Why do Russians help Serbs?

The other day I interviewed Georgy Poltavchenko, presidential representative in the Central Federal District. He told me that the district board had decided that the 18 Federation members of the district, the core regions of Russia, would provide financial assistance to Serbs.

This is not the humanitarian aid that the Russian government is providing to Serbian refugees forced from their homes by the recent outbreak of violence in Kosovo. Several planeloads of humanitarian cargoes were then dispatched to Belgrade by the Emergencies Ministry and Minister Sergei Shoigu accompanied them. But it was an emergency situation.

The initiative of the Central Federal District is different and more effective: the 18 regions are collecting money to send to Serbia, as foodstuffs and everything else can be bought on site - and much cheaper. The money will be transferred to the Serbian authorities for assistance to the hundreds of thousands of Serb refugees who have been forced from their homes in Kosovo in the years of the province's troubles.

This is not a state initiative but the decision of the public supported by politicians as private citizens, which may be better for the government. Politicians - in the true meaning of the word - need this initiative also because it cleanses the soul. For us, death is no longer a tragedy; we see it in numerous television soap operas and news reports of contract killings and other forms of death from all over the planet. We no longer distinguish between the death of imaginary characters and real people. Maybe assistance to fraternal people will help revive compassion and a desire to help the neighbour? For human souls cannot live without it.

I am very pleased that statesmen and bureaucrats are not avoiding this problem, though nobody ordered them to contribute, to collect money; it is a purely voluntary decision. But the majority of the people in the district supported it immediately and Mr Poltavchenko told me that he would make a public appeal for money.

And here is another example. The Foundation of St Andrew the First-Called, a non-governmental public institution, is tackling the Serbian problem by means of citizen diplomacy. Last Christmas, a senior delegation of politicians, public figures and journalists from Russia headed by Alexander Melnikov, president of the Foundation, visited Serbia. They spent a week there, meeting the country's leaders and archpriests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and visiting Kosovo where they saw for themselves the destroyed houses and churches and dead Serbs. Albanians threw stones at their bus - and it was before the violence in Kosovo about which the world now knows.

In short, Russians know more about Serbia and Serbs than many other nations and powerful support for Serbia is rising from the depths of the Russian nation.

What connects us? Why are we helping Serbia when this world is full of pain? I would begin with the religious aspect, though many people try to ignore the link between international conflicts and inter-faith strife. The Serbs are our brothers in origin and religion; they are a small Orthodox nation that has been persecuted for centuries and has probably suffered more than the Russian nation.

We must admit that, traditionally, Russia is Orthodox by 85%. Our common traditions influence our relations. Yes, we support Serbs because they are our brothers. Yes, we support them because they are Orthodox Christians. Yes, we support them because we remember very well how our churches and monasteries were destroyed in the not so distant past. And we cannot remain indifferent today when more than 30 Orthodox holy places, monuments of the past and part of the world's heritage, were destroyed within a week without the world community raising a finger.

Regrettably, few people in the world take note of this religious connection between our nations. We are divided by more than a thousand kilometres but in the Orthodox school that my son attends pupils study the Serbian language and revere the memory of St Savva the Serb. Early this year the students welcomed a delegation from the former Yugoslavia, which included Serbs and Montenegrins, who came to talk with children and speak with them in the language the children love. In the summer, my son and his classmates go to Serbia for a month, where they see the country and make new friends.

As for adults, Russian volunteers fought and died for the Serbs during the recent conflict. As far as I know, they were not paid lavishly for this, they were not mercenaries. It was simpler - and certainly less dangerous - to earn more in Russia even in those difficult times. This means that something inside forced these people to go to a foreign country and die there for that country's people. These are very serious deeds.

The society of Russo-Serbian friendship was set up long ago and, as far as I know, has been facilitating the development of contacts between our people, including delegation exchanges.

As for business, there are Serbian businessmen of the world class who have headquarters in Moscow and other large cities of Russia. Take the group of companies of the Karic brothers, who have been working on the Russian market for more than a decade. They cannot work in their home country but they help their people by working in Russia. I once met a man from the pharmaceutical industry who had a business in France but worked mostly in Russia. And there are many more like him.

I remember there were very many Yugoslavians involved in Moscow construction projects in the 1990s. They had fled to Moscow from unemployment and crisis in their home country, ravaged by war and international sanctions. I do not know how many Yugoslavians are working in Russia now.

In a word, there are many ties between us and they are very strong. There is also a vital element that is frequently overlooked outside Russia, which leads to problems. I said that support for the Serbs is coming from ordinary Russian people. But a certain part of Russian society cannot understand why Serbia is so special. It is easy for foreigners to talk to many such people - simply because they know foreign languages. And this creates the impression in the West that there are no special relations between Russians and Serbs, which is a great misunderstanding.

These are people who are only after money and do not care for the pain of other people. What is Serbia to them, what do they care about refugees and orphans? This psychology of the consumer society, which developed in Russia overnight, is more distorted than anywhere in the West. The rich who have bought enough cars or a sumptuous country house simply do not know how to use their money because they have only consumerist desires. They live for themselves and one or two university degrees and a knowledge of foreign languages does not help them to be human.

But those who, though they do not come to church, nevertheless believe - they become the patriots and defenders of Serbia. Orthodox intelligentsia and millions of ordinary Russians take to heart everything that happens in Serbia. For Serbs often say: What happens to us today may happen to you tomorrow. Serbs are an independent and freedom-loving people and they will hardly accept the status of a subordinate, oppressed nation. The technologies which NATO are testing in Serbia - and NATO has advanced to Russia's borders - may be applied against Russia any day. When I hear that Russia and NATO are friends forever, I say that this is an illusion. Nothing has changed, as proved by the example of Serbia, in 1999 and today.

Serbs see the withdrawal of Russia peacekeepers from Kosovo as a betrayal. A great many bad things happened after our peacekeepers, who were seen as liberators, left the province. Russians have always fought willingly for their Serb brothers. But today they say we abandoned them, for the first time in history.

We Russians will rally society, sooner or later, and come to an agreement on what is happening to us and outside Russia. The country's current leadership is working hard to solve the problem of Serbia and Kosovo, keeping the issue in the spotlight at the highest possible level. In a way, this rehabilitates us for the mistakes made by our previous authorities.

It's time again to remind the audience where the Serbs and Albanians stood during WWII. While the Serbs where fighting the invading Wehrmacht and SS, the Albanians VOLUNTARILY joined the German forces and enthusiastically participated in the killing of Serbs and Jews.

Muslims in the Waffen SS

Background:

When the Independent State of Croatia proclaimed its independence on April 10th 1941, during the German invasion of Yugoslavia, part of the land it claimed was the former Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The province was an ethnic and religious mix, with a portion of the population being Catholic Croatian, a portion being Orthodox Serbian, and a portion being Croatians of the Muslim faith. It was these Muslim inhabitants of Bosnia that Himmler and the SS would target in their recruitment of a Croatian SS Division.

The reasons for the recruitment in particular of Croatian Muslims by the SS were many-fold. For one, Himmler was fascinated by the Islamic faith, and thought Muslims to be fearless soldiers willing to kill for their religion. Himmler also subscribed to the propaganda theory that Croatians (and therefore the Croatian Muslims) were not, in fact, Slavic people, but actually of Aryan (Gothic) descent, and thereby acceptable to the racially "pure" SS. The fact that this ludicrous theory would not hold up to any kind of serious scrutiny was conveniently ignored. Finally, the Germans were hoping to rally the World's 350 million Muslims to their side, in a struggle against the British Empire. The creation of a Muslim, albeit European Muslim Division, was considered a stepping stone to this greater end.

Adolf Hitler approved of Himmler's idea on February 13th 1943. Prior to the formation of the division, however, approval also had to be granted by the Croatian government, as their citizens were to be recruited, and on Croatian territory. The Croatian Poglavnik, Ante Pavelic, and his ministers had many problems with the idea, but eventually agreed to the division's creation on March 5th 1943. The divisional strength reached the required 26,000 men by mid 1943.

The new division was assigned the number "13", and originally named the "13 SS Frei.Gebirgs Division (kroatien). The full name "13 Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS 'Handschar' (kroatische Nr. 1)" was not given until May, 1944. A "Handschar" (or Handzar in Croatian) is curved Turkish sword - the Scimitar. This sword has historically been the symbol of Bosnia. The Division was to have 2 Infantry Regiments (Waffen-Gebirgs-Jager Regiments der SS 27 & 28 - kroatisches Nrs. 1 & 2), an Artillery Regiment (SS-Gebirgs-Artillerie Regiment 13), a Reconnaissance Company, a Panzerjager Company, a Flak Company, a Pioneer Battalion, and other support units; and was designated an SS "mountain" division. The first commander (from March 9, 1943 till August 1, 1943) was SS Standartenfuhrer Herbert von Obwurzer. Oberfuhrer (later Brigadefuhrer) Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig took over till June 1st 1944, when Desiderius Hampel (Oberfuhrer, later Brigadefuhrer) replaced him. Hampel commanded the remnants of the division until its surrender on May 8th 1945.

The uniform worn by the division was regular SS issue, with a divisional collar patch showing an arm, holding a Scimitar, over a Swastika. On the left arm was a Croatian armshield (red-white chessboard). Headgear was the Muslim Fez, in field grey (normal service) or red ("walking out"), with the SS eagle and death's head emblazoned. Non-Muslim members could opt to wear the normal SS mountain cap. The oval mountain troop Edelweiss patch was worn on the right arm.

Muslim Clerics and the Nazis:

During the Second World War in Yugoslavia many Muslim clerics in Bosnia and Kosovo were willing accomplices in the genocide of the nations Serbian, Jewish and Roma population. From 1941 until 1945, the Nazi-installed regime of Ante Pavelic in Croatia carried out some of the most horrific crimes of the Holocaust (known as the Porajmos by the Roma), killing over 800,000 Yugoslav citizens - 750,000 Serbs, 60,000 Jews and 26,000 Roma. In these crimes, they were helped by Muslim fundamentalists in Bosnia and Kosovo who were openly supported by the Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. A notorious anti-Semite, he openly encouraged Muslims to join Nazi units that would be later implicated in genocide and crimes against humanity - the infamous Hanjar (or Handschar) 13th Waffen SS division. One of these crimes was The Massacre at Koritska Jama Gorge, in Bosnia during 1941.

Many of the victims of the Holocaust/Porajmos were murdered in the Second World War's third largest death camp - Jasenovac, where over 200,000 people - mainly Orthodox Serbs met their deaths.

The most senior Muslim cleric to be involved in the Holocaust/Porajmos was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who according to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Edition 1990, Volume 2, Pages 706 and 707), made a substantial contribution to the Axis war effort by organizing "in record time" recruitment to Muslim SS units in Croatia that would be involved in some of the worse atrocities of the Second World War.

Altogether, it is estimated that some 20,000 Muslims fought in the Hanjar (Sword) SS Division, which fought against Yugoslav partisans led by General Tito, and carried out police and security details in fascist Hungary. The Nazi's recruited two SS divisions from Yugoslavia's Muslim population: the infamous Bosnian 13th Waffen Hanjar (or Handschar) SS division, and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS division. SS conscription in Yugoslavia during the war produced 42,000 Waffen SS and police troops.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem:

Once in Berlin, the Mufti received an enthusiastic reception by the "Islamische Zentralinstitut" and the whole Islamic community of Germany, which welcomed him as the "Führer of the Arabic world." In an introductory speech, he called the Jews the "most fierce enemies of the Muslims" and an "ever corruptive element" in the world. Husseini soon became an honored guest of the Nazi leadership and met on several occasions with Hitler. He personally lobbied the Führer against the plan to let Jews leave Hungary, fearing they would immigrate to Palestine. He also strongly intervened when Adolf Eichman tried to cut a deal with the British government to exchange German POWs for 5000 Jewish children who also could have fled to Palestine. The Mufti's protests with the SS were successful, as the children were sent to death camps in Poland instead. One German officer noted in his journals that the Mufti would liked to have seen the Jews "preferably all killed." On a visit to Auschwitz, he reportedly admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently. Throughout the war, he appeared regularly on German radio broadcasts to the Middle East, preaching his pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic message to the Arab masses back home.

To show gratitude towards his hosts, in 1943 the Mufti traveled several times to Bosnia, where on orders of the SS he recruited the notorious "Hanjar troopers," a special Bosnian Waffen SS company which slaughtered 90% of Bosnia's Jews and burned countless Serbian churches and villages. These Bosnian Muslim recruits rapidly found favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who established a special Mullah Military school in Dresden.

The only condition the Mufti set for his help was that after Hitler won the war, the entire Jewish population in Palestine should be liquidated. After the war, Husseini fled to Switzerland and from there escaped via France to Cairo, were he was warmly received.

and just for the good ol' days:

When the Serbian Flag Flew Over the White House!

On July 28, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson gave the following message to the American people. It was read in churches throughout the country and published in virtually all major newspapers. The Serbian flag was raised over the White House and all public buildings in this nation's capital. The message read:

To the People of the United States:

On Sunday, 28th of this present month, will occur the fourth anniversary of the day when the gallant people of Serbia, rather than submit to the studied and ignoble exactions of a prearranged foe, were called upon by the war declaration of Austria-Hungry to defend their territory and their homes against an enemy bent on their destruction. Nobly did they respond.

So valiantly and courageously did they oppose the forces of a country ten times greater in population and resources that it was only after they had thrice driven the Austrians back and Germany and Bulgaria had come to the aid of Austria that they were compelled to retreat into Albania. While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken. Though overwhelmed by superior forces, their love of freedom remains unabated. Brutal force has left unaffected their firm determination to sacrifice everything for liberty and independence.

It is fitting that the people of the United States, dedicated to the self-evident truth that is the right of the people of all nations, small as well as great, to live their own lives and choose their own Government, and remembering that the principles for which Serbia has so nobly fought and suffered are those for which the United States is fighting, should on the occasion of this anniversary manifest in an appropriate manner their war sympathy with this oppressed people who have so heroically resisted the aims of the Germanic nations to master the world. At the same time, we should not forget the kindred people of the Great Slavic race--the Poles, the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs, who, now dominated and oppressed by alien races yearn for independence and national unity.

This can be done in a manner no more appropriate than in our churches. I, therefore, appeal to the people of the United States of all faiths and creeds to assemble in their several places of worship on Sunday July 28, for the purpose of giving expression to their sympathy with this subjugated people and their oppressed and dominated kindred in other lands, and to invoke the blessings of Almighty God upon them and upon the cause to which they are pledged.

Woodrow Wilson, President, The White House, July, 1918.

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