10.10.2011.
Defence Minister visits Subotica
Marking the Day of Subotica’s Liberation from Fascism, Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac attended today the City of Subotica Assembly’s celebratory session in Subotica’s City Hall. On that occasion, the representatives of the Union of War Veterans awarded the plaques to Minister Sutanovac and the Serbian Army Commander, Colonel Milomir Todorovic. Congratulating the citizens of Subotica on their holiday, which is being marked in remembrance of October 10, 1944, Minister Sutanovac pointed out that following the previously unseen destructions in the First World War, instead of moving towards development and humane relations among peoples and nations, Europe experienced the surge of Nazism and Fascism.
- That led to the largest destructions in the history of the humankind, but at the same time, also, to the biggest resistance to that destruction, which was ravaging not only Europe, but also Africa and Asia for more than four years – said Minister Sutanovac.
According to him, what nobody can deprive us of, in the history of our people and state, is the fact that we have always been a righteous nation that fought for the freedom of its state. In all world wars, he added, we sided with the most advanced part of the world which fought against invaders.
- Today, in Subotica, and I believe in towns across Serbia, we have to be aware that those were the bright days of our struggle. As antifascism is a legacy everybody in the world is proud of, there is no reason to be ashamed of it and not to glorify that period. Also, not a single nation, and not one folk can claim the antifascism. All antifascists who fought in that period are equally creditable that we have a democratic country today – assessed Minister Sutanovac.
In Defence Ministry and Serbian Armed Forces, Minister Sutanovac pointed out, we foster the multiethnic spirit, and today, contrary to the previous periods when it was not popular to celebrate this holiday, in our ranks, as well as in the Military Academy, we have members of minorities, who proudly wear the uniform of the Republic of Serbia with a wish to participate in our country’s security building. - ?hat is something we are proud of and that is the legacy of the antifascist struggle which did not distinguish between nations, gender or religious affiliations, but only recognized the goodness in people and their wish to live in freedom and not to be oppressed by those who were not welcomed in our land – said Sutanovac. He expressed his conviction that Serbia was working towards its wish to clarify to everybody that the period of the antifascist struggle should be one the brightest periods of our country.
- Only those world nations that do not want to remember that time find a problem with it. We have to put more emphasis on that time, because it was then that the advanced Europe joined against the backward policy – Minister Sutanovac concluded, adding that Serbian Armed Forces are today the army of all citizens of Serbia equally, and they enjoy the highest level of citizens’ trust, especially because they foster multi-ethnicity.
Chairman of the Town Council of the Alliance National Liberation War Veterans Association of Yugoslavia (SUBNOR) Vladimir Vecic pointed out that on this day more than 2,000 young women and men from the same brigade liberated their town from invaders fighting bravely.
Speaking about the importance of marking of today’s holiday, Mayor Sasa Vucinic emphasised that the most important reason for that is the victory over single-mindedness which produced the biggest evil in the recent history. - Single-mindedness is not sustainable, so is not the discrimination, regardless of its origin – Vucinic stressed, adding that it was precisely the unity of the European nations in a fight against fascism that served as a basis for the future family of the European nations.
Continuing his visit, Minister laid wreaths at the Monument to the Victims of Fascism on the same-named square, as well as at the Memorial to the Fallen Red Army Soldiers at the Orthodox Cemetery.
With the Guard’s Representative Orchestra’s performance of the national anthem and the release of a flock of pigeons, the wreaths were also laid by the city delegation headed by the Mayor Sasa Vucinic, SUBNOR representatives, the delegation of the Republic, headed by the North Backa District Commissioner Erzebet Kis, delegations of the Embassies of Ukraine, Belarus and the General Consulate of the Republic of Croatia in Subotica. Subotica Liberation Day was also marked by the Guard Echelon’s parade accompanied by the Guard Representative Orchestra’s performance and the Serbian Armed Forces Guard’s Exercir (Egzercir) on the Freedom Square.
