26.02.2017.
Celebrated 100th Anniversary of Toplica Uprising
At the monument erected in memory of people from Toplica region who died during the wars from 1912 to 1918 in the centre of Prokuplje, Central State Ceremony was held today on the occasion of 100th anniversary of Toplica Uprising outbreak.
The President of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić led the state ceremony attended by the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Ms Maja Gojković, President of the Republic of Srpska, Mr Milorad Dodik, delegates of the President of the Republic, Minister of Defence, Mr Zoran Đorđević, Ministers in the Government of Serbia, Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Ljubiša Diković, representatives of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces, local government, diplomatic corps, Board for Cherishing the Tradition of Liberation Wars and numerous citizens.
Following a religious ceremony, with the highest military and state honours, Prime Minister Vučić and the President of the Republic of Srpska, Mr Dodik, laid laurel wreaths at the monument, and the same was done by the representatives of the Board for Cherishing the Tradition of Liberation Wars of our country.
Speaking about the historical significance of the Toplica Uprising, the President of the Government Aleksandar Vučić, pointed out that it was the first and the only uprising against the tyrannical rule in any of the states occupied during the Great War.
The uprising broke out in the small Serbia, in our Toplica, region known for hospitable and hardworking people, who did not flinch at the face of evil and did not put up with slavery, even if they were faced with a thousand times stronger enemy and the greatest military power of that time – said Prime Minister Vučić, reminding that Toplica Uprising takes up a special place in the heart and memory of the heroic Toplica.
He noted that in parallel to inhuman tyrannising the occupant tried to abolish the Serbian language burning the books, priests, peasants, while several thousand people died from the caused famine.
- Today, here in front of you, dear heroic people of the Serbian Toplica, I wish to thank you for everything that you also gave during the Second World War and the war during the 1990s, because you never asked for anything else, but you gave your lives for Serbia, because Serbia and solely Serbia, was more important than anything else – said the President of the Serbian Government.
During the State Ceremony, the guests visited an exhibition “Toplica Uprising 1917 – 100 years after” in the National Museum of Toplica, and a documentary “Toplica Uprsising” dedicated to the jubilee and produced by the Military Film Centre “Zastava Film” was played for the gathered citizens.
The Uprising that spread over Toplica and Jablanica in the end of February and beginning of March 1917, and spilled over into other parts of the territory under Bulgarian occupation, makes an integral part of fight of the Serbian people for liberation in the First World War. That was the only and first uprising behind the front line with existing elementary organisation and a clear concept of the fight for freedom.
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