By: Domen Mezeg
Cveta Stepanjan, the wife of Agop Stepanjan – an Armenian with Bulgarian citizenship whose life was ruined by the State Security Administration – UDBA, published a document online, which proves that the retired general and aggressor Milan Aksentijević was involved in her husband’s death. What is especially outrageous in this situation, is that Spomenka Diklić Hribar lobbied for Slovenian citizenship for the war criminal with Borut Pahor, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first multi-party and democratic elections. Aksentijević is a man who should be behind bars due to all of his crimes, but despite his expulsion, he is free to move around Slovenia and is even receiving a state pension.
The public was shocked by the document, published by Cveta Stepanjan, the wife of Agop Stepanjan – an Armenian with Bulgarian citizenship whose life was ruined by the Yugoslavian State Security Administration – UDBA. The document states that the retired general of the Yugoslav People’s Army who was later the aggressor in the Balkan war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Milan Aksentijević, was also involved in Stepanjan’s death. As stated in the legal document, the Yugoslav court found that Aksentijević was an expert who gave “expert” and “substantiated” arguments, which were also duly “explained,” which is why the court accepted his arguments in full. Stepanjan was consequently accused of spying for Bulgaria’s secret intelligence services and of gathering both sensitive military as well as other important and useful classified information.
In his online post, the Prime Minister Janez Janša also highlighted some of the “deadly sins” of the retired Yugoslav General Aksentijević, who still resides in Slovenia, and for whose Slovenian citizenship Spomenka Diklić Hribar lobbied for with Borut Pahor, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first multi-party and democratic elections of the Republic of Slovenia, which is also completely inadmissible and unheard of. Janša wrote the following: “Milan Aksentijević, responsible for the torture and death of innocent people who were falsely convicted in the “Ljubljana trial” before the military court in Roška, seven years before independence.” He is an “erased” traitor of Slovenia, for whom it is absolutely not clear how he supposedly earned the aforementioned citizenship. Quite the opposite: It is more than obvious why he does not deserve it.
It is known that Aksentijević voted for the preservation of Yugoslavia until the last moment as a member of the Slovene Assembly and did not stop serving for the Yugoslav People’s Army in the war for Slovenia. He played the role of a delegate in the Slovene Assembly, who betrayed Slovenia during the war and received the rank of general. At the end of the war for Slovenia, he was expelled together with the Yugoslav People’s Army and deleted from the register of citizens.
It is well known that in the Slovenian Assembly, Aksentijević opposed Slovenia’s independence until the very end and did not stop serving the Yugoslav People’s Army in the war for Slovenia. In the Slovenian Assembly, he held the role of a delegate, and he later betrayed Slovenia in the war and received the rank of general because of it. After the war, he was expelled from Slovenia, together with the Yugoslav People’s Army, and deleted from the register of citizens.
The Aksentijević case is a justified, fair and “clean” erasure from the register of the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, as he is a traitor
While it is possible to say that some people were wronged by being erased from the register of citizens, it is difficult to imagine a more justified, more “clean” erasure from the register of citizens than Aksentejević’s. He was a serving officer of the Yugoslav People’s Army in Slovenia, who, even after the plebiscite did not bow to the will of the Slovenian people to become independent – for which they had the necessary legal basis – and took part in the attack of the then-aggressor, the Yugoslav People’s Army, on Slovenia. Milan Aksentijević is a traitor. Janša already commented on Aksentijević’s role and the efforts to grant him citizenship a while ago, saying: responded to her speech: “After Aksentijević, despite being a delegate in the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Slovenia, betrayed Slovenia and received the rank of general as the award for it, he was transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where his YPA units massacred civilians.”
“And now he wants Slovenian citizenship too?” The Prime Minister reminded everyone that as a general, Aksentijević was part of all of the massacres in the former Yugoslavia, both in Croatia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Right until he was retired. He was captured and imprisoned in Croatia and then replaced, and when the members of the Yugoslav People’s Army, which already became the army of the Serbian Communist Party at that point, got him out of prison, they transferred him to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aksentijević denied that he had taken part in the massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was extremely angry with the Slovenian national media outlet when it aired a documentary, in which he was filmed with Radovan Karadžić. Aksantijević was part of the Greater Serbia aggression against the other nations in Yugoslavia, including Slovenians. A man like that does not deserve Slovenian citizenship, and it is really shameful that Diklić Hribar called for this at the presidential celebration on the 30th anniversary of the agreement on the plebiscite.
Despite his expulsion from the country, Aksentijević is still peacefully drinking coffee in Slovenia and is even receiving a state pension
About two years ago, paparazzi caught the former leading man of the Communists and the Deep State, who was also a member of the Department for People’s Protection (OZNA), Zdenko Roter, and then the aggressor general of the Yugoslav People’s Army, Aksentijević, who is receiving a Slovenian pension, in the Opera bar. The Opera bar that is located in the centre of Ljubljana has obviously become a gathering place for former party officials, as three of them lined up there in one day. At nine o’clock in the morning, Milan Kučan and Roter came there, to sit in the farthest corner of the room. In his book The Fallen Masks, the latter described how they used to set up the presidents of the state and governments in such meetings in restaurants and bars. When Danilo Türk was “enthroned,” Spomenka and Tina Hribar were also present. At half-past twelve, the influential men from the background switched. The Yugoslav People’s Army General Aksentijević came to the bar. He had lived in Slovenia for 40 years, but still spoke out against the independence of the Slovenian state and even took part in the aggression. The incompetent prosecution has failed to find enough evidence to sentence him in six years, and Aksentijević is now free to peacefully drink coffee in a country that has never been his intimate option – just like Kučan’s. Moreover, Aksentijević is even receiving Slovenian pension.