As Croatia will start using the euro, the image of the famous inventor Nikola Tesla will be printed on the euro. However, this step pitted Serbia and Croatia against each other. While Serbia emphasizes Tesla’s ethnic identity, Croatia reminds that the inventor was born in Croatia.
Croatia, a member of the European Union, will join the euro zone as of January 1, 2023. Croatia, which uses ‘kuna’ as its currency, will start using the euro as of this date. It was announced that the picture of the famous inventor Nikola Tesla will be printed on the 10, 20 and 50 cents after the country’s currency becomes the euro. Croatia thinks that this will draw more attention to the famous inventor.
However, this step has caused a crisis between Serbia and Croatia. The ethnic background of the world-renowned scientist is at the heart of the ongoing dispute between the two sides. Tensions between Croatia and Serbia are rooted in World War II and the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s. In 1990, as part of the war in Yugoslavia that erupted in 1990, conflicts between Croatia and Serbia continued until 1992.
SERBIAN PRESIDENT VUCIC: ‘CROATIA CAN SAY WHAT IT WANTS BUT…’
Croats believe that Tesla should be considered Croatian because he was born in Smiljan, a small village in present-day Croatia, while Serbs believe he should be recognized as Serbian because of his Serbian roots and Orthodox faith.
Serbian President Alexander Vučić accuses Croatia of using Nikola Tesla for this important change. “Croatia can say what it wants about him, but Nikola Tesla is a Serb born to a Serbian father and a Serbian mother,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said, adding that Tesla was American and Serbian. His family suffered precisely because they were of Serbian origin.”
Vucic is referring to the murder of Tesla’s family members by Nazi-backed Croatian forces during World War II. Serbian historians also argue that there was no such country as Croatia when Tesla was born, and that the town where Tesla was born was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER PLENKOVIC: ‘I DON’T SEE WHY THERE WOULD BE A PROBLEM’
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic says he celebrates the decision to put Tesla’s image on the euro. Plenkovic explained that Tesla is ethnically a Serb and argued that having him on the euro currency should be seen as a positive thing. “Even though he is Serbian, I see it only as a plus. His status is non-negotiable and I don’t see why it should be a problem,” Plenkovic said.
Plenkovic explains that this is a European Union decision, not their own. Plenkovic emphasizes that the famous inventor has ties with Croatia, as Tesla was born in Smiljan in Croatia and studied high school in Karlovac. Writers and historians from Croatia, on the other hand, claim that Tesla never spent a day in Serbia.
In a post on Facebook, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic says that the solution is that Serbia should one day join the European Union and start using the euro, and Serbia should print Tesla’s image on the euro. Currently, Serbia’s 100 dinar banknote has a picture of Nikola Tesla on it.
INTRODUCED THE ALTERNATIVE CURRENT TO THE WORLD
Born in Croatia in 1856, Nikola Tesla attended university in Graz, now in Austria, and Prague, the capital of Czechia. After continuing his studies in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and Paris, the capital of France, for a while, Tesla settled in New York, USA, where he lived until his death in 1884.
Against the direct current products of the famous inventor Edison, Tesla supported the alternative electric current and worked on products that work with alternating current. Inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse enabled Tesla to make a breakthrough by purchasing the patents of Tesla’s invented alternating current devices. With the device he invented called the Tesla coil, he paved the way for the construction of radio, TV sets and X-Ray ray devices. Tesla, who also worked on transmitting current wirelessly, is considered to have pioneered the invention of most wireless devices and unmanned vehicles today.
In a telegram sent in 1936 to Vlatko Maček, vice-president of the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Tesla referred to his ethnic identity as follows:
“I am proud of my Serbian roots and my Croatian homeland. Long live the Yugoslavs.”
Tesla has statues in both Serbia and Croatia, while Serbia’s capital Belgrade is home to the Nikola Tesla Airport and museum. Tesla, the car company owned by Elon Musk, is also named after the inventor.
