Poglavnik ("leader") of the wartime
Independent State of Croatia (NDH) Ante Pavelić gives his oath.
I found an interesting text in which the author - who is a Serbian nationalist - gives an interesting view of the three-finger salute among Serbs. The text is unfortunately only in Serbian, but the essence thereof is: the present-day three-finger salute is not rooted neither in the Serbian, nor generally in the Orthodox tradition, but is a recent invention, inaugurated by the Serbian politician Vuk Drašković in the beginning of the nineties. He claims that the three-finger salute was used by the members of the
Croatian Revolutionary Organization "Ustaša" at their oaths (actually I saw
Ustaša oaths with a three finger salute). The same three-finger salute ca be seen at oaths of SS units.
Ustaše
The author then goes on saying that similar, but not the same, salute was used by the
Srpski Dobrovoljački Korpus (
Serbian Volunteer Corps) in the Second World War. There the right hand was - allegedly, according to the author - lifted and the three fingers
(thumb, index finger, middle finger) were clustered together, while the ring finger and little finger were bent and rested on the palm. Something like this:
He also says that this kind of gesture is more in accordance with the Serbian and generally Orthodox tradition, whilst the modern-day
three finger salute would be a recent invention.
Taken form the website
Za Kosovo (For Kosovo).
On the other hand, Sanda Rašković Ivić (a Serbian politician and currently ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Rome), daughter of the late politician of the Serb minority in Croatia, Jovan Rašković, says that the three-finger salute was first introduced by her father, in the nineties,
that he used that salute at conventions of his party, the Serbian Democratic Party (party of the Serb minority in Croatia).
Some form of three-finger salute is present in many cultures, I think that it even predates Chrsitianity. It appears also in some Masonic rituals. The current three-finger salute used by Serbs may thus be of some occultic origin, who knows about the affiliations of the likes of Vuk Drašković and Jovan Rašković.
The Curchill salute looks quite similar:
Used also by Yasser Arafat:
