94-528: The Army of Republika Srpska ( Serbian : Војска Републике Српске/Vojska Republike Srpske ; ВРС/ VRS ), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army , was the military of Republika Srpska , the self-proclaimed Serb secessionist republic, a territory within the newly independent Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly part of Yugoslavia ), which it defied and fought against. Active during
188-553: A Slavic language ( Indo-European ), of the South Slavic subgroup. Other standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian are Bosnian , Croatian , and Montenegrin . "An examination of all the major 'levels' of language shows that BCS is clearly a single language with a single grammatical system." It has lower intelligibility with the Eastern South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian , than with Slovene (Slovene
282-533: A Banja Luka daily, the modern entity's name was created by its first minister of culture, Ljubomir Zuković. Archaeological evidence in Republika Srpska, as well as bordering areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, attest to pronounced human activity in the Paleolithic . Specifically, in 1976, near the modern-day town of Stolac in the then relatively hospitable Neretva basin , archaeological artifacts in
376-623: A flag (a variant of the Serbian flag without the coat of arms displayed) and its entity anthem. The Constitutional Law on the Coat of Arms and Anthem of Republika Srpska was ruled not in concordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina as it states that those symbols 'represent the statehood of Republika Srpska' and are used 'in accordance with moral norms of the Serb people'. According to
470-915: A fully integrated unit of Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats was deployed to augment the US-led coalition forces in Iraq . On 6 June 2006, it was fully integrated into the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Ministry of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The supreme commander of the VRS was General Ratko Mladić , later indicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, as were some other high-ranking Serb officers. Mladić
564-452: A guerilla force that engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with the occupying forces for almost all of the war, pursued genocide against Croats and Bosniaks , which included thousands of Croat and Bosniak civilians killed on the territory of modern-day Republika Srpska. The Chetniks killed an estimated 50,000 to 68,000 Muslims and Croats. A December 1941 directive, attributed to Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović , explicitly ordered
658-775: A peak in the Dinaric Alps near Montenegro, reaching 2,386 metres (7,828 ft), and parts nearer the Adriatic going down to sea level. The largest and most popular ski resort in Bosnia and Herzegovina is situated on the slopes of the mountain Jahorina , in the eastern part of the entity. Other major mountains in Republika Srpska include Volujak , Zelengora , Lelija , Lebršnik , Crvanj , Orjen , Klekovača , Vitorog , Kozara , Romanija , Treskavica and Trebević . Republika Srpska shares international borders with Croatia to
752-675: A period of relative peace and economic development. Ljubija mine and companies like Agrokomerc played a vital role in much of the economic development of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Literacy rates increased greatly, and the University of Banja Luka was founded in 1975. Representatives of main political parties and some other national organisations and institutions of Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina met on 13 October 1990 in Banja Luka and formed
846-449: Is a rare example of synchronic digraphia , a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or the other. In general, the alphabets are used interchangeably; except in the legal sphere, where Cyrillic is required, there is no context where one alphabet or another predominates. Although Serbian language authorities have recognized
940-524: Is a recognized minority language in Croatia , North Macedonia , Romania , Hungary , Slovakia , and the Czech Republic . Standard Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina ), which is also the basis of standard Croatian , Bosnian , and Montenegrin varieties and therefore
1034-599: Is likely to jeopardize freedom of speech and silence critics. Critics have said that this could make the Republika Srpska an authoritarian regime. Situated in Southeast Europe , Republika Srpska is located on the Balkan Peninsula , with its northern extents reaching into the Pannonian Basin . Republika Srpska lies between latitudes 42° and 46° N and longitudes 16° and 20° E . The entity
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#17327662590931128-591: Is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina , the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina . It is located in the northern and eastern parts of the country and had a population of 1,228,423 according to the 2013 census. The largest city and administrative center is Banja Luka , situated on the Vrbas River . Republika Srpska was founded in 1992 at the outset of the Bosnian War with
1222-536: Is part of the Western South Slavic subgroup, but there are still significant differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to the standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian, although it is closer to the Kajkavian and Chakavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian ). Speakers by country: Serbian was the official language of Montenegro until October 2007, when the new Constitution of Montenegro replaced
1316-530: Is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, the Serbian Alexandride , a book about Alexander the Great , and a translation of Tristan and Iseult into Serbian. Although not belonging to the literature proper, the corpus of Serbian literacy in the 14th and 15th centuries contains numerous legal, commercial and administrative texts with marked presence of Serbian vernacular juxtaposed on
1410-523: Is split into two main parts by the Brčko District; a hilly western part and a more varied eastern part, with high mountains in the south and flat, fertile farmland in the north. Republika Srpska, unlike its counterpart entity, is landlocked. Like the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska is split into a Bosnian region in the north and a Herzegovinian region in the far south. Within these two macroregions exist smaller geographical regions, from
1504-718: Is the "identity script" of the Serbian nation. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language , or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials, which have to be in Cyrillic. Traffic signs and directional signs, and place names, on main or international roads are to be written with both Cyrillic and Latin script To most Serbians,
1598-435: Is the only general historical dictionary of Serbo-Croatian. Its first editor was Đuro Daničić , followed by Pero Budmani and the famous Vukovian Tomislav Maretić . The sources of this dictionary are, especially in the first volumes, mainly Štokavian . There are older, pre-standard dictionaries, such as the 1791 German–Serbian dictionary or 15th century Arabic-Persian-Greek-Serbian Conversation Textbook . The standard and
1692-615: Is the tenth since the entity’s establishment. In the name Republika Srpska , Srpska is a noun derived from the ethnonym of the Serbs with a different suffix than Srbija ‘ Serbia ’. In Serbian , many names of countries are formed with the -sk- suffix (e.g. Bugarska ‘Bulgaria’, Danska ‘Denmark’, Finska ‘Finland’, Hrvatska ‘Croatia’, Irska ‘Ireland’, Turska ‘Turkey’). An analogous English formation would be Serbland (which has been used sporadically). The government uses
1786-794: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbian, written in the Cyrillic script : Сва људска бића рађају се слободна и једнака у достојанству и правима. Она су обдарена разумом и свешћу и треба једни према другима да поступају у духу братства. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbian, written in the Latin alphabet : Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i svešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva. Article 1 of
1880-459: The Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, it continued to exist as the armed forces of RS, one of two entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina, until 2006 when it was integrated into the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Forces of the VRS engaged in several campaigns, including Operation Corridor 92 , Operation Vrbas '92 , Operation Bura , and Operation Spider ; they were also involved in
1974-649: The Dayton Agreement . The total length of the IEBL is approximately 1,080 km. The IEBL is an administrative demarcation uncontrolled by military or police and there is free movement across it. Republika Srpska is one of the most forested areas in Europe, with over 50% of its area consisting of forest cover. Perućica is one of the last old-growth forests in Europe. Two densely-wooded national parks— Sutjeska National Park and Kozara National Park —are located in
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#17327662590932068-547: The Declaration on the Common Language of Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Montenegrins was issued in 2017. The other dialect spoken by Serbs is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia, which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian . Serbian is practically the only European standard language whose speakers are fully functionally digraphic , using both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
2162-492: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice . Acts of ethnic cleansing against the non-Serb populations reduced the numbers of other groups. Serb police, soldiers, and irregulars attacked Muslims and Croats, and burned and looted their homes. Some were killed on the spot; others were rounded up and killed elsewhere, or forced to flee. The number of Croats
2256-576: The Ottoman-Habsburg conflicts of the late 17th and 18th centuries, parts of northern Republika Srpska became a part of the Habsburg Empire for relatively short periods of time. Rule was more permanent following Austro-Hungarian invasion in 1878. Characterised by economic and social development not seen in the by-then backwards Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian rule was welcomed by many. However, many Muslims left Bosnia, leaving Serbs as
2350-631: The Proto-Slavic language . There are many loanwords from different languages, reflecting cultural interaction throughout history. Notable loanwords were borrowed from Greek, Latin, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian, English, Russian, German, Czech and French. Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages , and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevanđelje ( Miroslav's Gospel ) in 1186 and Dušanov zakonik ( Dušan's Code ) in 1349. Little secular medieval literature has been preserved, but what there
2444-698: The Srebrenica massacre . A number of Romanians and Ukrainians fought as well on the Bosnian Serb side. After the war, the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina had two armies, that of the VRS and the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFBiH). AFBiH was itself composed of two elements, the ARBiH and HVO. The two armies functioned without a common command, on the principle of "non-intervention in
2538-604: The Una and Sana rivers in the northwest, have Latin origins, meaning "the one" and "the healthy", respectively. This rule was not uninterrupted, however; with the suppression of the once-dominant Illyrian population came revolts such as the Bellum Batonianum . After 20 AD, however, the entirety of the country was conquered by the Romans and it was split between Pannonia and Dalmatia . The most prominent Roman city in Bosnia
2632-609: The United Nations Human Rights Council in 2008, have made claims of discrimination against non-Serb refugees in Republika Srpska, particularly areas with high unemployment in the Drina Valley such as Srebrenica , Bratunac , Višegrad , and Foča . According to the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, European Union Police Mission , UNHCR , and other international organisations, security in both Republika Srpska and
2726-530: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( Serbian Cyrillic : Република Српска , pronounced [repǔblika sr̩̂pskaː] , also known as the Republic of Srpska )
2820-507: The ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats from Sandžak and Bosnia and Herzegovina . About 300 villages and small towns were destroyed, along with a large number of mosques and Catholic churches. The Chetniks were almost exclusively made up of Serbs except for a large number of Montenegrins who identified as Serbs. During the entire course of WWII in Yugoslavia, 64.1% of all Bosnian Partisans were Serbs. After World War II came
2914-578: The siege of Sarajevo , as well as the Srebrenica massacre . The Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) was founded on 12 May 1992 from the remnants of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from which Bosnia and Herzegovina had seceded earlier in 1992. When the Bosnian War erupted, the JNA formally discharged 80,000 Bosnian Serb troops. These troops, who were allowed to keep their heavy weapons, formed
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3008-536: The 'Serbian National Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina' as a Serb political body. In a session on 14–15 October 1991, the People's Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina , then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , approved the 'Memorandum on Sovereignty', as had already been done by Slovenia and Croatia , as a way to proclaim independence from the rest of Yugoslavia. The memorandum
3102-749: The 1st Krajina Corps, the 2nd Krajina Corps, the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, the Hercegovina Corps and the East Bosnia Corps." Formerly known as Ratno Vazduhoplovstva i Protiv Vazdušna Odbrana Vojske Republike Srpske or RV i PVO RS . Beginning on 1 June 2004, the Republika Srpska Air Force was officially called, Prvi Puk Vazduhoplovstva i Protiv Vazdušna Odbrana Vojske Republike Srpske , also known as 1st Aviation Regiment and Air Defence Force of
3196-709: The Balkans . With the end of the Illyrian Wars , most of Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Roman control within the province of Illyricum . In this period, the Romans consolidated the region through the construction of a dense road network and the Romanisation of the local population. Among these roads was the Via Argentaria , or 'Silver Way', which transported silver from the eastern mines of Bosnia to Roman population centres. Modern placenames, such as
3290-632: The Bosnian Church, as well as many Orthodox and Catholic Bosnians, gradually converted to Islam. Ottoman rule left a profound architectural legacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The most famous mosque from this period is the Ferhadija mosque , located in Banja Luka . In addition, the subject of Ivo Andrić 's book The Bridge on the Drina , Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad ,
3384-791: The Bosnian parliament. On 9 January 1992, the assembly proclaimed the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Republika srpskoga naroda Bosne i Hercegovine ), declaring it part of Yugoslavia. On 28 February 1992, the assembly adopted the Constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the name adopted instead of the previous Republika srpskog naroda Bosne i Hercegovine ), which would include districts, municipalities, and regions where Serbs were
3478-531: The Constitution of 1992. Amid opposition from pro-Serbian parties, Montenegrin was made the sole official language of the country, and Serbian was given the status of a language in official use along with Bosnian , Albanian , and Croatian . In the 2023 Montenegrin census, 43.18% declared Serbian to be their native language, while Montenegrin was declared by 34.52% of the population. Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic ( ћирилица , ćirilica ) and Latin script ( latinica , латиница ). Serbian
3572-622: The Constitutional Court's decision, the Law was to be corrected by September 2006. Republika Srpska later changed its emblem. Although the constitution names Sarajevo as the capital of Republika Srpska, the northwestern city of Banja Luka is the headquarters of most of the institutions of government, including the parliament, and is, therefore, the de facto capital. After the war, Republika Srpska retained its army, but in August 2005,
3666-407: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 was satisfactory. According to its constitution , Republika Srpska has its own president, legislature (the 83-member unicameral National Assembly of Republika Srpska ), executive government, police force , court system, customs service (under the state-level customs service), and postal service. It also has official symbols, including a coat of arms,
3760-825: The Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one. Latin script has become more and more popular in Serbia, as it is easier to input on phones and computers. The sort order of the ćirilica ( ћирилица ) alphabet: The sort order of the latinica ( латиница ) alphabet: Serbian is a highly inflected language , with grammatical morphology for nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well as verbs. Serbian nouns are classified into three declensional types, denoted largely by their nominative case endings as "-a" type, "-i" and "-e" type. Into each of these declensional types may fall nouns of any of three genders : masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun may be inflected to represent
3854-410: The Latin script predominates, although both scripts are commonly seen. The Serbian government has encouraged increasing the use of Cyrillic in these contexts. Larger signs, especially those put up by the government, will often feature both alphabets; if the sign has English on it, then usually only Cyrillic is used for the Serbian text. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors
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3948-450: The Latin script tends to imply a cosmopolitan or neutral attitude, while Cyrillic appeals to a more traditional or vintage sensibility. In media, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia , predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink , predominantly use the Latin script. Newspapers can be found in both scripts. In the public sphere, with logos, outdoor signage and retail packaging,
4042-600: The Main Staff; and the 10th Sabotage Detachment, a unit trained for operations behind enemy lines and other special combat assignments. The vast majority of the fighting force of the VRS itself was divided into six geographically-based Corps, all subordinate to, and under the command of, General Mladic and, in turn, the Commander-in-Chief, Radovan Karadzic. In July 1995, the six Corps were the Drina Corps,
4136-520: The Republic of Srpska's Army . Serbian language Serbian ( српски / srpski , pronounced [sr̩̂pskiː] ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs . It is the official and national language of Serbia , one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kosovo . It
4230-615: The Western Roman Empire. Testament to its and Bosnia and Herzegovina's later religious polarisation, it was later conquered as a frontier of the Eastern Roman Empire, a harbinger for religious division to come. With the loosening of Roman grip on the region came the Migration Period which, given Republika Srpska's position in southeastern Europe, involved a wide variety of peoples. Among the first
4324-412: The affairs of the other". Bisera Turković noted that it was 'therefore questionable whether in say a foreign attack on Sarajevo [...the VRS] would defend this capital city'. The existence of the two separate armies was one of the factors impeding civil-military relations development. The VRS conducted demining. In 2003 the army began to integrate into the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina . In 2005
4418-457: The assembly had previously (9–10 November 1991) held a plebiscite in the Serb regions, 96% having opted for membership of the Yugoslav federation formed by Serbia and Montenegro . The referendum had a 64% turnout and 92.7% or 99% (according to different sources) voted for independence. On 6 March the Bosnian parliament promulgated the results of the referendum, proclaiming the republic's independence from Yugoslavia. The republic's independence
4512-408: The backbone of the newly formed Army of the Republika Srpska. The VRS was made up largely of ethnic Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also included ca. 4,000 foreign Orthodox Christian volunteers. 700 of whom came from Russia , and 300–800 from Bulgaria . 100 Greeks also volunteered to fight on the side of the Bosnian Serbs, forming the Greek Volunteer Guard which allegedly participated in
4606-420: The beginning of the 13th century, the entire official correspondence of Dubrovnik with states in the hinterland was conducted in Serbian. In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature,
4700-419: The cities of Banja Luka and Trebinje , mobs attacked people who sought to lay foundations for new mosques . Non-Serbs have reported continuing difficulties in returning to their original homes and the assembly has a poor record of cooperation in apprehending individuals indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Organisations such as the Society for Threatened Peoples , reporting to
4794-410: The country, some of which were quantified in a 1998 UNESCO report. Some two million people, about half the country's population, were displaced. In 1996 there were some 435,346 ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation in Republika Srpska, while another 197,925 had gone to Serbia. In 1991, 27% of the non-agricultural labour force was unemployed in Bosnia and this number increased due to the war. By 2009,
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#17327662590934888-402: The declared aim of protecting the interests of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The war led to the expulsion of the vast majority of Croats and Bosniaks from areas under Republika Srpska’s control, while many Serbs were expelled from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Republika Srpska. Following the 1995 Dayton Agreement , Republika Srpska was officially recognized as one of
4982-461: The early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić promoted the spoken language of the people as a literary norm. The dialects of Serbo-Croatian , regarded Serbian (traditionally spoken in Serbia), include: Vuk Karadžić 's Srpski rječnik , first published in 1818, is the earliest dictionary of modern literary Serbian. The Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (I–XXIII), published by the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1880 to 1976,
5076-427: The early 2000s, discrimination against non-Serbs was alleged by NGOs and the Helsinki Commission . The International Crisis Group reported in 2002 that in some parts of Republika Srpska a non-Serb returnee is ten times more likely to be the victim of violent crime than a local Serb. The Helsinki Commission, in a 2001 statement on 'Tolerance and Non-Discrimination', pointed at violence against non-Serbs, stating that in
5170-420: The entity. Most rivers belong to the Black Sea drainage basin. The principal rivers are the Sava , a tributary of the Danube that forms the northern boundary with Croatia ; the Bosna , Vrbas , Sana and Una , which all flow north and empty into the Sava; the Drina , which flows north and forms a significant part of the eastern boundary with Serbia , and is also a tributary of the Sava. The Trebišnjica
5264-445: The forested hills of Bosanska Krajina in the northwest to the fertile plains of Semberija in the northeast. Republika Srpska covers 24,816.2 square kilometres (9,582 square miles), excluding the Brčko District, which is held in condominium by both entities, but is de facto sovereign within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Republika Srpska, if it were a country, would be 146th largest in the world. Elevation varies greatly, with Maglić ,
5358-437: The form of cave engravings in Badanj and deer bones in the area were discovered to show hunter-gatherer activity from as far back as 14,000–10,000 BC. Within the wider region of Herzegovina, similar discoveries tie the region's early activities to Montenegro and coastal Croatia. With the Neolithic, however, came more permanent settlement. Naturally, this occurred along the rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina as farming spread from
5452-458: The highest representative and legislative body of the Bosnian Serb population, ending the tripartite coalition. The Union of Reform Forces soon ceased to exist but its members remained in the assembly as the Independent Members of Parliament Caucus . The assembly undertook to address the achievement of equality between the Serbs and other peoples and the protection of the Serbs' interests, which they contended had been jeopardised by decisions of
5546-471: The kingdom were all located in its centre, while the northern periphery remained under nominal Hungarian rule as the region of Usora . Architectural legacies from this period include Kastel Fortress in Banja Luka, the fortress of Doboj as well as castles, churches, and monasteries across the country. With the growth of the Ottoman Empire, Stefan Tomašević , the last Kotromanić ruler, surrendered Bosnia and Serbia to Ottoman tributary status. A Catholic, he
5640-442: The majority and also those where they had allegedly become a minority because of persecution during World War II . The republic was part of Yugoslavia and could enter into union with political bodies representing other peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian parliament, without its Serb deputies, held a referendum on the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 February and 1 March 1992, but most Serbs boycotted it since
5734-459: The majority in the entirety of the Condominium . With the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria , carried out by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip , a member of the Yugoslavist Mlada Bosna , World War I broke out in 1914. Following the war, the territory of modern-day Republika Srpska was incorporated into the Vrbas , Drina , and Zeta banovinas of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. Following
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#17327662590935828-431: The matrix of Serbian Church Slavonic . By the beginning of the 14th century the Serbo-Croatian language, which was so rigorously proscribed by earlier local laws, becomes the dominant language of the Republic of Ragusa . However, despite her wealthy citizens speaking the Serbo-Croatian dialect of Dubrovnik in their family circles, they sent their children to Florentine schools to become perfectly fluent in Italian. Since
5922-407: The most notable form being epic poetry . The epic poems were mainly written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to the 1950s, a few centuries or even a millennium longer than by most other "epic folks". Goethe and Jacob Grimm learned Serbian in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. By the end of the 18th century, the written literature had become estranged from
6016-417: The name “Republic of Srpska” in English. Although Republika Srpska is variously glossed in English as “ Serb Republic ”, “ Bosnian Serb Republic ”, or “ Republic of Srpska ”, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and English-language news sources such as the BBC , The New York Times , and The Guardian generally refer to the entity by its transliteration. According to Glas Srpske ,
6110-416: The north, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast. Within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL) marks Republika Srpska's administrative division with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and essentially follows the front lines at the end of the Bosnian War with some adjustments (most importantly in the western part of the country and around Sarajevo) as defined by
6204-408: The northern core of today's Republika Srpska but also Bronze Age relics. With the influx of the Iron Age , the Glasinac culture , developing near Sokolac in eastern Republika Srpska, was one of the most important of the country's long-standing Indo-European inhabitants, the Illyrians . Later, these Illyrians—the Autariatae —were influenced by the Celts after the Gallic invasion of
6298-415: The noun they modify, but must agree in number, gender and case with the modified noun. Serbian verbs are conjugated in four past forms— perfect , aorist , imperfect , and pluperfect —of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but the majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic), one future tense (also known as the first future tense, as opposed to
6392-517: The noun's grammatical case , of which Serbian has seven: Nouns are further inflected to represent the noun's number , singular or plural. Pronouns, when used, are inflected along the same case and number morphology as nouns. Serbian is a pro-drop language , meaning that pronouns may be omitted from a sentence when their meaning is easily inferred from the text. In cases where pronouns may be dropped, they may also be used to add emphasis. For example: Adjectives in Serbian may be placed before or after
6486-451: The official status of both scripts in contemporary Standard Serbian for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, the Cyrillic script was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution . The Latin script continues to be used in official contexts, although the government has indicated its desire to phase out this practice due to national sentiment. The Ministry of Culture believes that Cyrillic
6580-626: The only completed etymological dictionary of Serbian is the " Skok ", written by the Croatian linguist Petar Skok : Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika ("Etymological Dictionary of Croatian or Serbian"). I-IV. Zagreb 1971–1974. There is also a new monumental Etimološki rečnik srpskog jezika (Etymological Dictionary of Serbian). So far, two volumes have been published: I (with words on A-), and II (Ba-Bd). There are specialized etymological dictionaries for German, Italian, Croatian, Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, English and other loanwords (cf. chapter word origin ). Article 1 of
6674-460: The original White Serb people. By the end of the 11th century, the entirety of Bosnia became part of the Hungarian Crown Lands . Under Hungarian rule the area was known as the Banate of Bosnia . Later, however, with the rule of Ban Kulin , who is regarded as the founder of Bosnia, the region became de facto independent. In 1377, the Banate of Bosnia became the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia, under Tvrtko I of House of Kotromanić . The capitals of
6768-542: The outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, modern-day Republika Srpska fell under the rule of the Nazi puppet state , The Independent State of Croatia . Around 300,000 Serbs are estimated to have died under the Ustashe regime as a result of their genocide campaign ; a slew of massacres , as well as the use of a variety of concentration and extermination camps, took place in Republika Srpska during
6862-596: The parliament consented to transfer control of Army of Republika Srpska to a state-level ministry and abolish the entity's defence ministry and army by 1 January 2006. These reforms were required by NATO as a precondition of Bosnia and Herzegovina's admission to the Partnership for Peace programme. Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the programme in December 2006. In July 2023, legislation was passed to criminalise insult and defamation with up to 10 years in prison. This
6956-413: The second conditional (without use in the spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian has active and passive voice . As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive , two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past). Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to
7050-433: The second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense . These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood . The conditional mood has two more tenses: the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses) and
7144-744: The southeast; most notably, the Butmir culture developed near today's East Sarajevo on the river Bosna . A variety of idols, mostly of female character, were found in the Butmir site, along with dugouts. With the Indo-European migrations of the Bronze Age came the first use of metal tools in the region. Along with this came the construction of burial mounds— tumuli , or kurgans . Remains of these mounds can be found in northwestern Bosnia near Prijedor , testament to not only denser settlement in
7238-466: The spoken language. In the second half of the 18th century, the new language appeared, called Slavonic-Serbian . This artificial idiom superseded the works of poets and historians like Gavrilo Stefanović Venclović , who wrote in essentially modern Serbian in the 1720s. These vernacular compositions have remained cloistered from the general public and received due attention only with the advent of modern literary historians and writers like Milorad Pavić . In
7332-483: The town of Srebrenica, among others. Srebrenica was declared a UN 'Safe Area' in 1993 and it served as an enclave for Bosniak refugees for the final years of the Bosnian War. In the middle of July 1995, more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica , were killed in what became known as the Srebrenica massacre , which was subsequently designated as an act of genocide by
7426-497: The two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, it is home to the majority of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Serb population. Republika Srpska operates under a parliamentary system, with legislative authority vested in the National Assembly , which comprises 83 seats. The entity is relatively centralized, although it is divided into 64 municipalities, known as opštine (singular: opština ). The current legislative session
7520-596: The two entities. The boundary lines between the entities were delineated in Annex 2 of the Agreement. Between 1992 and 2008, the Constitution of Republika Srpska was amended 121 times. Article 1 states that Republika Srpska is a territorially unified, indivisible, and inalienable constitutional and legal entity that shall perform its constitutional, legislative, executive, and judicial functions independently. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in major changes in
7614-469: The unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina was estimated at 29%, according to the CIA 's The World Factbook . Republika Srpska's population of Serbs had increased by 547,741 due to the influx of ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former unrecognised state of the Republic of Serbian Krajina in the new Republic of Croatia . In Eastern Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs besieged
7708-551: The war. The Jasenovac concentration camp , located in modern-day Croatia, was the site of the deaths of some 100,000 people, about 47,000-52,000 of which were Serbs. Massacres also occurred at Garavice and Kruščica concentration camp in the eastern part of Bosnia. The regime systematically and brutally massacred Serbs in villages in the countryside, using a variety of tools. The scale of the violence meant that approximately every sixth Serb living in Bosnia-Herzegovina
7802-588: Was arrested in Serbia on 26 May 2011. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia stated that: "In July 1995, the Armed Forces of the Republika Srpska were under the command and control of the Commander-in-Chief, Radovan Karadžić . His headquarters was in Pale. Within the framework of the VRS, immediately subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief, was the Main Staff of the VRS, headquartered in Han Pijesak and commanded by General Ratko Mladic. It
7896-672: Was adopted despite opposition from 83 Serb deputies belonging to the Serb Democratic Party (most of the Serb parliamentary representatives) as well as the Serbian Renewal Movement and the Union of Reform Forces , who regarded the move as illegal. On 24 October 1991, the Serb deputies formed the Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Skupština srpskog naroda u Bosni i Hercegovini ) to be
7990-454: Was constructed by Mimar Sinan , the most famous Ottoman architect, in 1577, for Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha . Years earlier, the same Grand Vizier was born into an Orthodox family in a small town in Bosnia and taken from his parents as a child for upbringing as a janissary . His bridge is a symbol of the religious and cultural spans—and eventually conflict—that characterise Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. With
8084-537: Was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić , who created it based on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet used for Serbian ( latinica ) was designed by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s based on the Czech system with a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin orthographies, resulting in a parallel system. Serbian is a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian ,
8178-568: Was ended by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina , reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio , on 21 November and formally signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. Annex 4 of the Agreement is the current Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina , recognising Republika Srpska as one of its two main political-territorial divisions and defining the governmental functions and powers of
8272-646: Was recognised by the European Community on 6 April 1992 and by the United States on 7 April. On the same day the Serbs' assembly in session in Banja Luka declared a severance of governmental ties with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name Republika Srpska was adopted on 12 August 1992. The political controversy escalated into the Bosnian War , which would last until the autumn of 1995. The war
8366-474: Was reduced by 135,386 (the majority of the pre-war population), and the number of Bosniaks by some 434,144. Some 136,000 of approximately 496,000 Bosniak refugees forced to flee the territory of what is now Republika Srpska have since returned home. As of 2008 , 40% of Bosniaks and 8.5% of Croats had returned to Republika Srpska, while 14% of Serbs who left their homes in territories controlled by Bosniaks or Croats, also returned to their pre-war communities. In
8460-824: Was the invasion of Germanic peoples from the east and north, and the territory became a part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 476. By 535, the territory was taken once again by the Byzantine Empire. At this time, the Empire's grip was once again relatively loose and Slavs invaded the surrounding area. Modern-day Republika Srpska was therefore split between the mediaeval Kingdom of Croatia and, according to De Administrando Imperio , mediaeval Serbian županije , including, Bosna , Zachlumia , Travunija , and Serbia, then including land in eastern Bosnia. Parts of present-day Srpska were locations of settlement of
8554-491: Was the relatively small Servitium , near modern-day Gradiška in the northern part of the entity. Christianity spread to the region relatively late at least partially due to the countryside's mountainous nature and its lack of large settlements. In the fourth century, however, the country began to be Christianised en masse. With the split of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires in 395, modern-day Republika Srpska fell under
8648-577: Was the responsibility of the Commander of the Main Staff to issue regulations, orders and instructions regarding the implementation of orders by the Commander-in-Chief, and to discharge the command duties delegated to him by the Commander-in-Chief. The Main Staff of the VRS consisted of staff officers and staff support personnel, as well as some specialised military units such as the 65th Protection Regiment, designed to provide protection and combat services for
8742-482: Was the victim of a massacre and virtually every Serb had a family member that was killed in the war, mostly by the Ustaše. An estimated 209,000 Serbs or 16.9% of its Bosnia population were killed on the territory of Bosnia–Herzegovina during the war. Today, monuments honouring these victims can be found across Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist movement Chetniks ,
8836-753: Was unpopular among the Orthodox population of Serbia, as well as the members of the Bosnian Church . Refusing to pay tribute to Mehmed the Conqueror , King Stefan was executed and much of Bosnia fell under direct Ottoman rule in 1463 as the Eyalet of Bosnia . The entirety of the country fell in 1482, with the founding of the Sanjak of Herzegovina . Ottoman rule in modern-day Republika Srpska saw another addition to its religious fabric—Islam. Members of
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