04.12.2017.
There is Nothing that We Cannot Do for Freedom
On the occasion of the Day of Military Veterans, this evening in Ilija Kolarac Endowment, an official ceremony was held to pay tribute to perished and deceased military veterans and to present the rewards to the deserving.
The gathering was attended by the Minister of Defence Aleskandar Vulin and Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubiša Diković with the members of their boards, Vice President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojša Stefanović, representatives of Association of Veterans of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces, and the guests from public, cultural and religious life.
At the official ceremony the recognitions were also presented to the institutions and traditional and veteran associations.
Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, accompanied by the Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubiša Diković, presented the golden plaque of the Ministry of Defence to the Vice President of the Government of the Republic of Serbian and the Minister of Interior Nebojša Stefanović, while the Military Memorial Medal for the contribution to the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces was conferred to Miroslav Lazović, President of the Association of War and Peace Time Invalid Soldiers of Serbia.
The plaque of the Ministry of Defence was awarded to the Association of Military Pensioners of Serbia, whose president retired Lieutenant General Ljubomir Draganjac received the recognition, while retired Colonel Milojko Nikolić received the scroll of honour of the Ministry of Defence on behalf of the Association of organisations of reserve officers and NCO’s of Serbia.
President of Prokuplje Municipality Aleksandar Simonović presented the Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin with a replica of a flag of one of the most famous units of Serbian Army, the 2nd Infantry Regiment “Knjaz Mihajlo” of the first call of Morava Division – glorious “Iron” regiment.
In his address, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin pointed out that in all the wars that Serbia had led, which it had not caused, it had always given and put in the front the best and most precious that it had had.
- Those were never the best or largest armours, nor the-state-of-art and most expensive combat systems, but there have always been the best and the hardest working men with whom Serbia parted with difficulty. They marched in front of it, to a place where the chances of return were slim or none whatsoever. Serbia found it hard to part with its children, just like it sent 1300 corporals, its future, to safeguard the survival and existence of their people and their country, so in all the wars that it did not ask for or choose to wage, Serbia prevailed, won, survived and existed owing to the bravery of its people – Minister Vulin said and added that something that other nations left to others to deal with, to win their freedom for them, to draw the borders and tell them where and how much they can live – Serbian people had never allow it to anybody else but itself.
He pointed out that Serbian people had always desired freedom, not even understanding how it was possible to live without the freedom.
- Scattering the bones over numerous and vast battlefields, Serbian people persistently, stubbornly and resiliently won its right to exist and to live the way it thinks it should. I thank you today esteemed veterans and fighters, I thank deer families who lost without the dearest and the most loved ones, on behalf of the entire nation, because we can stand and speak and think in our language in our country, to lead it the way we think is right, to rejoice in it, to grieve in it and have it as our own.
You have won the right for us to independently decide or fate, to choose for ourselves our enemies and to look forward to our friends; the right to trade interruptedly and freely. There were times, decades not very long time ago, when Serbia was ashamed of those who had defended it, when Serbia was little bit taught, little bit threatened and punished a lot more than rewarded. They told it that it should be ashamed of those who had fought for it. They told it that every price that it had paid for freedom was too high, and that all the people who had given their lives for freedom had done it in vain because freedom did not mean to much if you were small and less numerous. They told it and taught it to move away from the glory of its ancestors, that their glory was questionable and that those ancestors perhaps had not done the best job or had not acted in the best way by dying for freedom of their descendants. Maybe it could have been done differently, cheaper. It was taught that it should be ashamed of a generation of victors, that the honourable Serbian uniform maybe was not that honourable and that maybe not everyone should wear it and maybe they should not resemble the people who had worn it. They told it and tried to implant in it the feeling of fear and shame each time someone spoke its name, and that it should renounce those who had defended it and not to say their names, not allowing them to live and last. They told it that its tradition, that had created this people, was insulting to other nations and other countries, teaching it that it should renounce its past because it was the only way to have its future – the minister said and established that those times had passed never to return.
- Never again will Serbia be ashamed of any of its warriors, or soldier, any of its fighters, its wounds, or tear; never again will Serbia be ashamed of any of its warriors. That is why we stand proudly here in front of you and with you, to thank you for having existed and existing, to once again rejoice at the strength and honour of the uniform which you wore that will be worn by those, and do not doubt it, who will be just as brave and worthy of memory.
- I want in front of you to express one unfulfilled request, a wish that Serbian people has been saying for centuries and persistently repeats, uncertain if it will ever be fulfilled: all we ask and dream is for just one generation in the history of this nation to be born, to learn to walk and write and to rejoice, gets married, give life to the ones who will come after it, to peacefully die and have not even one war story or not even one friend from the war, and to never learn what the war is. There is just one request that Serbian people asks for and it has never been answered. It is up to us to live as if it is going to be, when our children will walk in the quite of the peace. And if our request is not answered, if our wish does not come true, there is nothing that we will not do for freedom – Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin said thanking the war veterans for paving the way and giving us the right to live freely.
The congratulatory message of the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić sent to the war veterans was read at the ceremony. Among other, the message says that our ancestors invested courage and bravery and their lives for the wellbeing of Serbia and their descendants, carving their names in the history of Serbian people.
- Congratulating this holiday to you we will remember all your honourable sacrifices, we pay homage to you and oblige the future generations to follow your path for the wellbeing of Serbia.
The musical part of the programme of the celebration was the responsibility of the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence, “Stanislav Binički” with soloists while the anthem of the Republic of Serbia was sung by amateur choir of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces.
