Serbia

Not to be confused with Republika Srpska.

Republic of Serbia Република Србија / Republika Srbija
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Боже Правде / Bože Pravde
Location of Serbia (dark and light green) - Kosovo (light green) on the European continent (green + dark grey)
Capital and largest city	Belgrade
Official languages	Serbian1
Recognised regional languages	Hungarian, Croatian, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn
Demonym(s)	Serbian
Government	Parliamentary republic
• President	Boris Tadić
• Prime Minister	Mirko Cvetković
• President of Parliament	Slavica Đukić Dejanović
Legislature	National Assembly
Establishment
• Recognized by Byzantine Empire	780(*)
• First independence	850(**)
• First Kingdom	1077
• Serbian Empire	1345
• Independence lost	1540
• Serbian revolution	15 February 18043
• Independence	1867/ 18784
• Unification with Vojvodina	19185
• Independent Republic	5 June 2006
Area
• Total	(113th)
• Water (%)	0.13
Population
• 2008 estimate	7,365,507 (excl. Kosovo)
• Density	10,746/km2 (27,832.0/sq mi) (94th)
GDP (PPP)	2008 estimate
• Total	$79.662 billion
• Per capita	$10,792 (excluding Kosovo)
GDP (nominal)	2008 estimate
• Total	$50.061 billion
• Per capita	$6,782 (excluding Kosovo)
Gini (2007)	.24 low inequality
HDI (2006)	0.821 very high (65th)
Currency	Serbian dinar (RSD)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Drives on	Right
Calling code	381
ISO 3166 code	RS
Internet TLD	.rs (.yu)7
Preceded by Succeeded by Yugoslavia Serbia Kosovo
(*) Prince Višeslav mentioned in Byzantine archives (**) Victory over Bulgarians and official Christianization 1 Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Romani and Ukrainian are Recognised and protected by the ECRML 2 Statehood Day 3 De facto/ De jure independence 4 Preceded by the unification with Raška, Kosovo and Syrmia 5.rs became active in September 2007. Suffix .yu will exist until September 2009

Serbia /ˈsɜrbiə/^ⓘ (Template:Lang-sr), officially the Republic of Serbia (Template:Lang-sr), is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans. Serbia is bordered by Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west. The country's capital, Belgrade, was titled "City of the Future of South Europe" in 2006. Although landlocked , Serbia has 2,000 km of navigable waterways on the Danube, Sava, Tisza and their respective canals, through which it forms part of a European canal network, connecting the North Sea with the Black Sea.

For centuries, located at, and shaped by, the cultural boundaries between the East and the West, the Serbian medieval kingdom – later renamed the Serbian Empire – occupied much of the Balkans. The Serbian state disappeared by the mid-16th century, torn by domestic feuds, Ottoman, Venetian, Hungarian and later, Austrian occupations. The success of the Serbian revolution against Ottoman rule in 1817 marked the birth of the Principality of Serbia, centered in the Šumadija region. This was the first nation-state in CEE. Formal independence was enacted in 1878. In 1912 Kosovo was conquered from the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Raška (Sandžak) was terminated. In 1918 the region of Syrmia, followed by the former autonomous Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina, proclaimed their secession from Austria-Hungary to unite with the Kingdom of Serbia.

The current borders of the country were established after World War II, when Serbia became a federal unit within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbia once again became an independent state in 2006, following the Montenegrin independence referendum. 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.

In February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. Serbia asserts Kosovo as its southern province ruled by a temporary government, setup by the United Nations, in accordance with the Resolution 1244. Serbia's government, as well as the UN Security Council, has not recognized Kosovo's independence. The response from the international community has been mixed. Presently, Kosovo is recognized by 60 out of 192 UN member states. On October 8, 2008, the UN General Assembly approved Serbia's request to ask a U.N. court if Kosovo's secession was legal. The International Court of Justice was expected to take one to two years to issue its opinion .

History

Main article: History of Serbia

Early history

File:Romuliana 3 2.jpg

Felix Romuliana, 4th century, UNESCO

Subject to migration of many peoples, Greeks colonized 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. Belgrade, Prehistoric capital of Europe, is believed to have been torn by 140 wars since Roman times. The northern Serbian city of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) was among the top 4 cities of the late Roman Empire, serving as its capital during the Tetrarchy. Contemporary Serbia comprises the classical regions of Moesia, Pannonia, parts of Dalmatia, Dacia and Macedonia. Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on the Byzantine borders in great numbers. Slavic people have been under nominal Serbian rule since the 7th century. They were allowed to settle in the Byzantine Empire by its emperor Heraclius after their victory over the Avars.

Ruins of medieval Rama, Djerdap lake

Throughout its history, various parts of the territory of modern Serbia have been colonized, claimed or ruled by:

• Thracians, Dacians, Illyrians, Celts
• the Greeks and Romans, the Western and Eastern Roman Empires
• challenged by the incursions of the Huns, the Ostrogoths, the Sarmatians, the Avars, the Serbs, the Frankish Kingdom, the Great Moravia, the Bulgarians, the Ottoman Empire and finally, the Hungarians).

No fewer than 17 Roman Emperors were born in the land that is now Serbia.

Medieval Serb kingdoms

Main article: History of Medieval Serbia

The House of Nemanjić, frescoe from Visoki Dečani monastery, UNESCO

According to legend, the Serbs were ruled by the descendants of the Unknown Archont who led them to the Balkans from White Serbia; its three related medieval dynasties follow a continuous bloodline all the way to the 1400s A.D. At first heavily dependent on the Byzantine Empire as its vassal, under the Višeslav-Vlastimirović dynasty- Raška (Rascia)- gained independence by expulsion of the Byzantine troops and heavy defeat of the Bulgarian army (847-850). Official adoption of Christianity soon followed (under Prince Mutimir Vlastimirović). At about the same time, the western Serbs were subjugated to the Frankish Empire. First dynasty died out in 960 A.D. with the death of Prince Časlav, who managed to unify all the Serb populated lands, centered between contemporary South Serbia and Montenegro, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coastal south of Croatia. The wars of succession for the Serb throne led to incorporation into the Byzantine Empire (971). Around 1040 AD an uprising in the coastal Serb lands, in the medieval state of Duklja, overthrew Byzantine rule. Duklja then assumed domination over the Serbian lands between 11-12th centuries under the dynasty of Vojislavljević (who, according to legend, they were descendants of the 1st dynasty). In 1077 A.D. Duklja became the first Serb Kingdom (under Michael I- ruler of Tribals and Serbs), following the establishment of the catholic Bisphoric of Bar.

Golubac fortress overlooking the Danube river

From late 12th century onwards, a new state called Raska, centred in present-day southern Serbia, rose to become the paramount Serb state. Over the 13th and 14th century, it ruled over the other Serb lands (the Hum, Travunia and Duklja/Zeta, whereas Bosnia was detached from Serbia proper by its incorporation into Hungary). During this time, Serbia began to expand eastward (toward Nis), southward into Kosovo and northern Macedonia and northward toward Srem and Macva for the first time. This shift away from the Adriatic coast brought Serbia increasingly under the influence of the Eastern Orthodox, although a substantial proportion of Catholics were found in the coastal regions. By the beginning of the 14th century Serbs lived in four distinctly independent kingdoms Dioclea, Rascia, Bosnia and Syrmia. The House of Nemanjić, descendants of the kings of Duklja, moved from Duklja to Raška, signaling a shift towards continental Serbia in the late 12th century. A direct result of this was the establishment of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1217, which rivaled the Catholic Bishopric of Bar. Under the Nemanjic dynasty, Medieval Serbia reached itsn economic, legal, miiltary and religious apogee. The Serbian Kingdom of Raška was proclaimed in 1219, joined later by the Kingdom of Syrmia and the Banovina of Mačva.

Serbian Empire

Main article: Serbian Empire

Stefan Dušan, Emperor of the Serbian Empire

The Serbian Empire under Stefan Dušan was formed in 1346. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia reached its territorial peak, becoming one of the larger states in Europe, portraying itself as the heir of the run-down Byzantine Empire, and indeed was the most powerful Balkan state of the period. The renowned Dušan's Code, a universal system of laws, was enforced. The Serbian identity has been profoundly shaped by the rule of this dynasty and its accomplishments, with Serbian Orthodox Church assuming the role of the national spiritual guardian.

Map of the Serbian Empire

Stefan Dušan also introduced Dušanov Zakonik (Dušan's Code, 1349), a juridical achievement unique among the European states of the time. Emperor Dušan opened up new trade routes and strengthened the state's economy. Serbian Empire flourished, featuring one of the most evolved countries and cultures in Europe. Some of Serbia's greatest Medieval arts were created during this period, most notably St. Sava's Nomocanon.

Emperor Stefan Dušan doubled the size of his former kingdom, seizing territories to the south, southeast and east at the expense of Byzantium. He was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V, called the Weak, a term that might also apply to the state of the empire, as it slowly slid into feudal anarchy. This is a period marked by the rise of a new threat: the Ottoman Turk sultanate gradually spreading from Asia to Europe and conquering Byzantium first, and then the other Balkans states. Too incompetent to sustain the great empire created by his father, Uroš could neither repel attacks of foreign enemies, nor combat the independence of his nobility. The Serbian Empire of Stefan Uroš fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities, some of which did not even nominally acknowledge his rule. Stefan Uroš V 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

Moravian Serbia

Main article: Moravian Serbia

Ruins of Smederevo, the last capital of medieval Serbia

The House of Mrnjavčević, House of Lazarević and House of Branković ruled the Serbian lands in 15th and 16th century.Throughout this two centuries, constant struggles took place between various Serbian kingdoms on the one hand, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The turning point was the fall of Constantinople and its last emperor (of Serbo-Greek ethnicity) Constantine Dragaš- Paleologus, to the Turks. The Serbian Despotate fell in 1459 following the siege of the "temporary" capital Smederevo, followed by Bosnia a few years later, and Herzegovina in 1482. Montenegro was overrun by 1499. Belgrade was the last major Balkan city to endure Ottoman onslaughts, when it joined the Catholic Kingdom of Hungary. Serbs, Hungarians and European crusaders heavily defeated the Turkish in the Siege of Belgrade of 1456. Several Serbian despots ruled in parts of Vojvodina as vassals of the Hungarian kings with the title of Hungarian barons. After repelling Ottoman attacks for over 70 years, Belgrade finally fell in 1521, along with the greater part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Forceful conversion to Islam became imminent, especially in the southwest (Raška, Kosovo and Bosnia). More to the south, the Republic of Venice grew stronger in importance, gradually taking over the coastal areas.

Serbian military tactics consisted of wedge shaped heavy cavalry attacks with horse archers on the flanks. Many foreign mercenaries were in the Serbian army. Mostly Germans as cavalry and Spaniards as infantry were mercenaries.The main strength of the Serbian army was the armoured knight feared for their ferocious charge. Intensive introduction of fire arms came under rule of Stefan Lazarević.

Medieval fortress of Bač, Vojvodina

Ottoman and Austrian rule

See also: Great Serb Migrations, Ottoman Serbia, and Habsburg Serbia

The 18th century Dunđerski castle, in Vojvodina

The Early modern period saw the loss of Serbia's independence to the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, interrupted briefly by the revolutionary state of the Emperor Jovan Nenad in the 16th century. The era witnessed the rise of the Habsburg Monarchy, which fought many wars against the Ottoman Turks for supremacy over Serbia. 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 terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz (Sremski Karlovci).

As the Great Serb Migrations depopulated most of Kosovo and Serbia proper, the Serbs sought refuge in the more prosperous (and Christian) 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 South grew ever more brutal, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I formally granted the Serbs the right to their autonomous crown land, speeding up their migrations into Austria.

Serbian Revolution and independence

Karađorđe Petrović, leader of the First Serbian uprising in 1804

The quest for independence of Serbia began during 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.

File:Zastava 1ustanak.jpg

Flag of revolutionary Serbia

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.

Miloš Obrenović I, leader of the Second Serbian uprising in 1815

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

Serbian soldiers crossing the river Kolubara during the Battle of Kolubara in 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 (World War I) 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

See also: Kingdom of Yugoslavia

• Syrmia region was the first among former Habsburg lands to declare union with the Kingdom of Serbia on 24 November 1918.
• Banat, Bačka and Baranja- (Vojvodina)- joined the Kingdom on the next day.
• On 26 November 1918, the Podgorica Assembly deposes the House of Petrovic-Njegos of the Kingdom of Montenegro, opting for the Karadjordjevic dynasty (the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Serbia), de facto unifying the two states.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its unification with Belgrade
• On 1 December 1918, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia joined the unitary Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia). King Peter I of Serbia became King Peter I of Yugoslavia.

World War II and civil war in Serbia

Invasion of Yugoslavia

Various paramilitary bands resisted Nazi Germany and its Allies, but they fought each other and ethnic opponents as much as the invaders. 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 massive demonstrations in Belgrade. On March 27, Prince Paul was overthrown by a military coup d'état (with British support) and replaced by the 17-year-old King Peter II. General Dušan Simović became Peter's Prime Minister and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axis.

In response to this, 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, the remaining portion of Serbia became part of the Military Administration of Serbia, under a joint German-Serb government, with military power controlled by the German armed forces, while a Serb civil government led by Milan Nedić was permitted to try to draw Serbs away from their opposition to the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia.

Not all of what is present-day Serbia was part of the military administration: some areas were occupied by the Independent State of Croatia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Fascist Italy's Balkan protectorates, the Albanian Kingdom and the Kingdom of Montenegro. 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; their prestige also grew in parts of Independent State of Croatia. In Serbia however, especially in rural areas, the population remained loyal to the royalists.

By mid 1944 less than 20% of the entire Yugoslav People's Army (partisan/communists) were consisted of Serbs. The joint Soviet and Bulgarian occupation in 1944 however swinged 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. Tens of thousands of young men from bourgoise families were brought to the front without weapons nor training and left to the Nazi.

Genocide of Serbs by the Ustaše regime in WWII Croatia

Main article: Jasenovac concentration camp

Memorial to Serb, Jewish, and Roma victims of the genocide that took place at the Jasenovac concentration camp in World War II in the Independent State of Croatia. The events had a profound impact on Serbian society and relations between Croats and Serbs.

Serbia's society was profoundly affected by the events that took place during World War II, especially in the neighboring Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), an Axis puppet state which controlled what is modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of modern-day Serbia. The regime selected to led the puppet state was the Croatian ultranationalist and fascist Ustaše movement. The Ustase promised to purge the state of Serbs, Jews, and Roma who were subject to large-scale persecution and genocide, most notoriously at the Jasenovac concentration camp. The Jewish Virtual Library estimates that between 45,000 and 52,000 Serbs were killed at Jasenovac and between 330,000 and 390,000 Serbs 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 600,000 Serbs were killed overall in the NDH, with some 500,000 people of many nationalities and ethnicities murdered in one camp Jasenovac. After the war, official Yugoslav sources estimated over 700,000 victims, mostly Serbs. Misha Glenny suggests that the numbers of Serbs killed in the genocide was more than 400,000.

The atrocities that took place in Croatia against Serbs has led to a deep sense of antagonism by Serbs towards Croats, whose relations between each other had already been historically tense, but the war deeply aggravated this division. A number of governments have attempted to lessen. Reconciliation between the two peoples was attempted under Joseph Broz Tito's policy of Brotherhood and Unity. To a degree this succeeded, as during the Tito-era, intermarriages between Serbs and Croats increased, but this effort was destroyed with the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s as rival Croat and Serb nationalism promoted xenophobia towards each other. The most recent attempt was made at the commemoration to the Serb casualties of the Jasenovic concentration camp in April 2003, when the 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 the "Holocaust, genocide and war crimes" took place there.

Serbia within Socialist Yugoslavia

Serbia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Shown as internally divided into Central Serbia, Vojvodina, and Kosovo.

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 censure ship 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 the Republic of Macedonia from Yugoslavia.

File:CK building on fire 1999.jpg

A skyscraper building in Belgrade on fire after being bombed by NATO aircraft during the Kosovo War.

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 Court 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 has remained tense. In 2003, Zoran Đinđić was assassinated by a Serb ultranationalist. 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.

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

Main article: Geography of Serbia

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. Serbia offers an outstanding potential when river transportation is concerned. 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.

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.

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

File:Babicka gra.jpg

Babicka mount

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.

Đerdap national park in Danube Iron Gate

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).

National parks

Serbia has 5 national parks:

• Fruška Gora (250 km²)
• Kopaonik (120 km²)
• Tara (220 km²)
• Đerdap (640 km²)
• Šar Mountains (390 km²)

Government

Main article: Politics of Serbia

See also: Government of Serbia, Foreign relations of Serbia, and Constitutional status of Kosovo

Serbian Government building

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.

File:Par zoom bg.jpg

National Assembly of Serbia

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

Main article: Subdivisions of Serbia

Districts and subdivisions of Serbia with its recognized UN borders)

Serbia is divided into 24 districts 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 and is presently under the administration of EULEX; (See Kosovo status process); Kosovo declared its independence on 17 February 2008, which Belgrade opposes.

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.

Human Rights

Amnesty International concluded in a 424-page report published in 2009 that it was aware of the continued abuse of ethnic Albanian prisoners as well as police behaviour violating the rights of journalists and the Roma population in Serbia. The report also noted that conflict between local political parties and Muslim groups continues to erupt into violence in Serbia's southern Sandzak region and poses a threat to stability.

There have also been reports of forced evictions of the Roma community in Serbia in April 2009. Amnesty International notes that "Around 250 Romani people, some of them internally displaced Roma from Kosovo, including small children and the elderly and infirm were evicted from a temporary settlement".

Military

Main article: Military of Serbia

Locally produced Nora B-52 self-loading artillery mainly produced for the export market.

Vojska Srbije (Armed Forces of Serbia) is a government agency that is responsible for operation of the Armed Forces of Serbia. It works under the Ministry of Defense in order to protect Serbia from armed threats by training military personnel based on its strategic, operational and tactical defensive plans. The primary task of the agency is to provide defensive preparations in case of war, and to organize various peacekeeping missions abroad. The Armed Forces are divided into the Land Command, Air and Defense Command and Training Command. The head of the armed forces is called Commander-in-Chief, and this position is always occupied by the person who is the President of Serbia at that time.

Dating back to the 5th century, Serbia has a long military tradition, and it has played a significant part in the history of Europe. a medieval Serbian state called Raška was formed in the seventh century and lasted until the 14th century when the state evolved into the Serbian Empire. Eventually, after the Battle of Kosovo, the relatively strong and unified empire was fragmented into many states, together called the Moravian Serbia.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Serbia

See also: Demographic history of Serbia, Demographic history of Vojvodina, and Demographic history of Kosovo

Ethnic map of Serbia according to the 2002 Census

• Serbia (Census 2002, excluding Kosovo): 7,498,001
  • Central Serbia: 5,466,009
  • Vojvodina: 2,031,922

Serbia (excluding Kosovo) in 2002 Serbs   82.86% Hungarians   3.91% Bosniaks   1.82% Roma   1.44% Slovaks   1.08% Germans   0.1% Other   9.79%

Serbs form the largest ethnic group, with significant minorities consisting of Hungarians, Bosniaks, Albanians, Roma, Croats, Czechs and Slovaks, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians, and Germans. 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.

Cities

Main article: List of cities in Serbia

File:Belgrade Old City (Stari Grad).jpg

Belgrade, the capital city

Novi Sad square

Officially recognized cities (over 100,000 on municipal level)—2002 census data (2005/2007 data for Novi Sad/Belgrade).

City	Population
	Urban	Metropolitan
Belgrade	1,576,124	1,710,000
Novi Sad	255,071	333,895
Niš	236,722	252,131
Kragujevac	175,473	211,580
Subotica	99,471	147,758
Zrenjanin	79,545	131,509
Leskovac	78,030	156,252
Smederevo	77,808	109,867
Pančevo	77,087	127,162
Kruševac	75,256	131,368
Čačak	73,217	117,012
Užice	63,577	83,022
Valjevo	61,035	96,761
Kraljevo	57,411	121,707
Šabac	55,240	122,893
Vranje	55,052	87,288
Novi Pazar	54,604	85,249
Sombor	51,471	97,263

• Large cities in the contested province of Kosovo and Metohija like Priština, Prizren, Peć and Kosovska Mitrovica were not subjected to the 2002 Census.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Serbia

Serbia (excluding Kosovo) in 2002
Eastern Orthodoxy			84.1%
Roman Catholicism			6.24%
Islam			4.82%
Protestantism			1.44%

Saint Mark Church in Belgrade

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.

Sopoćani Monastery, UNESCO-protected

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

Main article: Economy of Serbia

National Bank of Serbia

With a GDP PPP for 2008 estimated at $79.662 billion ($10,792 per capita PPP), the Republic of Serbia is considered 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 the process of economic transition (1989), its favourable economic outlook in the region was hampered by politics, its economy being gravely impacted by the UN economic sanctions of 1992–95, as well as the sizeable infrastructure and industry damage, suffered during the Kosovo war. Its problems were only augmented by losing the ex-Yugoslavia and Comecon markets. After the ousting of 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. Serbia has been occasionally called a "Balkan tiger" because of its recent high economic growth rates, which averaged 6.6% (in the past three years), with FDI at its record levels.

Novi Beograd business building

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 establish an export-oriented economy.

Blue-chip corporations making investments in Serbia include: US Steel, Philip Morris, Microsoft, FIAT, Coca-Cola, Lafarge, Siemens, Carlsberg and others . In the energy sector, Russian giants Lukoil and Gazprom have made large investments . 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

Main article: Communications in Serbia

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 23%, accounting to 9,21 million users (7,5 million citizens). (Telekom Srbija–5,6 million, Telenor has 3,1 million users and Vip mobile has the rest). [2] 42% of households have computers, 33% use the internet, and 42% have cable TV, which puts the country ahead of the certain member states of the EU.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Serbia

Belgrade Metro

Serbia owns one of the world's oldest airline carriers, the Jat Airways, founded in 1927. There are 3 international airports in Serbia: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Niš Constantine the Great Airport and the Vršac international airport.

The country, especially the valley of the Morava, is often described 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 neighbours to acquire railroads- in 1858 the first train arrived to Vrsac, then Austria-Hungary (by 1882 route to Belgrade and Niš was completed). The railway system is operated by Serbian Railways.

File:Fdgs.JPG

Terminal 1, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport

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

Main article: Tourism in Serbia

File:STUDENICA MONASTERY.jpg

Studenica monastery, UNESCO - protected

Tourism in Serbia is mostly focused 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

Main article: Serbian culture

The White Angel in Mileševa monastery, 1230s, Latin period of Byzantine art

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.

Miroslav Gospels, one of the oldest surviving documents written in Serbian Church Slavonic, 1186, UNESCOs Memory of the World Programme

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.

• See also Monuments of Culture of Great Importance

Serbian theatre and cinema

Main article: Cinema of Serbia

Emir Kusturica

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

Main article: Education in Serbia

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Education in Serbia is regulated by the Ministry of Education. Education starts in either pre-schools or elementary schools. Children enroll in elementary schools (Template:Lang-sr) 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

Stadion Crvena Zvezda, the largest football stadium in Serbia

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" (Template:Lang-sr).

Belgrade Arena, one of the largest sport venues in Europe

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).

Novak Djokovic, one of top 5 tennis players in the world

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 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

Main article: Serbian 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.

See also

Main article: Outline of Serbia

External links

• National Tourist Organization of Serbia
• Serbian Government
• e-Government Portal of Serbia
• President of Serbia
• National Assembly of Serbia
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia
• National Bank of Serbia
• Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency
• Statistical Office of Serbia
• Chief of State and Cabinet Members

General information

• "Serbia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
• Serbia from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Template:Dmoz
• Wikimedia Atlas of Serbia
• Template:Wikitravel

References

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•  This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.