CROATIA

CROATIA / HRVATSKA.

Liberation of Knin, August 5, 1995.
View of Mount Spas and the forteress of Knin (Kninska tvrđava).
Stamp issued on 16.08.1995.
Face value: 1.30 Croatian kuna.
Design: Ivica Šiško (b. 1946).
Printing: Offset lithography.
Printed by Zrinyi d.d., Čarlovec.
Print: 1,000,000 copies.
Size: 35.5 x 29.8 mm.

Catalogues
- AFA No. 375.
- Croatian Post No. 152.
- Michel No. 330.
- Scott No. 250.
- StampWorld No. 328.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 366.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 305.

On December 19, 1991, during the Croatian War (1991-1995), the Yugoslav People's Army and the Croatian Serbs (Srbi or Hrvatskoj, the largest national minority) proclaimed the Serb Republic of Krajina (Republika Srpska Krajina, which was never recognized internationally), occupying 17,028 km² (6,575 sq mi) of Croatian territory, and they established their capital in the city of Knin. The war was bloody, UN peacekeeping forces (UNPROFOR) intervened in it and the new republic suffered serious economic problems, for which it was weakened. Finally, on August 4, 1995, the so-called Operation Storm (Operacija Oluja) was unleashed, which was the largest European land battle since World War II, allowed the rapid occupation of Knin by the Croatian army and involved the displacement of between 150,000 and 200,000 Serbs from the region.

This stamp was issued hastily, and its design omitted the face value, which had to be overloaded.

Mount Spas, southwest of the city of Knin, is 345 m (1,132 ft) high, and contains a fortress (Kninska tvrđava) whose earliest remains date back to the 9th century, although the current construction was carried out between the 17th and 18th centuries.

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Thanks to Dragan Buškulić for his contribution.