15.02.2017.
Celebrating the Statehood Day
Today, Serbia celebrates the Statehood Day with array of events, in memory of Candlemas of 1804, when the first revolution started and the liberation from Turkey commenced, and the same date of 1835 when the first modern constitution of Serbia was passed.On the occasion of the Statehood Day, the President of the Republic, Tomislav Nikolić, accompanied by the President of the Constitutional Court, Ms Vesna Ilić Prelić and the Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Mr Veroljub Aršin, laid a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Hero on Avala.
President Nikolić wrote in the Memorial Book:
"Today is February 15, 2017. Serbia is a peaceful and free country. We are not rich, but we are slowly rising. We are pursuing our own policy independently, we have many friends around the world. We are military neutral. Serbia lived after you and will also live after us. Always for new children".
The Statehood Day was also marked today in the St. George Church in Oplenac near Topola. The State delegation was headed by the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Ms Maja Gojković, while wreaths were laid by the Minister of Defence, Mr Zoran Đorđević, the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Issues, Mr Aleksandar Vulin as well as by the delegations from the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces.
The President of the Parliament stated that it was only the stable, industrious, hardworking and strong Serbia that could defend its national interests and that there existed no other more important task than fighting for more prosperous and modern Serbia that would be respected and renowned in the world.Saying that freedom-loving aspirations of the Serbian people could not be separated from democratic ones, Gojković noted that the claim was supported by the fact that both First and Second Serbian Uprising had been initiated by the will and decision of the people, at gatherings and assemblies, so that the seed of the parliamentarian life developed in the very hardest circumstances of struggle for survival.
“Serbia must not forget those who by their ideas and dedication left an indelible mark, one of them being Dimitrije Davidović, who wrote the Sretenje Constitution which reflected the needs of the Serbian society for freedom, growth of the national consciousness and the end of feudalism”, Gojković declared.
The President of the National Assembly previously laid the wreath and paid respects at the grave of the Grand Vožd Karađorđe.
