27.01.2020.
Military High School marked the patron saint of schools day
Minister Vulin: Today we think of our brothers wherever they live.
Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin has attended today the celebration of the Day of St. Sava, the patron saint of schools, at the Military High School in Belgrade.
According to Minister Vulin, Serbs are gathering on St. Sava’s Day “to once again remind themselves and the world of why they exist and what their existence is based on”.
- It is based on a word more important and valuable than anything else - freedom. And when Saint Sava won the autocephaly for the Serbian Orthodox Church - he won freedom. It is our right to decide for ourselves, to speak our own language, to choose our own path, to decide for ourselves and to determine who will guide us along the way and to give our children our names. As then, so now, there are always some great and powerful ones who would like to decide instead of us and set our path. As then, so today - it is up to us not to allow that. It is up to us to preserve what was given to us as a testament from the elders and to give over the upright and proud Serbia to those who are yet to follow in our footsteps, the minister of defence said and conveyed a message that “in 1219, Serbia stood up and told the then known civilised world that it is going to make decisions for itself”.- In 2020, we also say that we are going to make decisions for ourselves. That is how we choose. That is why today we think of the Serbs wherever they are - the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro. We think of them wherever they live and each of them must know that an upright, secure and stable Serbia is the reason for their better life as well. We have learned that where a Serb does not have his judge, teacher, police officer, there is no justice for him. But therefore we have learned that a strong and powerful Serbia can protect and preserve where there is no Serbian state. Today, we think of our brothers wherever they live and share with them the hope that justice will be universal and that wherever they live justice will be attainable, the defence minister said.
As he pointed out, Serbs, wherever they live, think of their Serbia, and “there is no Serbia without an independent decision and without its army”.
- There has never been free Serbian people and a free and powerful Serbian state, without a strong army in it - an army that was able to preserve and defend, which that was able to educate and to learn. It is true that our knowledge is our great weapon, but more than anything, it is our determination to be safe and free – in spite of everything. It is not said in vain that the Serbs will do almost anything for peace, and for freedom they will do everything, the minister of defence emphasised and said that “we should remain as we are - upright, unique and invincible”.
The audience was also addressed by Head of the Military High School, Commander (Navy) Miroslav Ćitić, who pointed out that “we must follow the directions according to St. Sava’s teachings and walk on the paths of St. Sava, because our history begins with him” and emphasised that “the teachings of St. Sava are our universal value that preserves our Serbian identity and enables our joint spiritual breathing.”The ceremony of marking the St. Sava’s Day at the Military High School was also attended by Rector of the University of Defence Lieutenant General Goran Radovanović, Head of the Military Academy Major General Bojan Zrnić, as well as professors and students of the Military High School.
After the bread-cutting ceremony, the students of the Military High School had performance within the cultural and artistic programme dedicated to the patron saint of schools school in honor of St. Sava.
