Vulin: We will not allow historical revision because our place in history is that of winners

Photo: Private archive

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin participated in the Immortal Regiment march organized on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade.

Recommended

Vulin pointed out that 80 years since the liberation of Belgrade is a great holiday for the Serbian people, a great holiday of freedom.

"We fought the occupier for four years, perhaps the only ones in Europe. The Red Army arrived in 1944 and together with them came the final victory. Unlike the vast majority of European nations, we are grateful to our Soviet comrades, while (those nations) can be grateful that they experienced freedom at all. The historical misunderstanding between the Serbs and the rest of the former Yugoslavia is that we firmly believed that we were liberating ourselves from Germany in 1944, while they experienced that as occupation. All the Serbs were free after 1944, while those the Serbs later shared Yugoslavia with, considered themselves occupied."

He stressed that Serbia is grateful to Russia for (help during) centuries of struggle, for the freedom, grateful that Russia supports our territorial integrity and sovereignty and that we have never been on the opposite sides, at any point in our history.

"We are the only nation in Europe that dares to say it out loud. We are the only nation in Europe that, thanks to President Aleksandar Vucic, has not and will not impose sanctions against the Russian Federation. We will not repay a thousand dead Red Army soldiers (fallen while liberating Serbia) by destroying their monuments, or by imposing sanctions or by banning (the veterans) from coming to mark the 80 years of freedom they brought, we will not act so low as (those who) banned the Soviet liberators from coming to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz.

We will not allow history to be rewritten because our place in history is the place of winners," said Vulin, and added, "I congratulate all the people of Belgrade, all the freedom fighters in the whole world, on Victory Day, Freedom Day."

(Telegraf.rs)