Return To Yugoslavia
He was the first member of the ex-royal family who permanently moved back to Serbia, in early 1992, making his residence at the King Peter I Foundation Complex in Oplenac, Serbia, which soon became a mecca for all who wished to personally meet a living prince and the last living son of King Alexander I.
He soon became a highly popular figure, especially due to his frequent visits to the Serb soldiers in Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serb Krajina, and the aid he dispensed along with his wife, Princess Linda. There were initiatives for him to be crowned Prince of the Serb-held part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were, however, rejected by the local political leadership.
After publicly accusing then Serbian president Slobodan Milošević for having "betrayed" the Republic of Serb Krajina, after it fell to the joint Croatian Army operation "Storm" at the beginning of August 1995, his media presence was drastically reduced.
The last five years of his life were marked by a battle with terminal illness; however, he turned down offers for surgery abroad at the time NATO forces began their bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 24 March 1999, choosing to remain and share the lot of the nation, touring bombing sites even while seriously ill.
He died on 12 July 2000, on Ss. Peter and Paul Day in the Julian Calendar, the patron saints of the family crypt on Oplenac, where he was buried, in a funeral attended by a crowd of several thousand.
Read more about this topic: Prince Tomislav Of Yugoslavia
Famous quotes containing the words return to, return and/or yugoslavia:
“I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, a plant, an inanimate object, indeed lost to us until the day, which for some never arrives, when we find that we pass near the tree, or come to possess the object which is their prison. Then they quiver, call us, and as soon as we have recognized them, the spell is broken. Freed by us, they have vanquished death and return to live with us.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“I have often wondered how they manage to get return envelopes which miss, by one-quarter of an inch, fitting the blank you are supposed to return. They say, “Please fill out and return the enclosed envelope,” and the enclosed envelope is always one-quarter of an inch too small.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“International relations is security, it’s trade relations, it’s power games. It’s not good-and-bad. But what I saw in Yugoslavia was pure evil. Not ethnic hatred—that’s only like a label. I really had a feeling there that I am observing unleashed human evil ...”
—Natasha Dudinska (b. c. 1967)