19.10.2017.
Marking the Belgrade Liberation Day commenced
On the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in the Second World War, a memorial march called the "By Step of Freedom" was organized in the Serbian capital. At the beginning of the event which brought together a large number of Belgraders and their guests, the audience was addressed by Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who pointed out that we live today in a free city and a free country because we fought for it.
- Freedom does not come by itself, it cannot be received. Freedom is something to fight for, freedom is something to live for. We live in a free city and a free country not because someone has decided to give us freedom, not because someone has decided that we have the right and that we can be free, to be part of the free world, but because we have gained our freedom. Those who walked this city much before us won our right to be on the better side of the world. Our lives must not ruin their lives; our lives must not be less courageous than their deaths. Today we are speaking in a free city and a free country of free people, we decide today who are our friends and who are our enemies, we decide ourselves on the direction in which we will lead and develop the country, and that is because they have won the position on the better side of the world for us. We will not give the right that they have won for us to anyone and we will not lose it for nothing. We will remain a free, secure, militarily neutral country, a country that will decide on itself, Minister Vulin said and emphasized that our children today have the right to decide on their own future.- There was a time when these streets were not passed under these flags, when we deliberately turned our heads off from our history and pretended that a liberal tradition is not ours, fearing that we will offend someone with freedom and love for it. There is no offense in the love of freedom and respect for those who have fought and won that freedom. There is offense in oblivion and embarrasment, in the fact that the winner is embarrased because of his victory. If the best among us have won the victory, who are we to have the right not to be worthy of it, Minister Vulin said congratulating Belgrade citizens on the freedom they won 73 years ago.
Participants of the Memorial Marsh were also addressed by the city manager Goran Vesić who emphasized that Belgrade, after years of pause and neglect of the liberal tradition, has again proudly celebrated the Day of the Liberation of Belgrade for the third year in a row.- This freedom was won in the blood of 2,953 members of the People's Liberation Army and more than 940 Red Army members who gave their lives on the streets of Belgrade. We will never know the exact number of wounded fighters and civilian victims, because a huge number of citizens joined the fighters for the freedom of Belgrade in October 1944. Our shame is a period in which we neglected their victims and this shame must never be repeated, Vesic said in his address to the Belgraders.
The programme dedicated to the celebration of the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade included the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence "Stanislav Binicki" as well. On several points along the route from Terazije to Kalemegdan there was a scenic presentation of the struggle for the liberation of the Serbian capital. 
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