BELGRADE, AUGUST, 11 /SRNA/ – Minister of Culture and Information of Serbia Vladan Vukosavljević believes that if Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla visited his homeland in 1941, he would be slaughtered and thrown into the pit, as well as numerous members of the Tesla family and more than 500 resident of Smiljan.
Vukosavljević has said that the adjective “Croatian” cannot go with Tesla in the same sentence, “unless it is a children's quiz from popular geography”.
Reacting to a statement by Croatian Culture Minister Nina Obuljen- Koržinek that “Croatia respectfully remembers one of ‘its’ greatest inventors” Vukosavljević has reminded that Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in the village of Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, within the area called “Military Krajina” almost exclusively populated by Serbs.
The minister has noted that Tesla's father was an Orthodox priest, that he was baptized in the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Peter and Paul in Smiljan and that it was clear what his nationality was, the Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia said.
“How a Serb born in the Austrian Empire, within the area called ‘Military Krajina’, at a time when there is no hint from the state of Croatia, became an ‘Croatian’s inventor’ by interesting pseudo-historical engineering?” Vukosavljević asked.
He has emphasized that, on the other hand, Croatia has shown at least two occasions very directly what it thinks about Nikola Tesla and his compatriots.
Vukosavljević says that Tesla would probably have been slaughtered and thrown into the pit had he visited his homeland in 1941, as well as numerous members of the Tesla family and more than 500 Smiljan residents, and if he had survived, he would probably have died in Jasenovac, Glina, Jadovno or to another of the innumerable execution sites of the Serbs, or he might have died in the fight against the Croatian Ustashas.
On Koržinek's claim that “Serbia does not stop with falsifying history …”, Vukosavljević has emphasized that he would attribute this to her current decline in concentration and said that he would not respond as deserved this “defamatory and intellectually dishonest attitude”.
When it comes to Ivo Andrić and his sense of national and spiritual-intellectual affiliation, Vukosavljević has instructed Koržinek to be informed of this in the numerous statements by Andrić himself and in documents which he signed as a great Serbian and world writer and Nobelist.
“When it comes to Ivo Andrić, I encourage her to understand that not all Roman Catholics born in this region are Croats, at the same time. She should know so much already, if her sole source of information is not exclusively the ‘Croatian Encyclopedia'”, Vukosavljević indicated.
He added that religion is not at the forefront of nations in Europe and that, as he said, the convictions of Minister Obuljen Korzinek cannot undermine the existence of many prominent Serbian Roman Catholics from this region.
“I will return the Minister with the same advice, to get rid of the myths and to get acquainted with the biographies and work of Ruđer Boskovic, Ivan Gundulic, Petar Preradovic, Vlacho Bukovic, Ivo Vojnovic, Matija Ban, Marko Murat, Valtazar Bogisic, Antun Matija Reljkovic and many others” said Vukosavljevic.
Vukosavljević has emphasized that authentic Croatian culture has a large number of important representatives, which can be boasted both locally and globally, and that, therefore, mythomania and arrogate of others are not a reliable ally to any nation, including Croatian and Serbian.
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