Two Faces of Operation Storm: Knin Celebrates Victory
While Croatia marks the 31st anniversary of the military-police operation Storm, Serbia and Republika Srpska hold commemorations with a completely opposing narrative.
While Croatia marks the 31st anniversary of the military-police operation Storm, Serbia and Republika Srpska hold commemorations with a completely opposing narrative.
On August 5, 2026, Croatia celebrated Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders, with the central ceremony in Knin marking the 31st anniversary of Operation Storm. However, this year's commemoration was overshadowed by internal political tensions, primarily the disagreement between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Office of the President. The cause was the President's decision to ban Croatian soldiers from participating in the military parade in Paris, which led to the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, who carried out the order, losing the government's confidence.
Parallel to the state ceremonies, a controversy erupted in Zagreb over the display of national symbols. The ruling HDZ party accused Mayor Tomislav Tomašević of the Možemo! movement that the main Zagreb square was not decorated with a single Croatian flag on Victory Day. Možemo! quickly denied this claim, but the incident further highlighted the divisions in the political scene even during days that should be dedicated to national unity.
While Croatia celebrated victory, Serbia and the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina organized a "Day of Remembrance for the Suffering and Expelled Serbs." The central commemoration was held a day earlier, on August 4, 2026, in Mrkonjić Grad. Serbian media continue to use radically different terminology, describing Operation Storm as "the greatest ethnic cleansing crime since World War II." Their reports claim that in just 48 hours, the area of the former Republic of Serbian Krajina was "ethnically cleansed."
The Veritas center presents data, disputed by the Croatian side, of about 2,000 killed or missing Serbs and more than 220,000 expelled, calling it, according to DW, the largest exodus of civilian population in Europe since World War II. The Russian Embassy in Belgrade joined the narrative, assessing that Operation Storm became "one of the most tragic pages in the recent history of the Balkans," with claims that NATO and the EU bear special responsibility for it.
Amid the sea of opposing narratives, Croatian analyst Davor Đenero expressed the view that both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are at fault because the annual commemoration of Operation Storm does not sufficiently emphasize the broader context of the operation. He stressed the particular importance of the Split Declaration, signed on July 22, 1995, by Franjo Tuđman, the Croatian president, and Alija Izetbegović, the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This document allowed the Croatian Armed Forces to use the territory of BiH for a joint fight against the Army of Republika Srpska.
Part of the reports from BiH links Operation Storm to the later operation "Maestral," claiming that Croatian and Bosniak forces killed an additional 655 and expelled about 125,000 Serbian residents, further deepening the divide in different memories of the war events of the late 1990s.
