Franjo tudjman biography of michael

In , Dr Franjo Tudjman became the father of his newly-proclaimed state of Croatia when he was elected President in a landslide victory.

His ultra-nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Party secured nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Croatian parliament.

Unlike Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic, Mr Tudjman managed to promote his equally rampant nationalism without attracting widespread condemnation.

Biography of michael jackson The party won Croatia's first free elections. After the war, the elder Tudjman was rewarded with a Communist Party committee chairmanship. In , with U. In the years following the Tito-Stalin break he is said to have done his job only too well, helping to depose Tito's enemies to the notorious Adriatic island Goli Otok.

He achieved this by currying favour with the West by creating the impression that he was creating multi-party democracy at home.

Yet, in reality, his domestic policy saw the closing down of newspapers or television programmes that offended him and the manipulation of the electoral process.

His rule saw the concentration of power in the hands of a small oligarchy including members of his own family.

Military career

At the age of 19, Franjo Tudjman fought with the partisans against the Nazi occupiers of Yugoslavia during World War II.

He quickly rose through the ranks and became a major-general before he was 40, the youngest in the Yugoslav national army.

Franjo tudjman biography of michael jordan The institute was to have the task of promoting the Croatian party's view of the past, the better to defend Croatia's interests in the present. The Yugoslav side accused the two of secession. Retrieved 4 February A year later, however, when many prominent Croatian intellectuals and cultural institutions signed a "Declaration regarding the name and status of the Croatian literary language", Bakaric took advantage of the wave of repression unleashed against them to drive Tudjman from both the institute and the Party.

Disillusioned with Serb-dominated Yugoslav communism, he left the army in to take up historical studies.

But in , his ultra-nationalism led to his dismissal from the UNiversity of Zagreb, and he was expelled from the League of Communists for publishing a declaration protesting against the policy of forced unification of the Croat and Serb literary languages.

He served two prison sentences for anti-Communist and anti-Yugoslav activities.

Independence struggle

By this time he was convinced that Croatia should press for full independence and his well-organised HDZ party succeeded at the polls.

His brand of nationalism included restoring the flags and other symbols used by the old fascist Ustasha regime that had fought alongside the Nazis during World War II.

This appealed particularly to Croat exiles in the US, Canada and Australia from whom Mr Tudjman secured the funds for his campaign.

His refusal to endorse the Serbs' traditional place in the Croat constitution inflamed Serb opinion in Croatia, resulting in many Serbs being purged from their jobs in the police, security forces, the media and factories.

In August , Serbs in Serb-majority districts loyal to Belgrade rose against Croatia.

Franjo tudjman biography of michael jackson Walter de Gruyter. However, the following year, he took the same dissertation, The Causes of the Crisis of the Monarchist Yugoslavia from Its Inception in to the Collapse in , to the newer and less prestigious university at Zadar, which granted him a Ph. Archived from the original on 19 April Frank Russell Company.

With the support of the Yugoslav army they seized a third of the country and declared themselves to be the Republic of Serb Krajina.

Mr Tudjman's re-taking of the area in was a personal triumph. His calculation that Serbian President Milosevic was too pre-occupied with events in Bosnia to intervene proved correct.

The stunning victory of Croatian forces in the Krajina triggered a huge exodus of civilians, yet was hardly condemned by the West.

Ambiguous role

Mr Tudjman's role in neighbouring Bosnia was ambiguous.

The fragile partnership between Muslims and Croats had collapsed into open conflict in Mostar and a scribbled map discovered at a banquet in London clearly showed that Mr Tudjman did not envisage a Bosnian state.

It was long-suspected that he and Mr Milosevic were in collusion about the future make-up of Yugoslavia.

Franjo tudjman biography of michael As a result, the movement was suppressed by Tito, who used the military and the police to put a stop to what he saw as separatism and a threat to the party's influence. Essentially, this was a nationalist Croatian movement that affirmed Croatian values based on Catholicism blended with historical and cultural traditions which had been generally suppressed in communist Yugoslavia. As Serbia's aggressive intentions became ever clearer in this final stage of Yugoslavia's existence, Croatia followed Slovenia's example and held a referendum on sovereignty. Although the UN Security Council condemned the operation, there were no incurring sanctions.

But, by , pressure from the United States forced Mr Tudjman to change his mind. He signed the Dayton Peace Accord which provided a solution to the Bosnian question.

At home, Mr Tudjman's rule became increasingly autocratic and he showed little sensitivity to criticisms. His civil rights record to the minority Serb population was poor.

It is only now, after his death, that real democracy in Croatia will have the chance to flourish