Ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Part of a series on the |
Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
---|
People |
Languages |
Mythology |
Cuisine |
Festivals |
Religion |
Art |
Literature |
Music |
Sport |
More than 96% of population of
Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs speak the
A
Historical background
While Kingdom of Bosnia existed, no specific Bosnian identity emerged during medieval times.[2] In Bosna and Herzegovina during the Ottoman rule, the population did not identify with national categories, except for a few intellectuals from urban areas who considered themselves to be Croats or Serbs. The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina primarily identified itself by religion, using the terms Turk (for Muslims), Hrišćani (Christians) or Greeks (for the Orthodox) and "Kršćani" or Latins (for the Catholics).[3] The Christians, both the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, were organised in their respective millets, the religious communities with internal autonomy.[4] The Catholics identified more with the Croatian, while the Eastern Orthodox with the Serbian nation respectively. For Muslims, identity was more related to the defence of local privileges, but it did not call into question the allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. The use of the term "Bosniak" at that time did not have a national meaning, but a regional one.[3]
When Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, national identification was still a foreign concept to Bosnian Muslims.[3] The new Austrian-Hungarian authorities tried to impose a collective Bosnian identity to curb Croatian and Serbian nationalism, going so far as to forbid the usage of Croatian or Serbian names in the title of cultural associations. The idea of collective identity was met with opposition from the Croat, Serb and Muslim elites, and was accepted only by a small number of emerging modernising Muslims. The Christian elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina accepted Croatian and Serbian identities as their own, which resulted in a rapid rise of Croatian and Serbian nationalism in the country. The Muslims on the other hand, gathered around their religious and landowning elites, requesting religious autonomy. The Austrian-Hungarian authorities eventually started to accept and later favoured such consolidation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5]
After
During World War II, in 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and established its puppet, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), into which Bosnia and Herzegovina was incorporated. The majority of Bosnian Muslims considered themselves to be ethnic Croats at the time.[11] This period saw the destruction of traditional communitarianism in favour of exclusive nationalisms, with Serbs being heavily persecuted by the Croat Ustaše, while the Serb Chetniks murdered Muslims as a reprisal.[12] The communist Yugoslav Partisans emerged as the strongest anti-fascist force in the country. The Partisan movement addressed Serbs, Muslims and Croats, even though most of their activity was organised by Serbs initially. In 1943, the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main political body of the Partisans in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established Bosnia and Herzegovina as a distinct territory, guaranteeing "full equality of all Serbs, Muslims and Croats".[13]
With the formation of
Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (March 2018) |
On 12 February 1998, Alija Izetbegović, at the time Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instituted proceedings before the Constitutional Court for an evaluation of the consistency of the Constitution of the Republika Srpska and the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The request was supplemented on 30 March 1998 when the applicant specified which provisions of the Entities' Constitutions he considered to be unconstitutional.
The four partial decisions were made in 2000, by which many of the articles of the constitutions of entities were found to be unconstitutional, which had a great impact on the politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina because there was a need to adjust the current state in the country with the decision of the Court. A narrow majority (5-4) ruled in favour of the applicant. In its decision, among other things, the Court stated:
Elements of a democratic state and society as well as underlying assumptions – pluralism, just procedures, peaceful relations that arise out of the Constitution – must serve as a guideline for further elaboration of the issue of the structure of BiH as a multi-national state. Territorial division (of Entities) must not serve as an instrument of ethnic segregation – on the contrary – it must accommodate ethnic groups by preserving linguistic pluralism and peace in order to contribute to the integration of the state and society as such. The constitutional principle of collective equality of constituent peoples, arising out of the designation of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs as constituent peoples, prohibits any special privileges for one or two constituent peoples, any domination in governmental structures and any ethnic homogenisation by segregation based on territorial separation. Despite the territorial division of BiH by the establishment of two Entities, this territorial division cannot serve as a constitutional legitimacy for ethnic domination, national homogenisation, or the right to maintain results of ethnic cleansing. Designation of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs as constituent peoples in the Preamble of the Constitution of BiH must be understood as an all-inclusive principle of the Constitution of BiH to which the Entities must fully adhere, pursuant to Article III.3 (b) of the Constitution of BiH.[16]
The formal name of this item is U-5/98, but it is widely known as the "Decision on the constituency of peoples", referring to the Court's interpretation of the significance of the phrase "constituent peoples" used in the Preamble of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision was also the basis for other notable cases that came before the court.
Inter-ethnic relations
Serbs tend to be Orthodox Christian, Croats tend to be Catholic, and Bosniaks tend to be Muslim. Tensions between these groups were expressed in terms of religion, and religious symbols continue to be used for
The magnitude of communal exposure to violence during the Bosnian War has continued to have significant resounding effects on inter-ethnic relations and the political system, even after twenty years.[22][23] It has been found that communities that had a higher exposure to violence continue to have lower levels of inter-ethnic trust and associate more with their ethnic political party.[23] This leads to ethnic voting, otherwise known as voting along ethnic party lines; though, the levels of ethnic voting have begun to dwindle in recent elections, suggesting the violence's effect on ethnic voting is beginning to decrease.[23] Still, a lasting effect of this violence is that it eroded social networks that extended beyond an individual's ethnic group and diminished the probability of reforming them.[23] Since discussions of the Bosnian War are often contained to the microcosm of an individual's predominantly homogenous social network, there tends to be an absence of opposing viewpoints, which cements ethnic boundaries based on ethnically biased collective memories.[24] The evidence for this is strengthened by Hadzic et al.'s finding that those with social ties that are almost strictly contained to their own ethnic group also tend to have lower levels of inter-ethnic trust than those that do not.[23] They also found that the Bosnian War led to increased ethnic homogeneity, which has been shown to influence government spending on ethnically homogenous areas in a way meant to further induce ethnic voting.[23][25]
Trends in the geographic concentration of development of more ethnically homogeneous areas during the war contributed to the location of the eventual
See also
- History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Demographics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Exodus of Muslims from Serbia
- Yugoslav wars
- 1953 population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Romani people in Bosnia and Herzegovina
References
- S2CID 36632274.
- ^ Kaufman 2003, p. 55.
- ^ a b c Bougarel 2017, p. 10.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, p. 79.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, p. 82.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, pp. 84.
- ^ Jović 2009, p. 320.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Nielsen 2014.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 45.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, p. 89.
- ^ Bougarel 1996, p. 90.
- ^ Jović 2009, pp. 48, 57.
- ^ a b c Eller 1999, p. 282.
- ^ Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, U-5/98 (Partial Decision Part 3), p. 36, Sarajevo, 1 July 2000.
- ^ a b Fischer 2006, p. 21.
- ^ S2CID 108515822.
- ^ Jourek, Olga (1999). Ethno-Political Conflicts in Post-Communist Societies: Prospects for Resolution and Prevention in the Context of International Law. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. pp. 29–33.
- S2CID 154600779.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4039-9882-8.
- S2CID 218941663.
- ^ S2CID 158618364.
- ISSN 0163-8548.
- ^ S2CID 143887916.
- ISSN 0920-1297.
- ^ OCLC 1002024695.
Sources
- ISBN 9780582246379.
- Bougarel, Xavier (2017). Islam and Nationhood in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Surviving Empires. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350003590.
- Donia, Robert J.; Fine, John Van Antwerp Jr. (1994). Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed. London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-212-0.
- Eller, Jack David (1999). "Bosnia". From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict. University of Michigan Press. pp. 243–. ISBN 0-472-08538-7.
- Fischer, Martina, ed. (2006). Peacebuilding and Civil Society in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ten Years After Dayton. Berghof Forschungszentrum für Konstruktive Konfliktbearbeitung; LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-3-8258-8793-3.
- Jović, Dejan (2009). Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-495-8.
- Kaufman, Stuart (2003). "Ethnic conflict and Eurasian security". In Kay, Sean; Sperling, James; Papacosma, S. Victor (eds.). Limiting Institutions?: The Challenge of Eurasian Security Governance. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719066054.
- Puhalo, S. (2003). "Etnička distanca građana Republike Srpske i Federacije BiH prema narodima bivše SFRJ". Psihologija. 36 (2): 141–156. .
- ISBN 0714656259.
- Danijela Majstorovic; Vladimir Turjacanin (2013). Youth Ethnic and National Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Social Science Approaches. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-349-46717-4.
- Nielsen, Christian Axboe (2014). Making Yugoslavs: Identity in King Aleksandar's Yugoslavia. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-2750-5.
- Trbovich, Ana S. (2008). A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia's Disintegration. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533343-5.
- Velikonja, Mitja (2003). Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-60344-724-9.
Further reading
External videos | |
---|---|
Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Bosnia and Herzegovina: an ethnically divided country | DW Documentary". Deutsche Welle. 14 January 2018. |
- Kofman, Daniel (2001). "Self-determination in a multiethnic state: Bosnians, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs". Reconstructing Multiethnic Societies: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina: 31–62.