Operation Storm’s 30th Anniversary in Croatia: Narratives and Counter-Narratives
State elites have often used wars as a source to advance selective narratives promoting national unity and state legitimacy. In Croatia, the dominant narrative about the August 1995 Operation Storm, which led to Croatia’s victory in the War of Independence against Serbia-supported Croatian Serb secessionists, is a case in point. This narrative, however, has been challenged by counter-narratives that draw attention to crimes against Serb civilians and the exodus of Serbs in the context of the operation. This article analyzes these conflicting narratives on the occasion of Storm’s 30th anniversary in 2025, focusing on commemorations carried out by the Croatian government and Croatia’s Serb National Council. It argues that the 2025 events show the enduring strength of the dominant narrative and the continuation of the aforementioned divergences, amplifying the challenges to Croatian Serbs’ social position in the face of issues like the mainstreaming of nationalist elements in Croatia’s public sphere.
Gustavo Oliveira Teles de Menezes
Gustavo Oliveira Teles de Menezes is a doctoral student at the San Tiago Dantas Graduate Program in International Relations (São Paulo State University - Unesp, University of Campinas - Unicamp, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - PUC/SP) and researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology for Studies on the United States (INCT-INEU), both based in São Paulo - Brazil. He obtained a master’s degree at the San Tiago Dantas program with a dissertation about Russia’s perspective on Serbia’s neutrality policy. In addition to Balkan politics, he has an interest in Russian foreign policy, focusing on its Middle East dimension.