Brezovica pri Metliki


Brezovica pri Metliki is a settlement in the Municipality of Metlika in the White Carniola area of southeastern Slovenia, right on the border with Croatia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. It surrounds the small Croatian enclave of Brezovica Žumberačka.

Name

The name of the settlement was changed from Brezovica to Brezovica pri Metliki in 1953.

History

During the Second World War, the Partisans operated an underground mimeograph print shop in a vineyard cottage in Brezovica pri Metliki. The cottage was burned by Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia forces in 1942. On May 1, 1944 the Partisans held a political meeting in the village that was attended by the Allied liaison officer Major William M. Jones, who was also a speaker at the event.

Enclave border dispute

In 2015, the complex border line in this area attracted the attention of the Polish tourist Piotr Wawrzynkiewicz, who learned from Wikipedia that there was a small unclaimed piece of land and claimed it for his micronation Kingdom of Enclava. The novelty attracted significant international media attention at the time. Later, the Slovene Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that this was Slovenia's territorial claim, also claimed by Croatia, to be resolved by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, in which a decision was rendered 29 July 2017. Therefore, the founder moved his micronation to the border between Croatia and Serbia, in the vicinity of Liberland.
One enclave belonging to Croatia had already existed at this location. A second enclave was created on 29 June 2017 when the Permanent Court of Arbitration decided that a disputed 2.4 ha parcel adjoining the enclave is part of Slovenia, thus completing the encirclement of the second Croatian enclave. It was this parcel that had been claimed as Enclava. Croatia has stated that it will ignore the arbitration decision.