Displaying items by tag: selfrule

Catalonia's drive to separate from Spain is rekindling dreams of independence in ethnic pockets across the Balkans - a dangerous ambition in a region where nationalist violence claimed tens of thousands of lives in the 1990s. Among ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia and the Serbs of Republika Srpska, in the wake of the ‘banned’ Catalan referendum, separatist leaders are asking the same question: ‘Why don't we do the same?’ On the election day, graffiti of Catalan flags appeared several towns in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, along with the claim that ‘Vojvodina = Catalonia’. Meanwhile, in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar, a giant banner appeared near the cathedral showing the flags of Catalonia and Herceg-Bosna, the self-styled Croat entity, reading ‘Good luck. We are the next.’ Local media are saying, ‘The fact that one region (Kosovo) managed to secure independence has emboldened many like-minded leaders in the region’.