15.12.2016.
Marking the 102nd anniversary of the Kolubara battle
The Serbian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic led the state ceremony today marking the 102nd anniversary of the Kolubara battle at the Memorial Church with charnel house of St. Demetrius in Lazarevac.
After the ceremony of laying wreaths and paying military honors, General Dikovic reminded that this place is the testimony of the sacrifice for a brilliant historic victory of a small Balkan nation over the mighty empire in World War I.
“This is an opportunity to remember the feats of our ancestors, the heroes of World War I, to commemorate all known and unknown fighters who have given their lives to defend Serbia. 102 years ago the entire former Serbia, from Uzice and Cacak to Lazarevac and Belgrade, was the site of the great battle of Kolubara. At this place some of the most glorious pages of heroism and bravery of Serbian soldiers, the art of war, tactics and strategies of Serbian military leadership are written “, General Dikovic said and recalled that this was the battle that broke the myth of the invincibility of the Germanic imperial weapons, the battle that gave hope to small nations and conveyed the message that “the fight is not won by light weapons ...”.
According to him, in the battle of Kolubara one of the greatest victories in Serbian military history was achieved - the victory written by the names of more than 250 thousand Serbian soldiers who participated in it, the names of 22 thousand killed, 91 wounded and 19 thousand captured - who we are eternally grateful to, we pay due respect and whose shadows we worship, he added.
“As a soldier, I express the utmost respect to all fallen enemy soldiers in the battle of Kolubara. Even during the greatest conflict, the Serbian army related to the enemy soldiers in an appropriate manner, respecting their dignity. This memorial church where Austro-Hungarian soldiers rest along with Serbian ones, testifies about the humanity of a nation and an army”, General Dikovic emphasized and stressed that the homeland had always been the sacred place for Serbian soldiers during the past centuries, and that is the case today and will be in the time to come.
Chief of General Staff said that the members of the Serbian Armed Forces have role models in Serbian commanders and soldiers from World War I and the memory of the famous battle of Kolubara fighters, who gave their lives for the Fatherland, will never fade.
Later in the programme of paying state and military honors at the Monument of Serbian warrior in the centre of Lazarevac, wreaths were laid by the delegations of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, Assistant to Minister for Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Milan Popovic, Mayor of Lazarevac, the representatives of the Embassies of Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the Republic of Serbia, a number of municipalities, non-governmental organizations identified for preserving traditions of Serbian liberation wars and others. The organizer of the state ceremony is the Committee of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for preserving traditions of Serbian liberation wars in cooperation with the municipality of Lazarevac.
