The Yugoslav Wars: Difference between revisions

* [[Enemy Mine]]: In the early stages of the war Tuđman and Milošević made a deal to carve up Bosnia between Croatia and Serbia.

** In 1994 Croats and Bosniaks allied themselves under US pressure against the Serbs.

* [[Flame Bait]]: Mostly due to it's recent history and [[Misplaced Nationalism]].

* [[Follow the Leader]]: Franjo Tuđman had [http://www.ljubomir.de/images/tudman_156.jpg a uniform] that was similar to [http://www.bmlv.gv.at/pool/img/a01_589.jpg Tito]'s. There is even a popular joke in former Yugoslavia describing this trope: Tito and Tuđman meet each other in hell. Tuđman greets him with "Hello dictator!" while Tito replies with "Hello imitator!".

* [[Funny Moment]] / [[Black Comedy]] : The trials in the Hague have a lot of these. Šešelj in particular is a comedic gold mine.

* [[Glamorous Wartime Singer]]: All sides spawned a lot of examples of this trope who depended on nationalism instead of sex appeal. From a certain point of view this war also provided a deconstruction of this trope. While many of them like Knindža and Thompson seemed not to have noticed that the war is over and still perform nationalist songs on their concerts (although not surprising given subservient attitude of new Croatian "democratic" governments in regards to... everyone), Bosniak singers suffered a [[Hype Backlash]]. Being the largest and most widely distributed ethnic group, the Serbs are still one of the biggest music markets in the Balkans and anyone who wants to start a significant career (especially in the folk and Turbofolk genre) depends on a commercial success with the Serbs. Many Bosniak singers didn't want or werent allowed to appear on Serbian television. Same also applies for Serbian singers within their (former) Bosniak fandom to the point of their songs being hated for their singers. It doesn't help that Serbs and Bosniaks have still close ties with each other in the music business, almost as if the war never happened.

* [[Gratuitous Rape]]: Employed by all sides with apparently the Serbs having the lion's share.

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: The Croat, Bosniak, Serb and Albanian mentality.

* [[Moment of Awesome]]: Serbia became the first country to actually shoot down a stealth aircraft. The wreckage was recovered by Serbia, and is believed to have been thoroughly examined by Russian officials; some pieces are currently on display in Belgrade. See below for how they did it.

** Locals even printed up T-Shirts reading "SORRY! We didn't know it was invisible. Greetings from Serbia!"

** And beware using the word Nazi in this conflict, as the area was heavily involved in [[World War Two]] with literal Nazis factions in the different ethnic groups. The Croats loyal to the fascist NDH regime, the Bosnian Muslims within the Ustaše and the SS Mountain Division "Handžar" and the Albanians loyal to Italy being Axis-aligned. Half of the Serbs were either for the most part with the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović who wanted to restore the Serbian monarchy or with the Serbian puppet state under [[The Quisling|Milan Nedic]]. After losing Allied support and with the advance of Tito's forces and the Red Army, the Chetniks switched to the Axis side to fight the Partisans. The other half of all ethnic groups fought for said Partisans under Tito.

* [[Police Are Useless|U.N Peacekeepers Are Useless]]: Except when supplying warring factions with arms or protecting warlords.

* [[Vestigial Empire]]: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) is legally regarded as the legal succesor of the Socialist Federal Republic Yugoslavia. Though the UN and the other former Yugoslav republics think otherwise.

* [[Vetinari Job Security]]: Once Tito died, the Clock started ticking on when this whole can of worms would open.

* [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]]

* [[The Woobie]]: Let's say that this is a conflict where every side sees themselves as the victims of the other.

* [[Would Not Shoot a Civilian]]: Brutally averted.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Waking the Dead]]'' has Dr. Tara Fitzgerald having done forensic work in the former Yugoslavia. In one episode, the team investigate a case she worked on and results in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] as those responsible are identified by three witnesses a decade later.

* ''[[New Tricks]]'' {{spoiler|A Serbian war criminal went into hiding as a monk in an addiction clinic and killed a man who recognised him}}

* ''The Death of Yugoslavia'' by BBC is probably by far one of the best documentaries about the war. Not only does it give great insight in every faction and their motivations, but also explains quite well how step by step Yugoslavia became fragmented and collapsed from within.

* An episode of ''[[Extras]]'' features [[Ben Stiller]] directing a movie set during the Yugoslav Wars and based on the life of a real survivor.