PRAGUE (AP) — If Scotland says yes to independence in Thursday’s referendum, there might be a lesson to learn from the amicable split of Czechoslovakia on Jan. 1, 1993. Known as a “velvet divorce,” the breakup was nothing like the secessionist wars that raged in Yugoslavia. It was as peaceful and smooth as the 1989 Velvet Revolution that threw off oppressive communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and is considered a success even by its opponents.

HISTORY