in 1791, after Svistovski Peace, Bihac remained under Turkish control, but now as a border town in the Ottoman empire. Those warrior Islamic Bihac knights resisted the Turkish reforms which were supposed to modernize the empire. They rebelled, and infamous Omer Pasha Latas, a Serb convert to Islam from Lika [the area around the towns of Gospic, Gracac, Otocac, partly in the so-called Krajina], hanged and expelled them without mercy. Yet again a Serb judged a Croat, although this time both of them were converts to Islam!
Turkey lost Bosnia-Hercegovina in negotiations which took place in Berlin in 1878. Instead the Austro-Hungarian Empire, based on the Croatian sovereign rights, gained the right to occupy this, westernmost, Turkish border province. However, fierce, freedom loving Islamic knights, gave strong resistance to the Austrian troops in which there were a lot of Croats. Between September 7 and 19, 1878, 72nd infantry Austrian brigade, in which there were a lot of Croats, tried to capture Bihac; the city was defended by about 4,000 Islamic Croats and 900 Turkish soldiers. Because of fierce resistance the 72nd brigade was reinforced by two other infantry regiments and then the resistance was broken. Austria treated well the Muslims from the Bihac region trying to win them over to its side; it was successful in this during the 19th century. Bihac developed both economically and culturally and became the center of, above all, Muslim and Catholic culture.
At the beginning of the 20th century, some Serb traders and Vlach cattle breeders settled in Bihac and soon, under the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, became fierce supporters of the greater serbian ideology. Their plans for the founding of greater Serbia became realistic after the arrival of the Serbian army to Bihac in 1918 and the founding of the common state of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs. Greater Serbian, Chetnik ideology as well as the appearance of communism among the Croats and Muslims would deeply divide the population of the Bihac region.
After the founding of the Independent State of Croatia [NDH, pro-fascist Croatian state, existed between 1941 and 1945], many Croats and Muslims joined the Ustashe and Domobrani units of the army of NDH; they reacted to the immediate founding of chetnik-communist units in forests [Chetniks were nationalist Serb resistance fighters, while the Partisans were a multinational communist resistance army; they fought each other and both Ustashe and Domobrani; in the last stages of the war some Chetnik units in Bosnia fought with the Ustashe and German troops against the Partisans; however both fought against the NDH and the majority of their troops were ethnic Serbs; because of that modern Croatian historiography has merged them into Bolsevik-Chetnik hordes], which again, following the example of their Vlach ancestors, began to exterminate the Croat and Muslim population of the Bihac region in horrible and mercyless massacres. Many Croats and Muslims tried to reach safety by joining partisan-communist guerrilla units, in their naive faith that it would be possible to live together with sensible Serbs. Bihac was a strong fortification and an obstacle to the realization of Bolsevik-Chetnik plans. Communist and Chetnik units attacked Bihac on 11/2 , 1942. The town was defended by several Ustashe and Domobrani units together with small groups of German soldiers. Both sides suffered great losses in fierce fighting. After a heroic defense, the Army of NDH was forced to evacuate Bihac on 11/4, 1942. The communists held "The first AVNOJ conference" at the territory under their control, in "Tito's state" or "Bihac Republic"; this conference was an attempt to define a fake democratic parliament of "New Yugoslavia".
In a fierce counter-attack, Croatian and German units recaptured Bihac on 5/29 , 1943; after that, until 1945 the Partisans failed to get even close to the strong Bihac fortress. Unfortunately, the demise of the NDH was unavoidable because of the deep ideological divisions among the Croats. Between March 22 and 28, 1945, after difficult fighting, communist and partisan units again entered Croatian Bihac, which had been evacuated by its defenders who started on a road of no return, all the way to the Bleiburg killing field [Croatian, Slovenian and Serb quisling troops surrendered in Bleiburg, just across the Austrian border, to the British troops. They were put on trains and sent back over the border to the Partisans. Most of them, men and women, were later executed by the Partisans] .
Since that day, until 1990 and the demise of the world communism, all Croatian and Islamic was suppressed and banned in the ancient Croatian city. Bihac hardly survived as a provincial town in Bosnia-Hercegovina which wasn't allowed to be connected with its natural Croatian hinterland. Ancient monuments to the tempestuous Croatian past were systematically ignored and destroyed. Only "Bihac Republic" and "AVNOJ" could be mentioned, while the bones of ancient Croatian knights, buried next to the famous Fetija mosque, were scattered by dogs...
Yugoslavia, the old one as well as the new one, couldn't survive. It was only a cover for the development of a framework for the greater Serbia. Bihac was supposed to be a part of that historically impossible monster and his Croat and Muslim inhabitants exterminated. Since 1992, until today, Bihac survived the most horrible of all sieges, which lasted exactly 1201 day. Heroic Bihac inhabitants, the descendants of ancient Croat and Islamic knights, survived hunger, a river of grenades and all fierce chetnik attacks. Fierce attack of the Croatian army, a part of the operation "Storm", liberated the ancient Croatian town of Bihac - now and forever.
Peace returned to the mysterious silver green Una river, the main Croatian river ... Peace to its heroes!