Djuric at Zeitenlik: The firmest pillar for our people are the soldiers who gave their lives so that Serbs could have a homeland

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marko Djuric said today in Thessaloniki, where he laid wreaths at the mausoleum at the Serbian Military Cemetery Zeitenlik, that the firmest pillar for the Serbian people in today’s time can be the soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the First World War so that Serbs could have their own homeland. He added that that period showed that victory and success are not decided by numbers, equipment, or weapons, but by the unshakable will of a people to achieve success.

“The time we live in is such that we can find our firmest pillar in the values of our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and ancestors, who gave up their youth, their loves, their dreams, their lives, their entire lives, sacrificing themselves in their twenties and thirties, sometimes even earlier, so that we could have our homeland in which we nurture our language, our culture, our faith, our values,” Djuric told journalists in Thessaloniki, where he laid wreaths at the mausoleum at the Serbian Military Cemetery Zeitenlik.

The minister emphasized that in a time of global turbulence it is good to come on a pilgrimage to Zeitenlik, which represents the largest individual ossuary in Europe.

“In a time of global turbulence and storms looming on the horizon, it is good to come on a pilgrimage here to Zeitenlik. Zeitenlik represents the largest individual ossuary in Europe, where in the crypt rest 5,580 Serbian heroes, and to visit this Serbian military cemetery, where another 1,400 of our glory-crowned soldiers are buried in individual graves,” Djuric explained.

He recalled that Serbian soldiers, in a time incomparably more difficult than today, witnessed the collapse of the Serbian state, which they then revived through their own efforts.

“These soldiers, in a time incomparably more difficult, first witnessed the collapse of the Serbian state, and then through their effort, their deeds, by committing themselves together with the rest of their generation, created the resurrection of that state. They created a state that was several times larger and stronger, in territory, population, and overall capacities, than the one that existed at the moment Serbia was attacked,” Djuric said.

The minister stressed that the time of the First World War showed that victory and success are not decided by numbers, equipment, or weapons, but by the unshakable will of a people to achieve success.

“That time teaches us that in the end victory and success are not decided by numbers, equipment, and weapons, overall social capacities, or the political moment of a given time, but by the unshakable will of a people, of a generation, to achieve success and to achieve victory. It was precisely that unshakable faith in Serbia, in Serbian identity, in the homeland that succeeded in bringing about the resurrection of our state,” he said.

Djuric added that he came to Zeitenlik to bow to the spirits of the people who laid down their lives for Serbia, hoping that today’s generation of the Serbian people will at least partially live up to them.

“I came to bow to the spirits of people who were greater than many both before and after them, with the hope that our generation, which faces far fewer challenges than the generation of people who laid down their lives here, will at least partially live up to the sacrifices that are embedded here,” the minister concluded.

The Serbian Military Cemetery at Zeitenlik is located on the site where, in 1916, the main military field hospital of the Serbian army was situated.

As part of the hospital there was also a cemetery for the deceased, which later led to the establishment of the cemetery complex that today contains the graves of Serbian, Russian, French, Italian, and British soldiers who were killed in the fighting on the Thessaloniki Front.

A total of 1,447 people are buried at the cemetery, while the memorial ossuary within the mausoleum contains the remains of around 5,580 people.