia (Census 2002, excluding Kosovo): 7,498,001
Serbs form the largest ethnic group, with
significant
minorities consisting of
Hungarians,
Bosniaks,
Albanians,
Roma,
Croats,
Czechs and
Slovaks,
Macedonians,
Bulgarians,
Romanians,
Germans, and
Chinese.
According to the UN
assessments, 450,000 to 500,000 Roma
live in Serbia, most of whom have been exiled from Kosovo. The
German minority in Vojvodina
was more numerous in the past (336,430 in 1900, or 23.5% of the
population).
The northern province of Vojvodina is ethnically and religiously diverse.
According to the last official census data collected in 2002,
ethnic composition of Serbia is:
| Ethnic Composition (2002
census) |
|
| Ethnic group |
Population |
| Serbs |
6,212,000 |
(82.86%) |
| Hungarians |
293,172 |
(3.91%) |
| Bosniaks |
136,464 |
(1.82%) |
| Roma |
107,971 |
(1.44%) |
| Yugoslavs |
80,978 |
(1.08%) |
| Croats |
70,602 |
(0.94%) |
| Slovaks |
57,900 |
(0.89%) |
| Germans |
5,200 |
(0,1%) |
| Others (each less than 1%) |
474,323 |
(9.79%) |
| TOTAL |
7,498,001 |
|
The census was not conducted in Serbia's southern province of
Kosovo, which is under administration by the United Nations.
According to the
EU estimates however, the
overall population is estimated at 1,350,000 inhabitants, of whom
90% are Albanians, 8% Serbs and others 2%.There are also around
200,000 Serbian and other refugees,who are expelled from Kosovo.
Refugees and IDPs in Serbia form between 7% and
7.5% of its population – about half a million refugees sought
refuge in the country following the series of Yugoslav wars (from Croatia mainly, to an
extent Bosnia and
Herzegovina too and the IDPs from Kosovo, which are
the most numerous at over 200,000) Serbia has the largest refugee
population in Europe.On the other hand, it is estimated that
500,000 people have left Serbia during the '90s alone. Significant
amount of these people were college graduates. Serbia has the
fourth oldest overall population on the planet, mostly due to heavy
migration and low level of fertility, which is expected to continue
in long terms. In addition, Serbia has among the highest negative
growth population rates in the world, ranking 227th out of 233
countries overall.
- Cities:
Religion
For centuries straddling the religious boundary between
Orthodoxy and
Roman Catholicism, joined up later by
Islam, Serbia remains one of the most diverse countries on the
continent.
Centuries on, different regions of Serbia
remain heavily cosmopolitan: Vojvodina province is 25% Catholic or Protestant, while Central Serbia and Belgrade regions are over 90% Orthodox Christian.
Kosovo consists of
a 90% Albanian Muslim majority.Among
the
Eastern Orthodox
churches, the
Serbian
Orthodox Church is the westernmost.
According to the 2002
Census, 82% of the population of Serbia (excluding Kosovo) or 6,2 million people declared their nationality
as Serbian, who are overwhelmingly adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Other
Orthodox Christian
communities in Serbia include
Montenegrins,
Romanians/
Vlachs,
Macedonians,
Bulgarians etc. Together they comprise about 84%
of the entire population.
Catholicism is mostly present in Vojvodina (mainly in its northern part), where almost 20% of
the regional population (minority ethnic groups such as the
Hungarians, Slovaks, Croats, Bunjevci, Czechs etc. belong
to this Christian denomination.
There are an estimated 433,000 baptized
Catholics in Serbia, roughly 6,2% of the
population, mostly in northern Serbia.
Temple of Saint Sava
Protestantism accounts for about 1.5%
of the country's population. Islam has a strong historic following
in the southern regions of Serbia –
Raska
and several municipalities in the south-east.
Bosniaks are the largest Muslim community in Serbia
at about 140,000 (2%), followed by
Albanians (1%),
Turks,
Arabs etc.
With the
exile of Jews from Spain
during the
infamous Inquisition era, thousands of
escaping families and individuals made their way through Europe to
the Balkans. A goodly number settled in Serbia and became
part of the general population. They were well accepted and during
the ensuing generations the majority assimilated or became
traditional or secular, rather than remain orthodox Jews as had
been the original immigrants. Later on the wars that ravaged the
region resulted in a great part of the Serbian Jewish population
emigrating from Europe.
Economy
With a GDP
PPP for 2008
estimated at $79.662 billion ($10,792 per capita
PPP), the Republic of Serbia is an
upper-middle income economy by the
World
Bank. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in 2006 was $5.85 billion
or €4.5 billion. FDI for 2007 reached $4.2 Billion while real GDP
per capita figures are estimated to have reached $6,781 (April
2009). The GDP growth rate showed increase by 6.3% (2005), 5.8%
(2006), reaching 7.5% in 2007 and 8.7% in 2008 as the fastest
growing economy in the region. According to
Eurostat data, Serbian PPS GDP per capita stood at
37 per cent of the EU average in 2008.
At the beginning of economic transition in 1989, the politics of
the
Yugoslav government handprints gets
favorable economic outlook. Also, the
economic sanctions of 1992 to 1995, as
well as the industry damage suffered during the
Kosovo War devastating economic climate within
Serbia. The loss of former Yugoslav and
Comecon markets had devastating effects on the
exporters.
After the people ousted the former Federal Yugoslav President
Milošević in October 2000, the country experienced faster economic
growth, and has been preparing for membership in the
European Union, its most important trading
partner.
The recovery of the economy still faces many problems, among which
unemployment (14%) high export/import
trade deficit and considerable national debt are most prominent.
The country expects some major economic impulses and high growth
rates in the next years. Given its recent high economic growth
rates, which averaged 6.6% in the last three years, foreign
analysts have sometimes labeled Serbia as the “Balkan Tiger”.
Apart
from its free-trade agreement
with the EU as its associate member,
Serbia is the only European country outside
the former Soviet Union to have free trade agreements with the
Russian
Federation
and, more recently, Belarus
. Apart from its favorable economic agreements
with both the East and West, such steps could be soon undertaken
with Turkey
and
Iran
. By doing this Serbia hopes to set up an
export-oriented economy.
Blue-chip
corporations investing in Serbia include: US
Steel, Philip
Morris, Microsoft, FIAT
, Coca-Cola, Lafarge,
Siemens, Carlsberg
and others.In the energy, Russian giants
Lukoil and
Gazprom have
invested heavily.
The banking sector has attracted investments
from Banca Intesa (Italy
), Credit Agricole and Societe Generale (France
), HVB Bank (Germany), Erste
Bank (Austria
), Eurobank EFG and
Piraeus Bank (Greece
), and
others. U.S. based Citibank, opened a representative
office in Belgrade in December 2006.In the trade sector,
biggest foreign investors are France's
Intermarche, German
Metro Cash & Carry, Greek
Veropoulos, and Slovenian
Mercator.
Serbia grows about one-third of the world's
raspberries and is the leading frozen fruit
exporter.
Communications
Light blue represent recognition of
Serbian as minority language, dark blue official language.
89% of households in Serbia have fixed telephone lines, and the
number of cell-phone users surpasses the number of population of
Serbia itself by 30%, accounting to 9,60 million users (7,39
million citizens). (
Telekom
Srbija–5,65 million,
Telenor has
3,1 million users and
Vip mobile has the
rest).
[5034] 46.8% of households have computers,
36.7% use the internet, and 42% have cable TV, which puts the
country ahead of certain member states of the EU.
Transport
Serbia owns one of the world's oldest airline carriers,
Jat Airways, founded in 1927.
There are 3
international airports in Serbia: Belgrade
Nikola Tesla Airport
, Niš Constantine the Great
Airport
and Vršac
international airport
as well as
one in Kosovo, Pristina International
Airport
.
Historians have labeled the entire Serbia,
and especially the valley of the Morava, as "the
crossroads between East and West", which is one of the primary
reasons for its turbulent history. The Morava valley
route, which avoids mountainous regions, is by far the easiest way
of traveling overland from continental Europe to Greece and
Asia
Minor
. Modern Serbia was the first among its
neighbors to buy railroads- in 1858 the first train arrived to
Vrsac
, then Austria-Hungary (by 1882 route to Belgrade and Niš
was
completed). Serbian Railways
handles the entire railway links in Serbia.
European routes E65,
E70,
E75 and
E80, as well as the E662, E761, E762,
E763, E771, and E851 pass through the country. The
E70 westwards from Belgrade and
most of the E75 are modern highways of
motorway /
autobahn
standard or close to that. As of 2005, Serbia has 1,481,498
registered cars, 16,042 motorcycles, 9,626 buses, 116,440 trucks,
28,222 special transport vehicles, 126,816 tractors, and 101,465
trailers.
The Danube River, central Europe's connection to the Black Sea,
flows through Serbia. Through Danube-Rhine-Mein canal the North Sea
is also accessible.
Tisza river offers a
connection with Eastern Europe while the
Sava
river connects her to western former Yugoslav republics near the
Adriatic Sea.
Tourism
Serbia’s government, businesses, and citizen’s concentrate their
tourism on the villages and mountains of the country.
The most famous
mountain resorts are Zlatibor
, Kopaonik
, and the Tara
.
There are
also many spas in Serbia, one the biggest of which is Vrnjačka
Banja
. Other spas include Soko Banja and Niška Banja
. There is a significant amount of tourism in
the largest cities like Belgrade, Novi
Sad and Niš, but also
in the rural parts of Serbia like the volcanic wonder of Đavolja
varoš
, Christian pilgrimage
across the country and the cruises along the Danube, Sava or Tisza. There are several popular festivals held
in Serbia, such as the
EXIT Festival
(proclaimed the best
European festival by UK
Festival Awards 2007 and Yourope, the European Association of the
40 largest festivals in Europe) and the
Guča trumpet festival. 2,2
million tourists visited Serbia in 2007, a 15% increase compared to
2006.
Culture
For
centuries straddling the boundaries between East and West, Serbia
had been divided among: the Eastern
and Western halves of the
Roman Empire; between Kingdom of Hungary, Bulgarian Empire, Frankish Kingdom and Byzantium; and between the Ottoman Empire and the Austrian Empire (later
Austria-Hungary), as well as Venice
in the
south. The result of these overlapping influences
are distinct characters and sharp contrasts between various Serbian
regions, its north being more
tied to Western Europe and south leaning towards the Balkans and
the Mediterranean Sea.
Despite these confronting influences Serbian identity is quite
solid, being described as the "most westernized of the
Eastern Orthodox peoples, both
socially and culturally" by the Encyclopedia of World History
(2001).
The
Byzantine Empire's influence on
Serbia was profound, through introduction of
Greek Orthodoxy from 7th century onwards
(today-
Serbian Orthodox
Church).
Different influences were also present-
chiefly the Ottoman, Hungarian, Austrian and also Venetian (coastal
Serbs). Serbs use both the
Cyrillic and
Latin alphabets.
The
monasteries of
Serbia, built largely in the
Middle
Ages, are one of the most valuable and visible traces of
medieval Serbia's
association with the Byzantium and the Orthodox World, but also
with the Romanic (Western) Europe that Serbia had close ties with
back in Middle Ages.
Most of Serbia's queens still remembered
today in Serbian history were of
foreign origin, including Hélène d'Anjou (a cousin of
Charles I of Sicily), Anna
Dondolo (daughter of the Doge of
Venice, Enrico Dandolo),
Catherine of Hungary, and Symonide of Byzantium.
Serbia
has eight cultural sites marked on the UNESCO World Heritage list: Stari Ras
and Sopoćani
monasteries (included in 1979), Studenica
Monastery (1986), the Medieval Serbian Monastic
Complex in Kosovo, comprising: Dečani Monastery
, Our Lady of Ljeviš
, Gračanica
and Patriarchate
of Pec- (2004, put on the endangered list in 2006), and
Gamzigrad –
Romuliana, Palace of Galerius
, added in
2007. Likewise, there are 2 literary
memorials added on the UNESCO
's list as
a part of the Memory of
the World Programme: Miroslav
Gospels, handwriting from the 12th century (added in 2005), and
Nikola Tesla's archive
(2003).
The most prominent museum in Serbia is the
National Museum, founded in 1844 ;
it houses a collection of more than 400,000 exhibits,(over 5600
paintings and 8400 drawings and prints) including many foreign
masterpiece collections and the famous
Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje.Currently museum
is under reconstruction.
The museum is situated in Belgrade.
Serbian theatre and cinema
Serbia has a well-established theatrical tradition with many
theaters. The
Serbian National
Theatre was established in 1861 with its building dating from
1868. The company started performing opera from the end of the 19th
century and the permanent opera was established in 1947. It
established a ballet company.
Bitef, Belgrade International Theatre
Festival, is one of the oldest theatre festivals in the world. New
Theatre Tendencies is the constant subtitle of the Festival.
Founded in 1967, Bitef has continually followed and supported the
latest theater trends. It has become one of five most important and
biggest European festivals. It has become one of the most
significant culture institutions of Serbia.
Cinema prospered after World War II. The most notable postwar
director was
Dušan Makavejev
who was internationally recognised for
Love
Affair: Or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator in
1969 focussing on Yugoslav politics. Makavejev's
Montenegro was made in Sweden in 1981.
Zoran Radmilović was one of the most
notable actors of the postwar period.
Serbian cinema continued to make progress despite the turmoil in
the 1990s.
Emir Kusturica
won a Golden Palm for Best Feature Film at the Cannes Film
Festival
for Underground in 1995. In
1998, Kusturica won a Silver Lion for directing
Black Cat, White Cat.
As at
2001, there were 167 cinemas in Serbia (excluding Kosovo and Metohija) and over 4
million Serbs went to the cinema in that year. In 2005,
San zimske noći (A
Midwinter Night's Dream ) directed by
Goran Paskaljević caused controversy over
its criticism of Serbia's role in the
Yugoslav wars in the 1990s.
Education
Education in Serbia is regulated by the Ministry of Education.
Education starts in either pre-schools or elementary schools.
Children enroll in elementary schools ( ) at the age of seven, and
remain there for eight years.
The roots
of the Serbian education system date back to the 11th and 12th
centuries when the first Catholic colleges were founded in
Vojvodina (Titel
, Bač
). Medieval Serbian education, however, was
mostly conducted through the Serbian Orthodox monasteries (Sopocani, Studenica, Patriarchate of Pec
) starting from the rise of Raska in 12th century, when Serbs
overwhelmingly embraced Orthodoxy rather than
Catholicism.
The first
university in Serbia was founded in revolutionary Belgrade in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School, the precursor
of the contemporary University of
Belgrade. For example, the
University of Belgrade
Faculty of Law is today one of regional leaders in legal
education.
The oldest college (faculty) within current
borders of Serbia dates back to 1778; founded in the city of
Sombor
, then
Habsburg Empire, it was known under
the name Norma and was the oldest Slavic Teacher's college in Southern
Europe.
Holidays
All holidays in Serbia are regulated by the Law of national and
other holidays in Republic of Serbia (
Zakon o državnim i drugim
praznicima u Republici Srbiji). The following holidays are
observed state-wide:
| Date |
Name |
Notes |
| 1 January / 2 January |
New Year's Day (Nova
Godina) |
non-working holiday |
| 7 January |
Orthodox Christmas (Božić) |
non-working holiday |
| 27 January |
Saint Sava's Day – Spirituality day (Savindan –
Dan Duhovnosti) |
working holiday (in memory on the founder of the Serbian
Orthodox Church) |
| 15 February |
Candlemas – Statehood day (Sretenje –
Dan državnosti) |
non-working holiday (in memory on the First Serbian
Uprising) |
| 17 April |
Orthodox Great Friday (Veliki
petak) |
non-working holiday (date for 2009 only) |
| 18 April |
Orthodox Great Saturday (Velika subota) |
non-working holiday (date for 2009 only) |
| 19 April |
Orthodox Easter (Vaskrs) |
non-working holiday (date for 2009 only) |
| 20 April |
Orthodox Easter Monday (Veliki
ponedeljak) |
non-working holiday (date for 2009 only) |
| 1 May / 2 May |
Labour Day (Dan rada) |
non-working holiday |
| 9 May |
Victory Day (Dan pobede) |
working holiday |
| 28 June |
Saint Vitus' Day – Day of the fallen for the fatherland
(Vidovdan – Dan Srba palih za
otadžbinu) |
working holiday (in memory of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389) |
Also, members of other religions have the right not to work on days
of their holidays.
Sport
The Sport in Serbia revolves mostly around team sports:
football,
basketball,
water polo,
volleyball,
handball, and, more recently,
tennis. The two main football clubs in Serbia are
Red Star Belgrade and
FK Partizan, both from capital Belgrade.
Red Star
is the only Serbian and former Yugoslav club that has won a
UEFA competition, winning the 1991 European Cup in Bari
,
Italy. The same year in Tokyo, Japan, the club won the
Intercontinental Cup. Partizan
is the first club from Serbia to take part in the
UEFA Champions League group stages
subsequent to the breakup of the Former Yugoslavia. The matches
between two rival clubs are known as "
Eternal Derby" ( ).
Serbia was host of
EuroBasket 2005.
FIBA considers
Serbia national basketball
team the direct descendant of the famous
Yugoslavia national
basketball team.
KK Partizan was the
European champion in 1992 with curiosity
of winning the title, although playing all but one of the games
(crucial quarter-final game vs.
Knorr) on foreign grounds; FIBA decided not
to allow teams from Former Yugoslavia play their home games at
their home venues, because of open hostilities in the region. KK
Partizan was not allowed to defend the title in the 1992–1993
season, because of UN sanction. Players from Serbia made deep
footprint in history of basketball, having success both in the top
leagues of Europe and in the
NBA. Serbia is one of the
traditional powerhouses of world basketball, winning various
FIBA World Championships,
multiple
Eurobaskets and
Olympic medals (albeit as
FR Yugoslavia).
Serbian capital Belgrade hosted the
2006 Men's European
Water Polo Championship. The
Serbia national water polo
team was previously known as the
Yugoslavia national
water polo team. After becoming independent, Serbia have won
2006
European championship, finished as runner-up in
2008 and won
bronze medal at
2008 Summer
Olympics held in
Beijing.
VK Partizan won 6 titles of
European champion and it is the second best
European team in history of water polo.
Serbia and Italy were host nations at
2005 Men's European
Volleyball Championship. The
Serbia men's national
volleyball team is the direct descendant of
Yugoslavia men's
national volleyball team. After becoming independent, Serbia
won bronze medal at
2007 Men's European
Volleyball Championship held in Moscow.
Serbian
tennis players
Novak Đoković,
Ana Ivanović,
Jelena Janković,
Nenad Zimonjić and
Janko Tipsarević are very successful
and led to a popularisation of
tennis in
Serbia.
Milorad Čavić and
Nađa Higl in
swimming,
Olivera Jevtić,
Dragutin Topić in
athletics,
Aleksandar Karakašević in
table tennis,
Jasna Šekarić in
shooting are also very popular athletes in
Serbia.
Cuisine
Serbian cuisine is varied, the
turbulent historical events influenced the food and people, and
each region has its own peculiarities and differences. It is
strongly influenced by the Byzantine-Greek, Mediterranean, Oriental
and Austro-Hungarian styles.
International rankings
See also
References
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http://historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/images/frankish_empire_big.jpg
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camp
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http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/16/world/breakup-of-yugoslavia-leaves-slovenia-secure-croatia-shaky.html
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happened at state TV, warmongering, things we can admit to now:
false information, biased reporting. That went directly from
Milošević to the head of TV".
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Bosnia-Hercegovina". International Centre Against
Censorship. Article 19, May 1994. Avon, United Kingdom: The
Bath Press. Pp. 59
- Baumgartl, Bernd; Favell, Adam. 1995. New Xenophobia in Europe.
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Pp. 52
- Gagnon, Valère Philip. 2004. The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia
and Croatia in the 1990s. Cornell University Press. Pp. 5
- B92 - News - Politics - NATO offers "intensified
dialogue" to Serbia
- ABOUT THE CARPATHIANS - Carpathian Heritage
Society
- Belgrade has a harbour on Sava as well
-
http://www.siepa.gov.rs/site/en/home/1/investing_in_serbia/modern_infrastructure/transport/
-
http://www.poslovnimagazin.biz/magazin/privreda/u-srbiji-do-2010-godine-10-teritorije-nacionalni-parkovi-30-377
- Radovanović, M and Dučić, V, 2002, Variability of Climate in Serbia in the Second Half of the
20th century, EGS XXVII General Assembly, Nice, 21 April to 26
April 2002, abstract #2283, 27:2283–, provided by
the Smithsonian / NASA Astrophysics Data System
- http://www.rpk-uzice.co.yu/en/tourism/index.php
- http://travel2serbia.com/rivers%20/river-pcinja-valley
-
http://www.tempus-serbia.com/consortium-members/republic-of-serbia-environmental-protection-agency-.html
- From the Pancevo industrial complex (petrochemical plant,
fertilizer plant and oil refinery), which stands at the confluence
of the Tamis River and the Danube, more than 100 tons of mercury,
2,100 metric tons of 1.2-dichlorethane, 1,500 tons of vinyl
chloride (3,000 times higher than permitted levels), 15,000 tons of
ammonia, 800 tons of hydrochloric acid, 250 tons of liquid
chlorine, vast quantities of dioxin (a component of Agent Orange
and other defoliants), and significant quantities of sulphur
dioxide and nitrates were released into the atmosphere, soil and
waterways. From the "Zastava" car factory in Kragujevac, unknown
quantities of pyralene oil leaked into the Lepenica River (a
tributary of the Velika Morava) via the sewage system.
http://www.open.ac.uk/daptf/froglog/FROGLOG-58-3.html
- http://www.blic.rs/society.php?id=2863
-
http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/serbiamontenegro/energy.pdf
-
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2008/09/20-mw-wind-project-being-developed-
in-serbia-53539
- http://www.unmikonline.org/press/reports/N9917289.pdf
- Microsoft Word - Delovi_knjiga_III.doc
- Little China in Belgrade. BBC News. February
12, 2001.
- Success Stories - School for All. Government of the
Republic of Serbia.
- A young Roma woman in Serbia overcomes poverty and
discrimination. UNICEF
Serbia.
- According to the 1921 census, the German community was the
largest non-Slavic ethnic group in the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia (505,790, or 4.22% of the population). [2] (PDF)
- http://www.emportal.rs/en/news/serbia/61642.html
- http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11763/
-
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2002rank.html?countryName=Serbia&countryCode=ri#ri
- Gross Domestic Product of the Republic of Serbia
1997–2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia
- Economic Trends in the Republic of Serbia 2006,
Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia
- National Account Statistics
- REPUBLICKI ZAVOD ZA STATISTIKU - Republike
Srbije
- http://www.emportal.rs/en/news/serbia/83771.html
- http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/03/31/afx6234590.html
- http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=35690051
-
http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Drustvo/U-Srbiji-sve-vishe-rachunara.sr.html
- http://www.srbija.gov.rs/vesti/vest.php?id=59131
- JAT Airways hopes to regain market dominance in
Eastern Europe, CEO says - International Herald Tribune
- f. Serbia. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World
History
External links
- General information
- Serbia from UCB Libraries GovPubs
region was
the first among former Habsburg
lands to declare union with the Kingdom of Serbia
and the Kingdom of Serbia
(later Kingdom of Yugoslavia
(250 km2)
(640 km2)
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