Vucevic: Serb Vojvodina was created from people's soul and heart, to keep our covenant of freedom

Prime Minister of Serbia Milos Vucevic said on the eve of Statehood Day that the Serb people must keep their covenant, memory and faith in a free, progressive and strong Serbia, worthy of their ancestors and safeguarded for their descendants.

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Our vital interests are where Gracanica, Decani (medieval Serb monasteries in Kosovo in the south) and the holy places are, while the Serb Vojvodina (the country's northern province) was born from the people's soul and heart, is also a vital interest, the caretaker prime minister told the daily Politika.

Vucevic said that Statehood Day - which is also Sretenje (the Meeting of the Lord Orthodox holiday) - is a day that represents hope in a religious and spiritual sense.

"On that day, Christ met with people for the first time. On that day, the Mother of God took him to the temple for the first time. And on that day, people had the opportunity to see their savior for the first time. On that day in 1804 (in Serbia) - we also found the strength to see salvation and freedom, as a nation," said Vucevic, referring to the start of the first of the uprisings against the Ottoman Turk occupation, that eventually resulted in the restoration of the Serbian statehood first established in medieval times.

Vucevic stressed that our ancestors "had an encounter with freedom on that day" and that with the adoption of the Sretenje Constitution, in 1835, they also brought forth a modern legal state, our "Freedom Land," as traditional songs go.

"And because of those two events that took place on the same date (Feb. 15), we proclaimed that Sretenje should be the holiday to celebrate independence and freedom, because on those dates we 'met' both freedom, and a legally regulated state," Vucevic added.

He stressed that Serbia is in its essence, a "God-given hope" - and that it is the hope of all its people and citizens to create their own safe area and their own country, in freedom.

"And God has also made sure that it can be done successfully only if that creation is respected as sacred. That creation, that piece of freedom called Serbia, can only be successful if we are united, for better and for worse. Only if we work in the spirit of St. Sava (the 12th century-born founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church), calmly and humbly, but also decisively when the vital interests of the homeland need to be defended. And the vital interests are those that are woven into our sacred and glorious past," said Vucevic.

He added that the vital interests are our faith, where Gracanica is, where Decani are, where the Serb holy places are - but that they are also vital in the Serb Vojvodina created in the national soul and heart of Serbia.

"It was left to us as a testament by our holy rulers. It is the thought and the faith of all the heroes fallen during the 1848-1849 revolution, but also of all the victims of the Novi Sad and Sajka pogroms," Vucevic said, referring to the atrocities committed by the fascists during the WW2 occupation of Serbia.

According to him, Vojvodina is the thought andthe faith of all those who volunteered to defend the fatherland during the First World War, and then listed a number of major public, scientific, military and artistic figures like Saint Arsenije Sremac, Djordje Stratimirovic, Dositej, Dimitrije Davidovic, Zmaj, Miletic, Tomic, Djura Jaksic, Uros Predic, Mihajlo Pupin, Milutin Milankovic, Sava Sumanovic, Milos Crnjanski.

"And all the mighty, honorable and respected ones who, to this today, entrust us with preserving the honor and image of the Serb name," said Vucevic.

He added that this is why today we must keep the covenant, the memory and the faith in a free, progressive and strong Serbia, a Serbia worthy of its ancestors and safeguarded for the posterity.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)