BRATISLAVA: Czechs and Slovaks marked a quarter century on Monday since the Jan 1, 1993, split of Czechoslovakia into two independent states, an amicable parting dubbed the “Velvet Divorce”.

It came on the heels of the peaceful 1989 “Velvet Revolution” that ousted communism and ushered in democracy on the back of peaceful protests as the Soviet bloc began to crumble.

The split was not triggered by popular demand, nor was it decided in a referendum; it largely resulted from the inability of negotiators to strike a satisfactory new partnership deal in democratic times.

Slovak-born Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis spoke via telephone on Monday with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico who dubbed the divorce “an unprecedented example of a peaceful split of a federal republic” in a Facebook post.

Hundreds of Czechs and Slovaks held an annual meeting on the Velka Javorina mountain straddling the Czech-Slovak border that first began in 1845.

Since 1992, the gatherings have protested the unpopular split.

“We had no problem being together. We had a problem with how to be together,” former Slovak foreign affairs minister Milan Knazko said.

While recent surveys suggest that around half of Slovaks are happy with independence, a 1990 Czechoslovak opinion poll showed that just under 10 percent of Slovaks wanted their own country while in the Czech part of the federation only five percent of respondents wanted to go it alone.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018