Quote:
Originally Posted by entropy
Gentlemen,
What is a chetnik?
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Originally, Chetniks were remains of Yugoslavia Royal Army, whom didn’t submit to the German Occupation Forces. They were primarily Serbian and Montenegrin nationals whom were serving in the Royal Forces before Nazis came. During the war they divided into several fractions. Ones were fighting Germans, others were fighting Communist partisans, the other ones were fighting other nationalistic formations and finally there were ones whom accepted Germans and joined them.
During the civil war in former Yugoslavia in the 90es, the name Chetink universally applied to any kind of Serbian armed force and later on, to the whole Serbian population in order to justify ethnic cleansing performed by Croatians, Bosnian Muslim and Albanians. Many Serbian paramilitary forces endorsed the insignia and looks from Chetink formations during the Second World War.
The true meaning of chetnik comes from the word cheta which is the Serbian name for squad so chetnik originally means squad member. Origins of Chetniks are closely tied to the Serbian Army Special Forces called komita, whom were engaged in special warfare operation against Ottoman Empire. They were known for wearing long beards, skull and bone insignia and skillful usage of knives. Their overall appearance was all psychological and had a purpose to scare the enemy. The beard was used to cover the identity of the operatives, skull and bones had the psychological effect and knives were used since at the time silenced weapons didn’t existed.
03-01-2008, 06:58 AM
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