20.10.2012.
68th Anniversary of Belgrade liberation marked
On the occasion of 68th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic laid wreaths at the Monument to the Liberators of Belgrade in the Second World War and the Monument to a Red Army soldier.In the presence of an honour guard of the Serbian Armed Forces Guard, President Nikolic, entered in the memory book on that occasion the following lines: "As long as there is one Serbian citizen, one Serb left, and as long as there is human memory, we will be teaching our children that they should always strive hard to justify the life and freedom that you have bestowed upon them".
Wreaths at the Monument to the Liberators of Belgrade and the Monument to a Red Army Soldier, were also laid by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence Aleksandar Nikolic who led the delegation of the Ministry of Defence, the representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the City of Belgrade, Veterans’ Association of Serbia (SUBNOR) and embassies of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan in the Republic of Serbia.Later in the programme, by the monument to Soviet veterans killed on Avala, a ceremony of laying wreaths and paying tributes was held, and the delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces was composed from the representatives of the Air Force and Air Defence.
After several days of bloody and difficult struggle, members of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, aided by their Soviet allies, liberated the capital of Serbia and Yugoslavia on 20 October 1944. This ended the four-year period of its occupation, during which a large number of citizens of Belgrade were killed, while the city itself suffered extreme damage.