27.09.2019.
Commemoration of 103 Years from Withdrawal of the Serbian Army to Corfu
A delegation of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces, led by Head of Private Office of the Minister of Defence Brigadier General Siniša Kresović, laid a wreath at the Mausoleum on the island of Vido, in the framework of marking 103 years from withdrawal of Serbian Army to Greek island of Vido.
Commemorative events in the Hellenic Republic are held in memory and honour of some 250,000 perished civilians and members of Serbian Army.
The state ceremony at the Mausoleum was led by Minister for Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Zoran Đorđević, and commemorative events were attended by Serbian member of Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Embassy of Serbia in the Hellenic Republic and General Consulate of Serbia in Thessaloniki, and officials of the Hellenic Republic and representatives of Serbian and Greek associations dedicated to cherishing traditions of liberation wars of Serbia.Wreaths were laid at the memorial “Navy Cross”, and a wreath of the Government of the Republic of Serbia was laid in the “Blue tomb”.
A delegation of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces laid wreaths at the monument to Drina Division, at the monument of Janis Ianulis and at the memorial plaque in Guvia - the place of disembarkation of the Serbian Army on the Corfu.
After unsuccessful attempt of the Serbian Army to withdraw through the valley of the river of Vardar, and because of breach of Bulgarian Army and cutting the lines of communication and absence of planned breach of the allies from Thessaloniki to meet the Serbian Army, on 24th November 2015 the Supreme Command decided that the troops should withdraw over Montenegro and Albania to the Adriatic Sea. After more than a month of gruelling marches in the harshest weather conditions and wilderness, the Serbian Army concentrated near Skadar, Drač and Valona, wherefrom it withdrew to the Corfu where by April, 151,828 soldiers gathered, and 13,000 in Bizerte, and in Corsica and in France some 5,000 of them. Chief of the Supreme Command General Petar Bojović was among the last who arrived on the Corfu in April 2016.The Corfu epic represents one of the most tragic and most fateful periods of newer national history. It is a period of great suffering of civilian population and members of armed forces who, exhausted by the long-lasting marches through Kosovo and Metohija and Albania, sought salvation on Greek Ionian islands of Corfu and Vido.
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