Croatian Liberation Movement
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The Croatian Liberation Movement (Croatian: Hrvatski oslobodilački pokret, or HOP) is a far-right 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 Dr. Ante Pavelić, former leader of the NDH and war criminal. 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 Croatian national interests which had been crushed by the nation's union in Yugoslavia. HOP considered itself a democratic organization which was against communism.
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.
