30.09.2015.
Homage paid to Major Milan Tepic
In Belgrade, with military honors and laying of wreaths, homage was paid to YNA national hero Major Milan Tepic, who was killed 24 years ago during clashes with the Croatian paramilitary forces in the village of Bedenik, near Bjelovar.
After the requiem mass at the memorial plaque of Tepic, wreaths were laid by Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin, the delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces headed by Commander of the Central Logistics Base Brigadier General Petar Latkovic and family members and friends.Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that the Serbian people will never cease to remember their heroes.
"All great nations exist at great sacrifices, all the great nations measure their life through history by people such as Major Tepic ... Wars pass, we forget why they occurred, but the great sacrifices and great heroes are never forgotten," Vulin said.
According to him, the Serbian people remember the heroes - from Obilic to Sinđelic, Tanasko Rajic, to Major Dragutin Gavrilovic ... to Major Tepic and the heroes from Kosare ...
He pointed out that Major Tepic was the "proof that the Serbian people will never cease to be courageous, never cease to believe and to never cease having individuals who are willing to make sacrifices."
"Tepic and Stojadin Mirkovic (19), the soldier that refused an order to leave, and stayed with him, are the proof that Serbs are a great people and that, like all great nations, they can recall the grater and better ones ... thus we came to be, thus we continue to be," Vulin said.
He expressed his hope that wars would never happen again, and the belief that Serbia would never cease to remember its heroes.
24 years ago, Major Milan Tepic, commander of the combat means warehouse "Barutana" in the village of Bedenik, not far from Bjelovar, blew it up to prevent its surrendering to members of the Croatian National Guard with 170 tons of explosive means.
In that event, both Tepic and 19-year-old soldier Stojadin Mirkovic, who, despite Tepic’s order, refused to surrender, were killed, while the Croatian side confirmed the loss of 11 of its soldiers.
