After the first expert witness, historian Slavenko Terzic, told judges earlier this week that "the idea of a Greater Albania was the main factor of destabilisation of Southeast Europe", Popov now also tried to refute allegations from the indictment, that the aim of the wars initiated by Milosevic in the 1990s was to carve out a Greater Serbia, with allegations of the historical danger of creation of a Greater Croatia.
"The Croatian national programme in the second half of the 19th century was much more aggressive than the Serbian one. Its chief proponents, led by Ante Starcevic, did not recognise Serbs and wanted to see Croatia's border on the Drina river," Popov said.
Responding to questions put by Milosevic, the witness denied the influence of the idea of Serbian territorial expansionism on Belgrade's politics in the 19th and 20th centuries, insisting that it was "an ordinary national programme".
"To Serbs, a Greater Serbia means a strong state that will bring all Serbian people together," the witness said, adding that Serbia had always aspired to annex Serb-majority areas without any intention of conquering non-Serb territories.
In April 1999, at the time of the war in Kosovo, Popov wrote about "degeneration of the Western European civilisation" and a disaster the human race was facing if Serbia lost the war, suggesting that the war with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo was a conflict of civilisations in the Balkans.
Milosevic is charged with war crimes committed in Croatia and Kosovo and with genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His trial is set to continue next Wednesday.