ovako se gleda:
Palace Row Rocks Serbian Royal Family
Fri Aug 22, 9:28 AM ET
By Fredrik Dahl
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Relatives of Yugoslavia's last king are squabbling over palaces confiscated by the communists at the end of World War II and returned after reformers ousted Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) in 2000.
"Relations inside the Karadjordjevic family are on a quite miserable level," acknowledged Prince Vladimir, nephew of Petar II, who died in exile in 1970.
"I'm afraid this will lead to yet another disappointment in the royal family," the 39-year-old public relations executive told the NIN weekly. "The Serb people will become embittered over our rows and divisions."
As in other countries in post-communist central and eastern Europe, the arrival of democracy allowed the Karadjordjevic family to return home six decades after fleeing the Balkan country it helped liberate from Ottoman Turk rule 200 years ago.
Authorities in 2001 scrapped a communist-era decree which had stripped them of citizenship and property rights, saying they wanted to rectify an historical injustice.
Crown Prince Aleksandar, the exiled king's son, and his Greek wife Katarina moved that year into the royal compound in Belgrade's leafy Dedinje district, which Yugoslavia's postwar leaders used as offices and to receive visiting dignitaries.
Aleksandar's recent proposal to turn the estate, which includes two 20th century palaces as well as parks and forest, into a largely state-financed national heritage open to the public has angered his relatives.
ROYAL ROW
"He's behaving like Tito," said Princess Jelisaveta, 67, comparing Aleksandar with the communist leader who ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years until his death in 1980.
"He's trying to give away something which does not belong to him," added the daughter of Prince Pavle, who governed as Regent after King Aleksandar I was assassinated in 1934 while Petar was still a boy. "He's not behaving like a gentleman in any way."
Aleksandar says the plan, under which his immediate family would live in the Old Palace while the government would use the nearby White Palace for receptions and guests, would prevent a unique Serbian treasure from being divided and sold.
A statement on his Web site said other heirs would receive compensation.
The royal compound was a "forbidden city" for more than half a century but since Aleksandar's family returned almost 25,000 people have been able to visit it, the Web site said.
Vladimir Karadjordjevic, who lives in Germany, complained that his cousin had failed to tell the rest of the family, most of whom are based outside Serbia, about his plan.
He suggested ownership rights to the property, officially still belonging to the state, should be settled when Serbia passed a delayed law governing return of nationalized property.
"Why is he in such a hurry to finish this now?"
Aleksandar, born in a London hotel suite declared Yugoslav territory for the occasion in 1945, advocates the restoration of a constitutional monarchy in Serbia.
In an interview earlier this year he said it could help end divisions in an impoverished country struggling to recover after years of bloodshed and international pariah status under Milosevic in the 1990s.
NO POLITICS FOR PRINCE
Aleksandar said he was not seeking a role like neighboring Bulgaria's ex-King Simeon II who was the first and so far the only ex-monarch to regain political power in eastern Europe, becoming prime minister after elections in 2001.
Any future king would have none of the dictatorial powers of his grandfather Aleksandar I, who named the country Yugoslavia.
The kingdom of Yugoslavia came to an end in the 1940s but the name stuck for almost 75 years, until the bloodied federation was replaced last February with a loose union of its two remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
Observers say Aleksandar faces an uphill task if he wants to become king because a royal comeback does not appear to enjoy widespread political support.
"Most people don't care about the monarchy," said pollster Srdjan Bogosavljevic. "I wouldn't say they are popular."
Aleksandar, whose father fled when Nazi Germany overran Yugoslavia in 1941 and was banned from returning by the postwar communist government, served in the British army and then became a London-based businessman.
He said he inherited no money from his father but that he had done well during a career spanning oil, banking and shipping and that his family had paid for repairs of the neglected royal buildings in Dedinje.
Jelisaveta Karadjordjevic, who lives in Belgrade where she markets her own perfume, rejected Aleksandar's view that he as the head of the family decides who lives there. "The government gave back the property of Dedinje for everybody in the family to use."
Palace Row Rocks Serbian Royal Family
Fri Aug 22, 9:28 AM ET
By Fredrik Dahl
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Relatives of Yugoslavia's last king are squabbling over palaces confiscated by the communists at the end of World War II and returned after reformers ousted Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) in 2000.
"Relations inside the Karadjordjevic family are on a quite miserable level," acknowledged Prince Vladimir, nephew of Petar II, who died in exile in 1970.
"I'm afraid this will lead to yet another disappointment in the royal family," the 39-year-old public relations executive told the NIN weekly. "The Serb people will become embittered over our rows and divisions."
As in other countries in post-communist central and eastern Europe, the arrival of democracy allowed the Karadjordjevic family to return home six decades after fleeing the Balkan country it helped liberate from Ottoman Turk rule 200 years ago.
Authorities in 2001 scrapped a communist-era decree which had stripped them of citizenship and property rights, saying they wanted to rectify an historical injustice.
Crown Prince Aleksandar, the exiled king's son, and his Greek wife Katarina moved that year into the royal compound in Belgrade's leafy Dedinje district, which Yugoslavia's postwar leaders used as offices and to receive visiting dignitaries.
Aleksandar's recent proposal to turn the estate, which includes two 20th century palaces as well as parks and forest, into a largely state-financed national heritage open to the public has angered his relatives.
ROYAL ROW
"He's behaving like Tito," said Princess Jelisaveta, 67, comparing Aleksandar with the communist leader who ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years until his death in 1980.
"He's trying to give away something which does not belong to him," added the daughter of Prince Pavle, who governed as Regent after King Aleksandar I was assassinated in 1934 while Petar was still a boy. "He's not behaving like a gentleman in any way."
Aleksandar says the plan, under which his immediate family would live in the Old Palace while the government would use the nearby White Palace for receptions and guests, would prevent a unique Serbian treasure from being divided and sold.
A statement on his Web site said other heirs would receive compensation.
The royal compound was a "forbidden city" for more than half a century but since Aleksandar's family returned almost 25,000 people have been able to visit it, the Web site said.
Vladimir Karadjordjevic, who lives in Germany, complained that his cousin had failed to tell the rest of the family, most of whom are based outside Serbia, about his plan.
He suggested ownership rights to the property, officially still belonging to the state, should be settled when Serbia passed a delayed law governing return of nationalized property.
"Why is he in such a hurry to finish this now?"
Aleksandar, born in a London hotel suite declared Yugoslav territory for the occasion in 1945, advocates the restoration of a constitutional monarchy in Serbia.
In an interview earlier this year he said it could help end divisions in an impoverished country struggling to recover after years of bloodshed and international pariah status under Milosevic in the 1990s.
NO POLITICS FOR PRINCE
Aleksandar said he was not seeking a role like neighboring Bulgaria's ex-King Simeon II who was the first and so far the only ex-monarch to regain political power in eastern Europe, becoming prime minister after elections in 2001.
Any future king would have none of the dictatorial powers of his grandfather Aleksandar I, who named the country Yugoslavia.
The kingdom of Yugoslavia came to an end in the 1940s but the name stuck for almost 75 years, until the bloodied federation was replaced last February with a loose union of its two remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
Observers say Aleksandar faces an uphill task if he wants to become king because a royal comeback does not appear to enjoy widespread political support.
"Most people don't care about the monarchy," said pollster Srdjan Bogosavljevic. "I wouldn't say they are popular."
Aleksandar, whose father fled when Nazi Germany overran Yugoslavia in 1941 and was banned from returning by the postwar communist government, served in the British army and then became a London-based businessman.
He said he inherited no money from his father but that he had done well during a career spanning oil, banking and shipping and that his family had paid for repairs of the neglected royal buildings in Dedinje.
Jelisaveta Karadjordjevic, who lives in Belgrade where she markets her own perfume, rejected Aleksandar's view that he as the head of the family decides who lives there. "The government gave back the property of Dedinje for everybody in the family to use."
