"If in order to be part of the European Union, we are required to be like Croatia and become revisionists rehabilitating Nazi-fascists and Ustashe, we don't want such EU", said First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic at a press conference today.

The Head of Serbian diplomacy assessed today's statement by his Croatian counterpart, Miro Kovac as "a treatise in hatred towards Serbia, Serbs and Prime Minister Vucic".

He said that Croatia did not answer any of the questions put to it by Serbia over the most recent incidents such as the annulment of the verdict against Aloizije Stepinac, quashing of the ruling handed down on Branimir Glavas, incidents in Serb or the unveiling of a monument to Miro Barisic.

"Croats may be fascists, Ustashe, Nazis, whatever they like, but to deny and justify crimes against Serbs, Serbia won't permit nor will we allow to be humiliated. It is my duty to fight such a revisionist policy, because those forgetting crimes and history are condemned to relive them again and again", said Minister Dacic. "Germany says Hitler was the most evil man ever, while Croatia takes pride in the Independent State of Croatia", said Dacic.

Serbia will not allow denial and justification of crimes against Serbs, adding that he believed that the EU would not be deaf and dumb forever as far as the current situation in Croatia is concerned.

"Kovac says Croatia is the EU, while we are not. If the condition for us to be part of the EU is to be like Croatia and to become revisionists rehabilitating Nazi-fascists and Ustashe, then we don't want to join the EU. It is a question for how long the EU will be deaf and dumb", stated Dacic. He underlined that Serbia wanted the EU to condemn such conduct.

"They are talking to us about chapter 23 all the time, and now what happens with it, as it applies not only to Serbia".

Commenting on the statement by Kovac urging Serbia to turn toward the future, Minister Dacic said it was tragicomic since Croatia rehabilitated Stepinac, erected a monument to Barisic, etc. "Serbia expects the EU to react and condemn Croatia's conduct."

"To each of our concrete queries as to why they rehabilitated Stepinac, who was a cleric of the Ustasha fascists' movement and used to say that the NDH (Second World War-era Nazi-allied entity) was a God send, they replied that it was a rhetoric of Greater Serbian aggressors, the usual platitudes when they have nothing to reply", said Dacic to the press at the news conference.

He said that there was not answer, either, why they overturned the ruling in the Glavas case nor why they erected a monument to Barisic, who murdered the former Yugoslav Ambassador to Sweden.

"There is no answer, except that Barisic is compared to Gavrilo Princip. To our question relating to incidents occurring throughout Croatia such as the one in Srb, they have no reply, only the usual rhetoric".

Minister Dacic recalled that regarding specific actions, incidents or pronouncements of certain officials, Serbia lodged protest notes, primarily as they concerned revision of historical facts, revision and rehabilitation of NDH, which was a Nazi creation that committed huge crimes, above all against the Serb population.

"Every time Serbia shows its opposition to rehabilitation of fascism and Nazism, there is no reply except for references to the language used at the time of Greater-Serbian aggression", said the Minister. As he pointed out, to each question about the Serb victims, they commented that we were successors of Greater Serbia politics.

"And they are successors to whom? To Nazi-fascists and Ustashe who killed the Serbs in the Second World War".

Reflecting upon Croatia not providing any concrete answers to Serbia concerning its actions to rehabilitate Stepinac, erect a monument to Miro Barisic or to abolish the verdict against Branimir Glavas but instead speaking about the rhetoric of Greater Serbian aggression, Dacic said that all Croatia was doing was reminiscent of the 1940s.