Event Yugoslav Wars

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Were a series of independence wars and insurgencies that resulted in the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Chronology

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  • September 1995: Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia was a short-lived Serb parallel entity in the territory of Croatia.

1. Croatian War of Independence

Was a war between the government of Croatia (that had recently gained its independency from Yugoslavia) and several local Serb forces.

1.1. Indipendence and breakaway regions in Croatia

Several territories seceded from Croatia when the country became independent from Yugoslavia.

  • January 1992: SAO Western Slavonia joined the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
  • February 1992: SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia is incorporated into the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
  • June 1991: Eastern Slavonia boke away from Croatia the same day of its indipendence.
  • August 1991: Formation of Western Slavonia.
  • June 1991: Independence of Croatia.
  • June 1991: Having proclaimed autonomy from the government of Croatia in 1990, it was de facto self-ruling when croatia declared indipendence.
  • December 1991: SAO of Krajina declared itself the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

1.2. Offensive by the SAO of Krajina

Was a military offensive by the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina during the Croatian War of Independence. .

  • November 1991: JNA captured Slunj on 17 November.
  • October 1991: A day after Milošević declined the Croatian offer, the JNA 9th Boka Kotorska VPS force captured Cavtat.
  • September 1991: Battle of Zadar.
  • September 1991: JNA artillery attacked the village of Vitaljina in the eastern part of Konavle.
  • November 1991: Cetingrad conquered by SAO of Krajina.
  • September 1991: The SAO of Krajina captured Drniš on 18 September.
  • September 1991: In Banovina, the SAO of Krajina captured Petrinja.
  • September 1991: In Banovina, the JNA reached the Kupa River and captured its entire southern bank, except for ZNG bridgeheads in the areas of Nebojan, Sunja and Sisak, on 30 September.
  • September 1991: Battle of Gospić.
  • October 1991: On 4 October, the JNA 2nd Corps captured Slano.
  • October 1991: The SAO of Krajina captured Jasenovac on 8 October.
  • September 1991: The Knin Corps captured Lovinac.
  • October 1991: Lipik and a part of Pakrac were captured.

1.3. Croatian Counteroffensive in Western Slavonia

Was a Croatian offensive against the breakaway Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Western Slavonia during the Croatian War of Independence.

  • November 1991: Croatian forces take Nova Gradiška.
  • December 1991: Lipik was recaptured by the Croatian forces, now renamed the Croatian Army (HV), in 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence.
  • October 1991: The Yugoslav People's Army were pushed away from Grubišno Polje.
  • November 1991: The mountains of Papuk and Bilogora, north of Pakrac where the Croatian Serb militia was not supported by the JNA, were brought under Croatian control in the same period.
  • December 1991: Lipik was recaptured by the Croatian forces, now renamed the Croatian Army (HV), in 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. This marked a significant victory for Croatia in reclaiming territory from Serbian forces.

1.4. Croatian Final Offensives

Were the final Croatian military offensives against local Serbian forces during the Croatian War of Independence.

  • July 1995: Operation Summer '95 was a military offensive conducted by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • June 1992: Battle of the Miljevci Plateau.
  • April 1995: Operation Leap 1.
  • June 1995: Operation Leap 2.
  • May 1995: Operation Bljesak.
  • August 1995: Operation Storm offensive launched by Croatian forces in August 1995.
  • February 1993: Operation Maslenica.

1.5. Erdut Agreement

Was an agreement reached on 12 November 1995 between the authorities of the Republic of Croatia and the local Serb authorities of the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia region on the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence in eastern Croatia.

  • January 1998: Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia reintagrated into Croatia.

2. Ten-Day War

Was a brief armed conflict that followed Slovenia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991.

  • June 1991: Slovenian forces seized the strategic Karawanken Tunnel.
  • June 1991: The border crossing at Holmec was captured by Slovenian TO forces.
  • July 1991: The Slovenian army mounted successful attacks on border crossings at Šentilj, Gornja Radgona, Fernetiči and Gorjansko, overrunning them.
  • July 1991: With a ceasefire now in force, the two sides disengaged. Slovenian forces took control of all of the country's border crossings, and YPA units were allowed to withdraw peacefully to barracks and to cross the border to Croatia.
  • June 1991: The entire YPA garrison at Dravograd - 16 officers and 400 men, plus equipment - surrendered, and the garrisons at Tolmin and Bovec also fell to the Slovenians.
  • June 1991: YPA-held border crossings at Vrtojba and Šentilj fell to the Slovenian forces.
  • June 1991: A unit of the Yugoslav People's Army (YPA)'s 306th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, based in Karlovac, Croatia, crossed the Slovenian border at Metlika.
  • June 1991: Secession of Slovenia from the Yugoslavian federation.
  • June 1991: By midnight on 27 June Yugoslavia had captured all of the crossings along the Italian border, all but three crossings on the Austrian border and several of the new crossing points established along Slovenia's border with Croatia.

3. Bosnian War

Was a civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, that had recently gained its independence from Yugoslavia. It involved several actors, but mainly pitted the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina against the de facto independent regions of Herzeg-Bosnia and Republika Srpska.

  • April 1995: Operation Leap 1.
  • July 1995: Operation Summer '95 was a military offensive conducted by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • June 1995: Battle of Orašje.
  • June 1995: Operation Leap 2.
  • August 1994: Operation Tiger (1994).
  • September 1993: A small unrecognised state that existed in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1993 and 1995. It consisted of the town of Velika Kladuša (its capital) and a few nearby villages. It was proclaimed as a result of secessionist politics by former Bosnian president Fikret Abdić against the central government of Alija Izetbegovic during the Bosnian War.
  • April 1992: When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia after the 1992 Bosnian independence referendum, the Bosnian Serbs (whose strategic goal was to create a new Bosnian Serb state of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include Bosniak-majority areas) encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 13,000 stationed in the surrounding hills.
  • July 1993: Battle of Bugojno.
  • October 1995: Operation Sana. Bosnian forces occupy Bosanska Krupa, Bosanski Petrovac, Ključ, Kulen Vakuf, Bosanska Otoka and Sanski Most.
  • November 1994: Battle of Kupres.
  • September 1995: Operation Mistral 2' was a military offensive carried out by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 in the towns of Jajce, Drvar, and Šipovo.
  • December 1994: Operation Winter '94.
  • September 1995: Battle for Vozuća.
  • August 1995: Operation Storm offensive launched by Croatian forces in August 1995.
  • October 1995: Operation Southern Move.
  • March 1992: When Bosnia Herzegovina was declared it didn't control all of ist official territory.
  • March 1992: Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from the disintegrating Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992.
  • March 1994: A ceasefire agreement between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, was signed on 18 March 1994 by Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdžić, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granić and President of Herzeg-Bosnia Krešimir Zubak. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Croat and Bosnian government forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • November 1994: Operation Spider takes place in Western Bosnia.

3.1. Operation Jackal

Was a military offensive by Bosnia-Herzegovina government forces against the Republika Srpska during the Croatian War of Independence.

  • June 1992: Territorial advances of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during Operation Corridor.
  • June 1992: Territorial advances of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during Operation Corridor.
  • June 1992: JNA activity ended.

3.2. Operation Corridor

Was the largest operation conducted during the Bosnian War by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) against the forces of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Croatian Army (HV) in the Bosanska Posavina region of northern Bosnia and Herzegovina between 24 June and 6 October 1992.

  • June 1992: Territorial advances of the Republika Srpska during Operation Corridor.
  • July 1992: Territorial advances of the Republika Srpska during Operation Corridor.
  • July 1992: Territorial advances of the Republika Srpska during Operation Corridor.
  • June 1992: Territorial advances of the Republika Srpska during Operation Corridor.

3.3. Dayton Agreement

Was a peace agreement that ended the Bosnian War. The warring parties agreed to peace and to a single sovereign state known as Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of two parts, the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  • December 1995: Peace Treaty: reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, on 1 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the ​3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars. The warring parties agreed to peace and to a single sovereign state known as Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of two parts, the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

4. Kosovo War

Was a conflict in Kosovo, at the time part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that led to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and then to the independency of Kosovo.

  • February 2008: The Assembly of Kosovo adopted the declaration of independence.
  • June 1999: The UNMIK was established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1244, which was passed on 10 June 1999. In that Resolution, the UN decided to "deploy in Kosovo, under United Nations auspices, an international civil and security presence".

5. Insurgency in the Preševo Valley

Was an armed conflict between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanian separatists of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB).

  • June 1999: 12 June 1999 – 1 June 2001: a 1999–2001 armed conflict between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanian separatists of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB).

6. 2001 insurgency in Macedonia

22 January - 12 November 2001: an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in FR Yugoslavia, attacked Macedonian security forces at the beginning of February 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year.

  • January 2001: 22 January - 12 November 2001: an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in FR Yugoslavia, attacked Macedonian security forces at the beginning of February 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year.

Selected Sources

  • Map - Balkan battlegrounds. Library of Congress. Retrieved on 7 April 2024 on https://www.loc.gov/item/2010588135