FM Kovač: Serbia's protest note over Stepinac cheap move

(Hina) - Serbia's protest note over the annulment of the conviction of Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, claiming that this was the rehabilitation of fascism and the NDH, is a cheap attempt to destabilise Croatia

(Hina) - Serbia's protest note over the annulment of the conviction of Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, claiming that this was the rehabilitation of fascism and the NDH (WWII Independent State of Croatia), is a cheap attempt to destabilise Croatia while its wording reminds us of the era of Slobodan Milosevic and the Greater Serbia aggression, Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miro Kovač said on Wednesday.

"That note is a cheap attempt at destabilising Croatia at a sensitive time when parliament has been dissolved and prior to the commemoration of the Storm military operation," Kovač told reporters after the first meeting of the government's commission to monitor the transition benchmarks in Serbia's European Union (EU) negotiations of Chapters 23 and 24.

"That's a recipe from the 1990s. The vocabulary unfortunately recalls the time of Slobodan Milošević and the Greater Serbia aggression," Kovač said.

Croatian Ambassador in Belgrade Gordan Markotić was presented with a note in which the Serbian Foreign Ministry protested in the strongest terms against the annulment of the guilty verdict against Alojzije Stepinac, which the authorities in Belgrade consider to be the rehabilitation of fascism and the Ustasha NDH (Independent State of Croatia). The Serbian Ministry reminded that the United Nations and the European Union strictly forbids the restoration of fascism and fascist ideologies.

Kovač urged authorities in Serbia to use "rational, comprehensive vocabulary" in public communication in an effort to build good neighbourly relations, adding that this type of communication does not contribute to that atmosphere.

"I have to say that these assessments regarding Cardinal Stepinac are fictitious and unacceptable. This is meddling in Croatia's interior affairs," Kovač underscored.

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