25 years ago, Croatia declared its independence.
Croatia is celebrating Independence Day today, a national holiday to mark the day when Croatian Parliament adopted the decision on terminating all constitutional ties with Yugoslavia, reports Index.hr on October 8, 2016.
Parliament adopted the unanimous decision a quarter century ago, on 8 October 1991, in the basement of the INA building in Šubićeva Street, where lawmakers and journalists were taken from the Parliament building at St. Mark’s Square in order to avoid the risk of a military attack. Just one day earlier, the Yugoslav National Army aircraft bombed the Banski Dvori palace at St. Mark’s Square, killing one person and injuring four. At the time of the attack, President Franjo Tuđman was in the building meeting with president of the Yugoslav Presidency Stipe Mesić and Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Marković, but they were not hurt.
The decision on the independence was adopted by Parliament three months after the Brijuni Declaration and the expiry of a moratorium on the declaration of independence and sovereignty, which was sought by the then European Community, hoping that the Yugoslav crisis and the Serbian aggression against Croatia could be solved peacefully.
Parliament established that Croatia no longer considered as legitimate or legal any institution of the former Yugoslavia and did does not recognize as valid any legal act of any entity acting on behalf of the former federation, which no longer existed as such. “As of 8 October 1991, the Republic of Croatia terminates of constitutional links on the basis of which it, together with other republics and provinces, constituted the former Yugoslavia”, announced Deputy Speaker of Parliament Vladimir Šeks.
Previously, on 25 June 1991, Parliament adopted the Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia, which formally made Croatia an independent state, and therefore 8 October is considered to represent the termination of the process of disassociation of Croatia from the former Yugoslav federation. 25 June is now celebrated as the Statehood Day.
Yesterday, a reception was held to mark the anniversary, while the Croatian National Bank has issued a commemorative 25 kuna coin. The usual ceremonial meeting of Parliament will not take place this year since the new Parliament has still not been constituted.
