07.12.2018.
Delegation of Ministry of Defense and Serbian Armed Forces pays tribute to fallen Serbian pilots in Armenia
The delegation of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces participated today in marking 30 years since the death of seven members of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Armenia.
Representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces laid a wreath at the monument which was erected in 1995. Wreaths were also laid by a delegation of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, family members of the dead pilots, as well as a large number of Armenian citizens.The delegation led by the Commander of the 204 Airborne Brigade of the Air Force and Air Defense, Brigadier General Željko Bilic, and 11 members of the families of the pilots who died paid tribute on this occasion.
Seven members of the Air Force and Air Defense Command – Vladimir Erčić, Predrag Marinković, Milenko Simić, Milan Mićić, Boriša Mosurović, Milisav Petrović and Jovan Zisov were killed on 12 December 1988 when their plane crashed during a humanitarian mission, when the then SFRY sent aid to the Republic of Armenia, devastated by a terrible earthquake.General Bilić expressed his gratitude to the Armenian people for honoring our dead airmen, not letting their memories fade. He also pointed to the traditional friendship that connects Serbia and Armenia and went on to say that “it will never go out”. He concluded his address to the audience saying that “pilots never die – they ascend to the sky in their last flight”.
During a three-day stay in the Republic of Armenia, members of the delegation and pilot families laid a wreath at the Memorial within the Museum of Genocide and, at the monument to the victims in the Holy Etchmiasdin, the center of Armenian Christianity, in the presence of Lieutenant Colonel Samvel Sargsyanabia of the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Armenia, Babken Simonjan.
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