28.09.2018.
Minister Vulin attends ceremony marking the 102nd anniversary of the retreat of the Serbian Army to the island of Corfu
Aleksandar Vulin, Minister of Defence, has attended today a commemorative ceremonies in memory of about 250,000 civilians and members of the Serbian army who died on the Greek Ionian islands of Corfu and Vido.
The celebration of marking the 102nd anniversary of the retreat of the Serbian army to the island of Corfu and the paying tribute was attended by a delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, and the cadets of the Military Academy.The commemorative ceremony on the island of Corfu was led by Nikola Selaković, envoy of the President of the Republic of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, who laid a wreath and paid tribute to the memorial ossuary in Mausoleum on the island of Vido, at the naval cross and to the “blue tomb”.
After an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw the Serbian army to the Vardar valley, and due to the breakthrough of the Bulgarian army and the interruption of communications, and the absence of the planned advance of the allies from Thessaloniki to meet the Serbian army, the Supreme Command decided on 24th November 1915 to withdraw troops through Montenegro and Albania to the Adriatic coast.
After more than a month of heavy marches in the worst weather conditions and backwoods, the Serbian Army gathered at Shkoder, Durres and Valona, from where it withdrew to Corfu, where 151,828 soldiers gathered by April, about 13,000 soldiers gathered in Bizerta, and in Corsica and France about 5,000. The Chief of the Supreme Command, General Petar Bojović, arrived at Corfu in the last echelons on 5 (18) April 1916. The Corfu epic is one of the most tragic and most fateful periods of the recent national history. This is a period of great suffering for the civilian population and members of the armed forces who, exhausted by long-term march through Kosovo and Metohija and Albania, sought refuge on the Greek Ionian islands of Corfu and Vido.
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