# Marko Atlagić

Marko Atlagić (Serbian Cyrillic: Марко Атлагић; born 30 April 1949) is a Croatian-born, Serbian politician and historian. He is one of the leaders of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and Head of the Historical Department at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Priština in North Mitrovica, with auxiliary historical sciences as his preferred field.

## Early life, education

Born in Ostrovica, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia, Atlagić finished primary school and high school in hometown and Benkovac. He later graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zadar, where in 1981 received his master's degree in history. In his professional biography claims that in the 1996 received his PhD from the University of Priština in Kosovo (later with temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica in Serbia). However, the accuracy of that information came into question during 2022 scandal about his biographical forgeries, as it would have happened during the Yugoslav Wars and needed to travel long-distance, and there's no record of his PhD thesis in the university's catalog neither was able to publicly show it. He worked as a professor and a member of the senate of the same university in Serbia.

### Scientific works

He reportedly published 8 books and 150 scientific papers. However, during the 2022 scandal was found out that at the time there's no available list of his works; Google Scholar and Orcid didn't list him in their registry, Scopus listed 1 work, meanwhile Serbian Citation Index listed 29, but out of which 14 were published in Zbornik radova by the institute of the same University of Priština where works as a professor, and 12 were in journal Baština where's a member of the editorial board. Promoting himself as an expert on heraldry and vexillology, some of his works were critically reviewed by SANU academic historian Slavko Gavrilović, and respected heraldist Dragomir Acović, who deemed it as scientifically worthless because are full of falsifications, false references, lack of knowledge, exceptional claims, and low literacy level.

## Politics
### 1990s

As a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, participated at the last convened 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. In the early 1990s, after Croatia proclaimed independence from SFRJ, as a member of the Socialist Party of Croatia he was on the List of members of the Sabor, 1990–1992 as one of many representatives of the Council of Municipalities. However, he soon joined the Serb nationalist movement in Croatia, seeking to separate from Croatia. In 1991, he participated pan-Serbian meeting of the SAO Kninska Krajina in Knin as one of the speakers. As a member of ultra-nationalist the "Serbian Radical Party for Republic of Srpska Krajina" (SRS for RSK) he was elected MP in the Parliament of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and in 1994 elected its vice-president after the Serbian Radical Party dominated parliamentary majority was constituted. The government fell in late 1994, after which Atlagić resigned from the position of Deputy Speaker. In 1995, Atlagić was Minister without portfolio in the last RSK government, under Milan Babić. After Operation Storm, he had been one of the ministers from 1995 to 2006 by the SRS-promoted Government of the RSK in Exile.
In 2006, Atlagić testified at the trial of Slobodan Milošević. He claimed various "notorius facts" against the Croats which "failed to corroborate", and "insisted that Serbs had committed no bad acts". In 2020 and 2021 co-authored papers in which denied the Srebrenica genocide, revisionistically explained the circumstances of the Breakup of Yugoslavia, and claimed that in the 1940s Jasenovac concentration camp died over 800,000 Serbs.

### 2000s–present

In 2007, the SRS had crumbled and Marko Atlagić had supported the Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić fraction as opposed to Vojislav Šešelj, becoming a member of the new Serbian Progressive Party's presidency and assigned for Refugee and IDP problems. As a member of Serbian Progressive Party after the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election he was on the list of members of the National Assembly of Serbia, 2012–2014, which continued to be until the National Assembly of Serbia, 2022–2024. Atlagić "is a member of the Board on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, the Board on Education, Science, Technological Development and the Information Society and a deputy member of the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija". In 2022 and 2024 was elected as the Head of the Board of Education, which some perceived as an insult to the public, academic and political community.
In 2013 caused scandal in the National Assembly by proclaiming first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman as an example "for the proper management of the state" and "for a good solution to personnel problems".
Atlagić was one of the ideological creators of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Higher Education from September 2018, which "legalized fake doctorates". In 2019, during the Siniša Mali plagiarism scandal and 2018–2020 Serbian protests, was personally attacking and spreading missinformation about professors from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade who supported the protests (and Raša Karapadža who published a review of Siniša Mali's plagiarized PhD).
In 2020, he was insulting the political members of the opposition (incl. Vuk Jeremić), and actress Seka Sablić. In 2021 continued to insult Vuk Jeremić because of which was warned by National Assembly's president Ivica Dačić. In 2023, PEN International published an article, and Union of Concerned Scientists wrote an open letter to president Vučić because of Atlagić's personal attack which were additionally promoted by the pro-government tabloids which harassed sociology professor Jovo Bakić of the University of Belgrade because expressed criticism of the government. In his insulting of the opposition, also insulted the LGBTQ community. His behavior in the National Assembly was described by others, like Zdravko Ponoš in 2024, to be one of Vučić's representatives whose provoking and insulting the opposition representatives, to "distract us from the essential issues and responsibilities of the current government".