Today, in the barracks “Banjica 2”, a military celebration was held to mark the upcoming Day of the Serbian Armed Forces which was attended by Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin and Chief of General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic with the members of their boards, as well as by former Chiefs of General Staff of our armed forces.

Congratulating the holiday to all the members of the armed forces, Minister Vulin reminded that nothing had started from us, and that if we thought that the recording of the history had started with our birth and our appointment to certain duty, we were unworthy of both the history that we dreamt and the position we occupied.

Nothing starts from us. That is why I wish to thank the previous Chiefs of General Staff for their contribution and everything they did to make the armed forces what they are, not sparing themselves and their lives, giving everything that they had to offer to their fatherland, their armed forces, so that their time and the time in which we live in are different in quality of life, but with the same love for the fatherland and love for the armed forces – said Minister Vulin.

He reminded that the 23rd April, the Day of our Armed Forces, was the day when Serbian people had once again given the same response as before that and that it would give for decades, and centuries after that – that it is ready to sacrifice everything for freedom.

When they speak about Milos the Great, they usually speak about a wise, prudent man, but they somehow forget that prior to that wisdom and prudence, he was a brave, some would say a Bloody Warlord, who earned his rank of a Warlord in the First Serbian Uprising, having barely survived the wounds. No sooner than after the Uprising did he become a diplomat; only after his military bravery and victories was he able to negotiate. It is the same today. Without strong armed forces, without secure armed forces, satisfied armed forces, there cannot be diplomacy, or negotiations. It is the armed forces that safeguard the core of a nation, its most important values and that is there to be a guarding of territorial integrity and everything that makes the people worthy of lasting and worthy of repeating – Minister Vulin said adding that it used to be like that and that the same applies in the present.

According to him, a nation that did not have strong armed forces could not hope for freedom since strong armed forces go hand in hand with freedom.

Various things have happened all over the globe, but free people without strong armed forces – that has never happened. Particularly if that people lives in this patch of the world where we live, where every power believed that it should cross it, and they thought that they should stay as well – said Minister Vulin, adding that owing to a persistent, patient and stubborn people to which we belong, many have passed but they did not stay and he concluded his address exclaiming “Long live the Serbian Armed Forces! Long live Serbia”.

Reminding of the historical significance of the holiday which is taken to mark the Day of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Diković underlined that our armed forces and our defence system was at that moment and it had to continue to be in the function of resolving all the problems as a support and primary force of our leadership so that they could resolve them in the best possible manner.

- Today, our armed forces are stable and oriented force that observe the values and have the state-building character. We have preserved the continuity, we have preserved the unity, we have established and finalised the normative and legal system, and in next several days we expect the final adoption of the amendment to the Law which would enable us to even more, better, stronger and swifter continue strengthening our capacities to protect the citizens of Serbia and our fatherland – General Diković stressed.

The Chief of General Staff reminded that, after a long period, equipping of our armed forces had been initiated, which was primarily important for the Air Force and Air Defence, and that particular attention was paid to the members of the defence system who shared the fate of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia, with the aim of having a satisfied soldier and satisfied member of the armed forces, ready, just like our ancestors, to give their lives for defence of the freedom and honour of our fatherland.

- The status and standard of our officer is going to be such that they will be dignified and their faces will show the pride, but we will also see the pride on the faces of our citizens because they have such soldiers and such armed force ready to defend them at any moment – General Dikovic pointed out.

Addressing the gathered, Chief of General Staff stated that all the heroes in our history, sacrificing their lives had nothing on their mind but freedom and the generations to come that would live freely, and that it was the pledge of all the members of the armed forces at the present.

It is a great luck that we have ready officers, non-commissioned officers, soldiers and civilians who behave like that in practice, and who are ready to even give their lives for their fatherland and that is not a small thing. Long live the Serbian Armed Forces! Long live Serbia! – said General Dikovic.

Today’s celebration was an opportunity to read the orders for promotions into higher ranks, and for the minister of defence and Chief of General Staff to present stimulation awards within their purview to individuals from organisational units of the General Staff who had distinguished themselves in the previous year in discharging their duties with notable results at the level of organisational units of the General Staff, unit commands and institutions of the Serbian Armed Forces.

The Day of the Serbian Armed Forces was marked today by military celebrations organised in commands of operational level and in the Guard.

The Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces observe today the Day of the Serbian Armed Forces – 23rd April, in memory of the Second Serbian Uprising that was raised on this date, Palm Sunday  in Takovo in 1815. Then, at the gathering of notable elders, a decision was passed to start the Second Serbian Uprising for the liberation of Serbia from the Ottoman rule.