Country Croatia Time zone CET (UTC+1) Population 1,874 (2011) | County Lika-Senj County Local time Thursday 4:51 PM Number of airports 1 | |
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Weather 17°C, Wind N at 18 km/h, 36% Humidity | ||
Udbina (Serbian Cyrillic: Удбина) is a village and a municipality in the Lika region of Croatia. It is an administratively part of in the Lika-Senj County.
Contents
Map of 53234, Udbina, Croatia
Geography
The village is located in the large karst field called Krbava. The field has a small airport, the only one in Lika.
History
The Krbava field and Udbina itself was the location of a medieval bishopric and the Battle of Krbava field of 9 September 1493, where the Croats under ban Emerik Derenčin (Hungarian: Imre Derencsényi) and the Frankopans suffered one of the major defeats at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Udbina was managed by Ottomans between 1527-1689 (nominally to 1699) and included to the Sanjak of Lika in the Eyalet of Bosnia.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Udbina was part of the Lika-Krbava County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. According to the 1910 census, the town of Udbina was inhabited by a Croat majority and Serb minority; 1,317 were Croats and 621 were Serbs. In 1931, the Udbina municipality had a Serb majority.
During World War II, Udbina was part of the Independent State of Croatia. In December 1942, the Croatian population was expelled from the town. St Nicholas Roman Catholic church was subsequently destroyed. Many local Serbs were killed by Ustaše during the war. The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas (filial of the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Mutilić) was also destroyed during World War II. St Nicholas Roman Catholic church was destroyed in 1947.
After World War II, Serbs comprised Udbina's majority, as confirmed by 1961–91 censuses, with smaller numbers of Croats and Muslims. In Yugoslavia, Udbina had a football club named "Krbava". The settlement of Udbina was part of the Korenica municipality. Udbina was under control of the Republic of Serbian Krajina during the Croatian War of Independence (1991–95). The local airport was used as airbase for offensive operations against Croatia and Bosnia, in direct defiance of NATO's Operation Deny Flight. The airstrip was eventually disabled by a 39 aircraft-strong strike on 21 November 1994. It was captured by Croatian forces during the Operation Storm on 7 August 1995. The "Church of Croatian Martyrs" was built in Udbina after the war to commemorate the Battle of Krbava Field in 1493 and the Croatian War of Independence.
Settlements
The settlements in the municipality are (2011 census):
Demographics
According to the 2011 census, there were 1,874 residents in the municipality, of which 51% were Serbs and 45% were Croats. In 2016 on the instructions of Vlaho Orepić, Minister of Interior in the Cabinet of Tihomir Orešković, Croatian police started intensive patrols and checking out the residence of local population and that resulted in 71 deletion from the residence register. Voices of criticism of police action were raised, including the one of the Deputy Mayor of Udbina Milan Uzelac, claiming that the action is disproportionately and primarily targeted at the Serbs of Croatia and promoted by a president of a local right wing organization close to the ruling Bridge of Independent Lists. Representatives of local Serb population organized a meeting with Serb National Council to discus the issue. 2011 census was the first post-war census at which Serbs of Croatia, many of whom left the area during the Operation Storm, constituted the majority of local population. Minister Vlaho Orepić in his statements prior to Police activities in Udbina and the rest of the country called out the Serb minority for election manipulation with the fictive residences.