The Retirees' Bloc Together strongly condemns the display of the Ustasha salute at the Operation Storm celebration and calls on veterans not to allow their sacrifice to be demonized.
The Retirees' Bloc Together (BUZ) issued a sharp statement on Thursday, August 6, 2026, warning that a relatively small but vocal group of individuals is compromising the honor of hundreds of thousands of Croatian veterans. The occasion, as they state, was what was seen during this year's celebration of the military-police operation Storm, where symbols and salutes associated with the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) were again displayed.
At the center of the statement is the salute "Za dom spremni" (Ready for the home), which BUZ unequivocally declares to be an Ustasha salute. "There is no doubt that the salute 'Za dom spremni' is an Ustasha salute, a salute used by a relatively small number of veterans during the Homeland War, most of whom did not associate it in any way with the NDH, which was created in 1941 as a quisling entity under the patronage of fascists and Nazis," the BUZ statement reads.
They add that those who distributed black uniforms and weapons in 1991 were well aware of the true meaning of that salute and its connection to the NDH, which, as they emphasize, committed numerous crimes and became one of the greatest stains in the centuries-long history of the Croatian people.
BUZ reminds that as early as the beginning of 1992, by order of the then President of the Republic of Croatia, all HOS units were officially and immediately disbanded, and their members were integrated into regular Croatian Army units. However, they warn that "the genie is out of the bottle" and that some, as they say, spineless individuals in power tolerate it, which today allows it to use every opportunity to "spread its poison."
They particularly criticized the scenario that repeats every year. "Unfortunately, for years we have witnessed that during the celebration of the brightest day in Croatia's recent history, the celebration of Operation Storm, almost always the same characters, under the guise of paying tribute to fallen veterans, almost completely openly try to send a message that their sick dream of the NDH has the support of veterans," BUZ states, adding that they thereby receive too much public and media space for relativizing history and sowing hatred.
The statement also addresses a broader social phenomenon. They point out that it is devastating to see that fans of certain clubs, who until recently prided themselves exclusively on the color white, now increasingly march in black and demonstrate unprecedented brutality, not only in stadiums but also on city streets.
They also touched on war songs with the Ustasha salute. They admit that these songs truly encouraged people during the difficult days of the Homeland War, but they emphasize that 30 years after its end, these same songs no longer have the same meaning. "There simply isn't, because there has long been no war, and thus no need to encourage ourselves, poorly or not at all armed, before an enemy attacking us," the statement reads.
In conclusion, BUZ calls for an uncompromising fight against evil. "Evil is simply evil, and those who in any way propagate or spread evil should not be given any leeway but should be rigorously sanctioned without any exception," they state. They appeal to the hundreds of thousands of veterans not to allow a small but increasingly vocal and radical group to push them to the margins with their outbursts and compromise their contribution to the Homeland War.
"The vast majority of us who responded to the call of the Homeland as early as the summer of 1990, and even those who joined in the following years, did not respond or were not ready to give our lives for any NDH, but for a free and democratic Croatia, a Croatia in which there is no place for historical evil that some persistently want to revive," BUZ concludes.
