{"id":184062,"date":"2025-08-05T15:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T13:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=184062"},"modified":"2025-08-05T15:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T13:09:12","slug":"after-liberland-another-self-proclaimed-state-has-sprung-up-a-young-briton-deported-by-the-croats-founded-the-free-republic-of-verdis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/after-liberland-another-self-proclaimed-state-has-sprung-up-a-young-briton-deported-by-the-croats-founded-the-free-republic-of-verdis\/","title":{"rendered":"AFTER LIBERLAND, ANOTHER SELF-PROCLAIMED STATE HAS SPRUNG UP: A young Briton deported by the Croats founded the Free Republic of Verdis!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A young man named Daniel Jackson has declared himself president of a self-proclaimed state located in a disputed area between Croatia and Serbia – a state that already has a flag, a government, a currency, and nearly 400 citizens.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson founded the Free Republic of Verdis on a patch of forest along the Danube River, covering less than 50 hectares, after discovering that the land was not owned by any neighboring country due to an unresolved border dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Verdis was an idea I had when I was 14,” said Jackson, now 20. “Initially it was just a small experiment with a few friends. We all dreamed of creating something crazy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdis officially declared its independence on May 30, 2019, according to SWNS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Larger than the Vatican<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The area occupied by this Briton – known on maps as “pocket three” – is today called the second smallest state in the world, right after the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is located near Liberland, another self-proclaimed state on no man’s land between Serbia and Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson, who works in digital design and earns a living by creating virtual worlds on the Roblox platform, began developing Verdis into a functional state at just 18 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We started to shape Verdis when I was 18 – we made the first laws and a flag,” he says. “Now we have a formed government and a great cabinet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access exclusively by boat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The official languages of Verdis are English, Croatian, and Serbian, and the currency they use is the euro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdis can only be reached by boat from the Croatian city of Osijek, although attempts at settlement have met with serious resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2023, Croatian police arrested several settlers, including Jackson himself, then deported them and issued him a lifetime ban from entering Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They deported us, but they couldn’t say why,” Jackson stated. “They said we posed a threat to national security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, he says, he runs a “government in exile” and accuses the Croatian authorities of installing surveillance systems along the Verdis coast to block access from the Serbian side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve had a lot of problems with the Croatian authorities, but we want good relations in the future,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They did not welcome us in a friendly way. They were aggressive,” he claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Croatia, Jackson says that the authorities in Serbia were more open to conversation, and he now often travels to Belgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the ban on entering Croatia, Jackson continues to lobby for the right to access Verdis and hopes to one day live there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If we succeed, I would step down and call for elections,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m not interested in power\u2026 I just want to be an ordinary citizen. This experience has opened my eyes and I am quite proud of what we have achieved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We are a very small country, so we have to be careful who we accept”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Verdis started with just four people, and today has over 400 official citizens from a base of more than 15,000 applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone gets a passport – although Jackson warns that they should not be used for actual international travel. However, some citizens have reportedly successfully used a Verdis passport to enter foreign countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are a very small country, so we have to be careful who we accept,” says Jackson. “When approving, we look for people with sought-after skills – such as medicine or police experience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite numerous obstacles, Jackson remains optimistic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a matter of time, not whether we will return to that land,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Croatia does not lay claim to it, so we believe we have a legitimate right – and a good chance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson, originally from Australia, is determined to turn Verdis into more than just a thought exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To the naked eye, it looks like an ordinary forest, but when you realize you’re in a country you created yourself – it’s magical,” he concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Nova.rs, Photo:<\/strong> Google maps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young man named Daniel Jackson has declared himself president of a self-proclaimed state located in a disputed area between Croatia and Serbia – a state that already has a flag, a government, a currency, and nearly 400 citizens. Jackson founded the Free Republic of Verdis on a patch of forest along the Danube River, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":184068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,7947,3004,117,7948,7949,7950,113],"class_list":["post-184062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balkan","tag-balkan","tag-danijel-dzekson","tag-granica","tag-hrvatska","tag-liberland","tag-samoproglasena-drzava","tag-slobodna-republika-verdis","tag-srbija","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184103,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184062\/revisions\/184103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}