02.04.2019.
Minister Vulin for “Odbrana” – We have preserved the right to fight and to hope
The Armed Forces have saved the country. The resistance was heroic, persistent, insolent beyond what was hoped for. If the fight was not that fierce, if our combatants were not so successful, Serbia would not be as independent and free as it is now, said Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin in his interview in the April issue of the magazine “Odbrana”.
The cause for the interview with Editor-in-chief Dragana Marković with Minister Vulin is marking of 20th anniversary of defense from the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was a crime committed in public and without remorse, Vulin estimates this hostile act towards Serbia, whose “extended effects” are still felt today.
NATO aggression has become part of our everyday life, not only a part of our memory, says Vulin. Its consequences have determined the future of Serbia. The demolished and devastated country quickly became prey of violence and disorder, of privatization through robbery. More than 250.000 Serbs were forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija without the international community’s desire or effort to fulfill the undertaken obligation and enable their return to the country they were banished from. The purposeful downturn of the armed forces, the arrests, retirement or dismissal of officers and non-commissioned officers who participated in the war, the neglect of the reserve force, the cessation of investment in the equipment and training of the armed forces, all continued the process of crashing the defense power of the country even where the bombing had failed, stresses the Minister of Defense.
He considers the 1999 defense of the armed forces heroic, and that the strategy of four Ms – mobility, maneuvering, masking and morale – proved to be a successful and worth of studying. The armed force did not capitulate after 78 days of war with the most powerful coalition in the history of warfare, Vulin stressed; the Kumanovo agreement, though difficult and hard, was achieved through the resistance of the armed forces, and Resolution 1244 would not have been adopted if there was no armed force that had survived as a force to be reckoned with.
Minister Vulin especially emphasizes the all-encompassing unity of the people and their armed forces, recalling that in all the wars in which Serbia participated, it was impossible to distinguish between the armed forces and the people.
- Regardless of the doubts and dilemmas we have about ourselves, about our strengths and weaknesses, regardless of the fact that sometimes we are rightly wondering whether we are worthy of our glorious ancestors, in the most difficult and trying of times Serbs appear in their best and most beautiful guise, says Minister Vulin.
According to him, the period between 2000 and 2012 is also characteristic of the fact that the official state policy prohibited calling NATO aggression by its proper name, and it was almost forbidden to mark anniversaries and remember the fallen comrades.
- Since 2012, when Aleksandar Vučić became Minister of Defense, things have been called by the real name; Serbia is not ashamed of her fight and does not renounce any of its officers and soldiers. The edition “Warrior” is our way to gather the memories and experiences of the most prominent commanders and to write history, so as not to allow others to write it for us, says Vulin.
He estimates that today Serbia has a good and well organized armed force, being intensively equipped in an attempt to overcome the 12 years of neglect and its purposeful and conscious downturn. A series of meticulous measures are being undertaken to provide members of the armed forces with good working conditions and a better life.
Minister Vulin says that the new image of the armed forces includes peacekeeping missions, which affect the visibility and prestige of Serbia in the international environment, but they also demonstrate the readiness of the armed forces.
- We are a military neutral country. We have chosen the hardest and the longest way. This means that we must stand ready to defend ourselves. Military neutrality is a difficult choice, but it is the only guarantee that we will remain away from the conflicts of the great ones and that we will not be ordered by others to do to other nations what has been done to us, says Minister Vulin.
In resolving the Kosovo issue, President Vučić is investing huge efforts to preserve the peace and vital interests of our state in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, showing the courage and skill that none of our leaders had, says Minister Vulin, emphasizing that the Serbian Armed Forces guarantee that our word is being heard and that resorting to violence will not pay off to anyone.
- The Serbian national strategy is to stop the expansion of the “Greater Albania” and complete the work on resolving the Serbian national question, says Vulin, and these two big tasks should be solved by our generation, not left as a burden to our children. He believes that the Serbs must establish a solid border with the Shiptars, and by separating ourselves from them, we will cease to be hostage to their policies and victims of constant incidents and provocations to which we cannot respond the way they deserve.
It is time for the Serbs to start thinking about themselves and of themselves alone, Minister Vulin emphasizes, while pointing out that devotion to freedom is not something easily forgiven to nations small in numbers.
- I believe in freedom, in the right of my people to choose how to live and the right of my people to have a state that will be able to protect it from the reoccurrence of the genocide of the First and Second World Wars, from the new “Oluja” and devastation. I believe in social justice and the right of man to fight for equality of societies, says Minister Vulin and emphasizes that the sense of duty and loyalty to the ideal of freedom is the value that makes the Serbs a nation worthy of persevering.
- We are tired of the wars, but we will never be tired of freedom we have fought for and for which we will continue to fight. Serbs do not believe that it is possible to live without freedom, concludes Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin in his interview in the April issue of the magazine “Odbrana”, which will be printed as a monthly, with a new concept and new design.
