The friendship between the Serbian and Romanian nations dates back to the middle ages. After the destruction of the Serbian state by the Ottomans many Serbians fled North of the Danube into the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldova and fought as mercenaries in their armies. The famous Hansar corps (named after the Serbian Gusars) were part of the Moldavian army after the XVth century and participated in many of Stefan the Great's battles against the Ottomans including the Battle of Vaslui in 1475. Serbian Hadjuks continued to fight against the Ottomans in Wallachia and Moldavian armies in the XV, XVI and XVIIth centuries. One of the most famous Serbian Hajduks is Starina Novak (known as Baba Novac in Romania). Starina Novak brought his force of 2,000 hadjuks and joined the forces of the Wallachian Voivode Michael the Brave in the 1590s. He was named as Captain in Michael's army and lead his forces at the battles of Calugareni, Bucharest, Giurgiu and Targovist in 1595. Later his troops participated in Michael's campaigns South of the Danube liberating Plevna, Rahovo, Vratsa, Vidin and Florentin. In 1600 his forces took part in Michael's Transilvanian campaign. He also followed Michael to Vienna for the meeting with the Emperor Rudolf II. While Michael was still away Starina Novak was betrayed and arrested by the Hungarian authorities in Cluj at the order of the Imperial general Giorgio Basta. On 5 February 1601 he was tortured and executed by being burned on the stake. Michael himself was also betrayed by Basta and assasinated in August 1601. Serbs constituted the vast majority of the mercenary troops known as seimeni as attested to the fact that in the rebellion of 1655 their nucleus was made up of Serb seimeni. After both states gained independence in the XIXth century official diplomatic relations were re-established. Romania was allied with Serbia in the Second Balkan War and the First World War. After the First World War Romania, Yugoslavia and Czecoslovakia formed the Little Entente, an alliance meant to deter revisionism in the area. Unfortunately , the alliance fell apart in 1938 due to German pressure. At the beginning of World War II both Romania and Yugoslavia were neutral nations and although they favoured the Allies they fell under the influence of the Axis. Both Romania and Yugoslavia were forced into alliances with Germany, however an uprising in Yugoslavia led to the German occupation of the country. After, 23 August 1944 Romania and Yugoslavia once again realligned their interests as a royal-led rebelion in Romania led to the country joining the Allies and participating in the anti-German campaigns in Hungary and Czecoslovakia. During the Communist times Romania and Yugoslavia proclaimed their mutual friendship, especially after Stalin's death ended the rift between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. After the break up of Yugoslavia Romania and Serbia maintained close relations which were only temporarily damaged by the war in Kosovo and the NATO bombing of Serbia. Currently, Romania is supporting Serbia's claim to Kosovo and does not recognise the independence of the historically Serb province.
Its all true . I even have Walachians from Eastern Serbia as personal friends
Yes, there's a considerable Vlach/Romanian minority in Voivodina. I want to create a separate thread soon about Romanians in Serbia and Serbians in Romania. There's also a lot more to add to the history (like the marriages between the Serbian house of Dushan and the Wallachian Basarabs) but it's a start.
Thanks for the invite. Nice to be here. I myself have lived in Banat, Vojvodina for last 6 or 7 years. There are a lot of Romanians here, as you mentioned. My girlfriend is part Romanian, as well. I would also mention Romanian Princess (although not Romanian by blood) Maria, married to our King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, King of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Queen Maria was popular and respected, by the people of Serbian public, and is still well thought of in the region. She was regarded as an ideal wife and mother according to the contemporary Serbian ideal and described as a humble person. She was engaged in several social projects. In the eyes of the Serbian people, she remain one of the greatest humanitarian patrons of the Serbian region. There's also a tangible product of Serbo-Romanian friendship, a joint capital project - Iron Gate I hydroelectric power station (rom. Porţile de Fier I, serb. Đerdap I) on Danube. There, a couple of things to add myself. We Serbs are indeed grateful to government and the people of Romania due to their decisiveness in refusing to succumb to pressure and recognize a new state on our sovereign territory. I even heard that there was this conference in Italy if I remember it right (concerning regional cooperation and development), where representatives of Kosovo were also present, hence Romanian delegation refused to attend in support of Serbian policy of not attending any conferences where aforementioned representatives are present so as to avoid indirect recognizing of the state in our southern province. The only dark spot in our mutual history I've ever heard of is the WWII. There were some gruesome stories I've heard about Romanian Iron Guard (whose ideology was in accordance with occupier's) and groups that gathered around it. Atrocities and such. But it's for the best if we leave that aside. All in all - I like the group, and it is good to be a part of it. Cheers, long live both Serbia and Romania (and their people, both on home soil and in diaspora).
Maybe we can share some informations about Red Star and Steaua
Hopefully we'll have some good info about Red Star tonight.
This is great Walachian. Glad to see this! Starina Novak was pretty big in eastern Serbia, back when I was kid.
@Son of Serbia. Yes, you are right, there were some low points unfortunately. For example, during WWI the Serbian occupation of Banat did not allow the Romanians living there to join the Romanian army and fight against Hungary. As you mentioned WWII was pretty bad aswell. And of course the most recent is Romania allowing NATO to use their airports to bomb Serbia (which hurt both our countries anyway because they destroyed the Danube bridges and stopped the river traffic, not to mention the pointless loss of lives!). But hopefully all these are just minor dents in an otherwise strong friendship. @Neko and SOS This is funny because I alwas thought that Red Star and Steaua are equivalent teams in both countries (since they both mean Star). But I recently found out that it's actually Steaua and Partizan on one side (teams of the army) and Red Star and Dinamo Bucharest (teams of the police) on the other. But nevermind I still like Red Star The Romanian championship has one leg to go. But it was already won on Friday by CFR Cluj, a team which has a lot of investment in it and has won the title the third time in five years. Currently the battle for second place is between Steaua and FC Vaslui. It's important because only first two places go Champions League. Steaua has been going badly in the past few years, we haven't won a title for about 6 years. How is the Serbian championship looking?
Well mate championship is finished and Partizan won the title with 12 points ahead of Red Star. So I guess Red Star is in similar position like Steaua. We haven't won title for 5 years in row, and we won 2 cups in 5 years. so its pretty bad . This spring things looked a bit better, we played a lot better and managed to beat Partizan 3 times in row. But financial problems are really big. We owe a lot money. Somewhere between 20-30 million euros (Maybe SoS knows exact amount) Yesterday players had little strike (because of unpayed salaries) and today's defeat against Vojvodina really bummed me out. I can only hope that this summer, we will get in Europa league but its going to be bumpy ride.
Nice undertaking.I am a Romanian and i just want to say that ,as Serbia is close to being accepted in the EU our relations shall be greatly improved.
Hey Serbians we support you in the claim of Kosovo but when do you give us Voivodina?
Hello my friends,it's good to see people of different nationalites understand each other well.I drink to that!
i am a romanian by the way
