Deković: If "Jadran" is not Croatian, Montenegro should return the entire JRM fleet to Zagreb

The Vice-President of the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and the President of the Croatian National Council of Montenegro (HNV) Zvonimir Deković believes that if the training ship "Jadsran" according to the Agreement on the Succession of the SFRY today legitimately belongs to Montenegro, then on the same basis, the majority of the fleet of the former Yugoslav War Today, the Navy will compensate the Republic of Croatia.

The school ship "Jadran" is part of the movable military property of the former SFRY. The distribution of that property is regulated by the Agreement on succession issues of the former SFRY, which was concluded in Vienna on June 29, 2001. It was signed by Slovenia, Croatia, BiH, Macedonia and the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Article 3 of Annex A of that agreement reads: "Movable tangible state property of the SFRY that was located on the territory of the SFRY will be transferred to the successor state on whose territory the property was located on the day it declared independence."

The Republic of Croatia declared its independence on June 25, 1991, and formally implemented that decision on October 8 of the same year. On both of those dates, the school ship "Jadran" as part of the movable property of the SFRY was not on the territory of Croatia, because it had been in Tivat since October 15, 1990, undergoing a regular general overhaul at the local Arsenal. From this, and the fact that in 2006, during the restoration of Montenegrin state independence, Montenegro and Serbia, which inherited the international legal continuity of the FRY/SCG as signatories to the Agreement on the Succession of the SFRY from 2001, mutually regulated the issue of the status of the "Adriatic", which was then and definitely belonged to Montenegro, the representatives of the Montenegrin Government believe that this valuable old-timer ship is legitimately owned by Montenegro today. The representatives of the Government of the Republic of Croatia do not agree with this, and they have been talking about the Adriatic for years as "stolen Croatian property" and insist that Montenegro return the allegedly Croatian ship.

"We could hear 'general practice experts' who quoted Article 3 of the document on the succession of the former Yugoslavia, where it is written that all the assets of Yugoslavia that are at the time of the independence of certain states belong to that new state. Following on from that fact, the ship 'Jadran', which was in Tivat before June 25, 1991, when the Republic of Croatia declared its independence, should belong to Montenegro as a member, but, as there is always an additional 'but', at that moment - On June 25, 1991, almost the entire fleet of the former JRM was in the Republic of Croatia, and its estimated value at that time was over 2 billion dollars," said Dekovič, appearing on Saturday in the program of the party media HGI, Radio Dux from Tivat.

Deković added that as far as he knows, "that JRM fleet shot around Zadar, Split, Šibenik and Dubrovnik", after which they all sailed for Montenegro.

"Today, in the context of the total JRM fleet that ended up in Montenegro after the independence of Croatia, no one mentions Article 3 of the Agreement on the Succession of the SFRY. My position is that whatever the solution of these chosen issues between Montenegro and Croatia will be in the end, that solution will be acceptable for us. As two states and two governments come up with a solution aimed at extending and building good friendly and neighborly relations, we, as the Croatian community living in Montenegro, will certainly accept it with open arms, in the interest of both states," he pointed out.

Deković said that now it can be seen that the issue of the status of the school ship "Jdran", i.e. the entire JRM fleet, is "complex and not at all as simple as some wanted to present it".

"That's why there's no alternative to cheering each other on in a good atmosphere and in the spirit of mutual trust," said HGI Vice President and HNV President Zvonimir Deković.

Despite his attitude, he assessed the recent action of Croatian Defense Minister Ivan Anušić, who was in Montenegro last Sunday and suddenly canceled his previously planned meeting with his Montenegrin colleague Dragan Krapović, as justified after, as Deković said, "a diplomatic blunder that made by Minister Krapović". According to Deković, two days before the scheduled meeting with Anušić, Krapović "organized a show at Mr. Komnenović on TV Vijesti and imperatively and explicitly publicly stated his views on all issues that should have been the topic of the meeting between the two ministers".

"So, I am sure that Krapović is fully aware of the reason for the rejection of the meeting by Minister Anušić. With his explicit views expressed on TV Vijesti, Krapović made any meeting and conversation with Anušić meaningless in advance on the topics that had been announced. He had already explained them to the entire Montenegrin public via TV Vijesti, so it no longer made sense to talk about those topics at all. . That's not how diplomacy is done and I think Krapović is aware of that," said Deković, rejecting the claims of a part of the Montenegrin public that Anušič was the one who made a diplomatic blunder by suddenly canceling an arranged meeting with his native in Montenegro.

Just as the president of HGI Andrijan Vuksanović, who on Thursday evening in a live show on RTCG, to a question repeated four times, did not explicitly answer to whom - Montenegro and Croatia, that ship belongs, pointing out that it was a "technical issue", so neither did Deković in his speech. on Dux Radio, he did not directly say that instead of the Montenegrin flag, "Jadran" should fly the Croatian flag.

"Today's appearance of the school ship 'Jadran' - as it is, a little sad without masts and stripped decks, confirms that Montenegro does not have the capacity to maintain the 'Jadran' after the closure of the Tivat Arsenal, which is otherwise very expensive," said the vice president of HGI and the first HNV man, adding that ten years ago "it was an idea from the Croatian side that 'Jadran' should be used jointly, but that it should be overhauled and maintained in Croatia".