SERBS (СРБИ) Verified listing

The Serbs are the central Slavic group of the Balkans. The Battle of the Field of Blackbirds, fought in 1389 at Kosovo—the cradle of the first Serbian state in the 9th century—sounded the death knell of national independence without making the ethnicity disappear; it spread into other regions of the Balkans, into military frontier marches, the kraijinas. After the wars of liberation of the 19th century, Serbia followed the evolution of the Yugoslav kingdom and then of the federal state. Its current borders tend to coincide with those of the ethnicity (except in the Banat).

The Serbian flag takes up the three colors red–blue–white, common on the flags of Slavic peoples. The red flag with a white cross flanked by the four Byzantine signs, interpreted as acronymic Cs of Samo sloga Srbina spasava “Only unity saves the Serbs,” is often used. It is more distinctive than the former.

The cross and the four signs of the coat of arms provide the Serbian linear symbol.