04.12.2023.
Minister Vučević: We owe our freedom to veterans, we pay homage to immortal heavenly ranks of our fallen ancestors
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Miloš Vučević and Chief of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, General Milan Mojsilović, attended a ceremony to mark the Veterans Day at the Guard Club in Topčider today.
At the beginning of the ceremony, a message from the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, was read.Extending his congratulations on the occasion of the Veterans Day, Minister Vučević said that we rightly rank this holiday among our biggest military holidays, because we remember all those who in 1912 “found strength to free our enslaved brothers and liberate the old Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija”.
- On this day, we ought to remember their triumphant roar and assault, their victorious faith, their unshakeable heroism and glory. Once they set out, these giant-heroes did not stop until they reached the Adriatic Sea. The entire country rose up. Volunteers from Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia came forward, they begged to be admitted, as the poem says, into the ranks of the Serbian army so that they could also make their contribution - emphasized the Minister of Defence.
He referred to Slobodan Jovanović who wrote that there had been three major contributing factors to the success of that war, that everyone had united and that everyone had waited for the fulfilment of the pledge and freedom.- In addition, the Serbian soldier, born of the people, ready to make sacrifices and extremely tough, well equipped with modern weapons and disciplined, with the local leadership was ready to fly. The thought of conscientious performance of duty and conscious sacrifice was boiling over in the entire nation. And everyone was ready. A year before this event, while everyone was only waiting for something to trigger the national liberation, Milan Rakić wrote the poem "On Gazimestan" with tears in his eyes. People only sang about freedom and had one dream - Minister Vučević said.
According to him, it is important to know and to remember that together we can do anything and that love for the motherland unites, forgives and wins.- We must be loyal and dedicated to that love. Be faithful to it and fulfil your pledge. Let the candles and prayers for our homeland burn in our hearts like before. Happy Veterans Day to all of us. We owe our freedom to them and we pay homage to the immortal heavenly ranks of our fallen ancestors. Eternal glory to the Serbian veterans! Long live our mainstay - the Serbian Armed Forces! Long live our only fatherland! Long live Serbia - said Minister Vučević.
To mark the Veterans Day, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education have co-organized for the first time a writing competition for high school students in the Republic of Serbia on the following topic: "Momčilo Gavrić - a Little Hero of the Great War". The first and second prizes were won by Sara Milikić and Danica Vojnović, third and fourth grade students of the Military Grammar School, and the third prize went to Jelena Milovanović, a second grade student of the First Kragujevac Grammar School.Today’s ceremony included the musical performance of “Stanislav Binički”, the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence, and a play featuring important characters and events that left a mark on the history of our people.
Today's ceremony was attended by members of the collegiums of the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff, representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, as well as veterans and families of fallen servicemen, representatives of the military diplomatic corps, religious communities and traditional and veteran associations.
The Veterans Day commemorates December 4, 1912, when the armistice was signed in the First Balkan War.
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