REPUBLIC OF SERBIA – PATH TO FREEDOM

(THE ROAD TO DEMOCRACY, THE ROAD OF DEMOCRACY)

The Republic of Serbia is a country at the crossroads, the border between East and West, between Eastern and Western Christianity.

The Serbs came to the area of ​​today's Balkan Peninsula by migration of Slavs in the 7th century AD. Serbs are a Slavic people from the group of South Slavs.

Throughout its rich and turbulent history, Serbia was a kingdom, empire, principality, and after the end of the Second World War, to this day, it is a Republic.

Serbia was part of the Ottoman Empire, some parts under the rule of Austro-Hungary, and the path to freedom and democracy was long and arduous.

After four centuries of Turkish occupation marked by the abduction of children from their families (blood tax), the forced Islamization of the population and the killing of national leaders, on the Orthodox holiday of Sretenje, February 15, 1804, in Orašac, an Uprising Assembly was held. raising an uprising against the Turks and electing a leader of the uprising. That is how the First Serbian Uprising was raised under the leadership of Karadjordje Petrovic.

With the first victories in the uprising and the first liberated cities, the first national assembly was held in Ostružnica near Belgrade from May 6 to 15, 1804. The first Serbian uprising was quelled by the fall of Belgrade again into Turkish hands, on October 7, 1813. The first Serbian uprising marked the beginning of the Serbian struggle for liberation, that is, the birth of the Serbian modern state in the 19th century. Along with the struggle for the liberation and overthrow of the Turkish feudal system, the foundations of new socio-economic relations, culture and organization of the future Serbian state were laid. This uprising occupies a special place in the history of the Serbian people and state, and on the day of its beginning, February 15, the Statehood Day of the Republic of Serbia is marked. Despite the formal failure of the First Serbian Uprising, it greatly contributed to the success of the Second Serbian Uprising, that was raised in 1815. Therefore, the First Serbian Uprising is considered the foundation of the modern Serbian state.

The flame of democracy ignited in the following decades.

In 1815, the Second Serbian Uprising was raised under the leadership of Miloš Obrenović, by which Serbia achieved partial liberation from Turkish slavery.

In 1835, the Sretenje Constitution was adopted at the holiday of Sretenje, which limited the power of  Prince Miloš Obrenovic. At that time it was the freest constitution in Europe, so modern that it was soon repealed under the pressure of the great powers of France, Russia and Austria.

From November 30, 1858 to January 31, 1859, the St. Andean Assembly was held, when the institution of the National Assembly was made official and the foundation of the representative system in Serbia was laid.

The Principality of Serbia gained final freedom and independence after the Berlin Congress in 1878.

The first elections in the Principality of Serbia were held on October 29, 1878, when the Liberal Party won the majority of votes. Two thirds of the deputies were elected by the people, and  one third by the prince. In November of the same year, a new National Assembly was convened, the first of the elected representatives of the people.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, Serbia participated in two Balkan wars, which completed the territory of Serbia.

The First World War, in 1914, broke out with the declaration of war on Serbia by Austro-Hungary. The occasion was the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne and Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia, carried out in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The assassination was carried out by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the secret organization "Young Bosnia", which aimed to overthrow the Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina through riots, uprisings and armed assassinations. Serbia fought on the victorious side, on the side of the Entente, and suffered the greatest sacrifice of all the allies as it stayed without a quarter of the male population that was killed during this war.

After the end of the First World War, in the year 1918, Serbia has been united with the former Austro-Hungarian territories of Vojvodina, Slavonia, Baranja, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, forming the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, that was later called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Representatives of all three constituent peoples and representatives of different political orientations participated in the political life of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The Second World War began in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, with the attack of fascist Germany on Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The reason for the attack was the general demonstrations of March 27, 1941, which expressed indignation over the accession of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the fascist Triple Alliance.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia disintegrated after the defeat in the short April War, which lasted only 12 days, from April 6 to 17, 1941. When the Yugoslav military forces were completely defeated, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia signed an unconditional capitulation. After that, the Axis Powers completely divided Yugoslavia. A significant part of the territory of the state, which was created 23 years earlier, was divided between the states that participated in the invasion, and from the remaining part the Independent State of Croatia, Serbia under German occupation and the Kingdom of Montenegro under the Italian monarchy were formed.

From the first day of the war, the Serbian people sided with the anti-fascist forces and welcomed the end of the war, in 1945, on the victorious side. As its final result, the Second World War brought the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the fall of the monarchy and a change of state system.

For the first time in its history, Serbia became a Socialist Republic and, together with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, became part of the new, socialist Yugoslavia, as one of the six republics in Yugoslavia. It was the largest and most populous Yugoslav republic, and only the third most developed (after  Slovenia and Croatia). The capital of Serbia, Belgrade, was also the capital of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Socialist Federal Republic of  Yugoslavia is ruled by a one-party system, headed by the Communist Party and lifelong president Josip Broz Tito. Elections are held between representatives of one party. One of the greatest democratic achievements of socialist Yugoslavia has been giving women the right to vote since 1945.

The first multi-party elections in socialist Yugoslavia were held in 1990, in which nationalist parties won the majority of votes in all republics and that was a hint of the country's disintegration. Socialist Yugoslavia disintegrated with a civil war that began with the secession of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and lasted from 1991 to 1995. Macedonia left Yugoslavia peacefully.

After the disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia, Serbia formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with Montenegro, which in 2003 was renamed the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

After a referendum, in 2006, Montenegro left the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, making Serbia an independent state for the first time since the year 1918.

Today, the Republic of Serbia is an independent and sovereign, democratically organized state that maintains friendly relations with both the East and the West. Serbia is a country that has been a bearer of flame and a companion of democracy since its beginnings.

The Republic of Serbia is a candidate for accession to the European Union. On December 22, 2009, the Republic of Serbia submitted its application for membership in the European Union. On October 12, 2011, the European Commission recommended that Serbia be granted the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and on March 1, 2012, the European Council decided to grant Serbia the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union. The Stabilization and Association Agreement between the Republic of Serbia and the European Union entered into force on September 1, 2013. On January 21, 2014, the first intergovernmental conference between the Republic of Serbia and the European Union was held in Brussels, which marked the beginning of accession negotiations at the political level.

Part of the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade and the Monument to the Victor (the work of sculptor Ivan Mestrovic). The confluence of the  river Sava into the river Danube