Croatian Liberation Movement

Croatian Liberation Movement Hrvatski oslobodilački pokret
Chairperson	Josip Glavač
Founder	Ante Pavelić
Founded	1956, registered in 1991
Headquarters	Zagreb
Ideology	Croatian nationalism Right-wing populism Euroscepticism Anti-Communism
International affiliation	World League for Freedom and Democracy
Politics of Croatia Political parties Elections

The Croatian Liberation Movement (Croatian: Hrvatski oslobodilački pokret, HOP) is a right-wing party originally formed by Croatian emigrants and headed by former leaders of the Axis allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1956.

It was headed by Ante Pavelić, former leader of the NDH . Other signatories of HOP's first declaration were Džaferbeg Kulenović, Vjekoslav Vrančić, Ivica Frković, Ivan Kordić, Stjepan Hefer, Stipe Matijević and Josip Marković. All escaped Europe and certain death for war crimes in Yugoslavia.

The organization was created to represent right-wing Croatian interests which had been crushed by the nation's union in Yugoslavia. The HOP considered itself a democratic organization which was against communism.

Argentina

HOP was based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, it had branches in many countries around the world. Some consider HOP as a continuation of the Ustaša movement of the Second World War. However, apart from the former Ustaša members who were now in HOP, the two organizations did not share much in common except their leadership and nationalism. They both believed in an independent Croatia, but unlike the Ustaša movement, HOP was not a militant organization. It served to represent Croatian interests as well as it could and united parts of the Croatian diaspora which had been fragmented from one another.

Today, HOP functions as a small political party within Croatia which has no seats in the Croatian Parliament but has active branches in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, Canada, Melbourne, Australia and in Sydney, Australia. Melbourne and Winnipeg also have a Youth branch of HOP known as 'Mladež' which are still active in organising social activities and raising political awareness amongst their respective Croatian communities in the diaspora.

Legal problems

The Croatian Liberation Movement was sued for genocide along with the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order in US Federal Court in 1999, the case against the HOP was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but reinstated against the Vatican Bank and Franciscans in 2005 for money laundering the Ustasha Treasury^[1].

References

1. ^ Vatican Bank Claims