Vucevic from Orasac: No matter what pressures they create, Serbia will never recognize the seizure of Kosovo

Today in Orasac, the central state ceremony for Serbia's Statehood Day began, led by the Prime Minister of Serbia, Milos Vucevic, acting as the envoy of the country's president, reports RTV. He stated that no matter what pressures Serbia may face, it will never recognize the seizure of Kosovo, nor will it jeopardize its friendship with traditional allies.

The ceremony started with a tribute to the insurgents who launched the First Serbian Uprising on Sretenje in 1804.

Vucevic and Viskovic then laid wreaths at the monument to Karadjordje, the leader of the First Serbian Uprising, followed by the national anthem, "Boze pravde."

The celebration of Statehood Day was attended by Ana Brnabic, President of the Serbian Assembly, and ministers including Bratislav Gasic (Defense), Dejan Ristic (Information and Telecommunications), Aleksandar Martinovic (Agriculture), Nikola Selakovic (Culture), Slavica DJukic Dejanovic (Education), Milica DJurdjevic Stamenkovski (Family Care and Demography), and others.

Also present were ministers of economy, human and minority rights, rural care, science, labor, employment, veterans' and social affairs.

Guests from the region, diplomatic corps representatives, and church dignitaries also attended.

Vucevic: Surrender was not an option

Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, during the central state ceremony in Orasac for Serbia's Statehood Day, stated that today, as we commemorate the Meeting of the Lord, we also celebrate our encounter with freedom, and emphasized that the covenant of that freedom still reminds us of how vigilantly Serbia must guard its independence.

"Many today do not appreciate a free and neutral Serbia, but from here I declare that Serbia will remain so because this is the will of the majority of its citizens. No matter what pressures we face, Serbia will never recognize the taking of its territory, Kosovo and Metohija, nor will it endanger its friendship with traditional allies. This is the vow of Karadjordje's insurgents, a debt we all owe to freedom," Vucevic highlighted.

As he mentioned, in the distant year of 1804 in Orasac, the exiled, oppressed, and humiliated gathered to make fateful decisions.

"Surrender was not an option, as it is not today, nor will it be in the future. The people decided to defend their freedom at any cost, well aware that any other decision would return them to slavery," he stated.

According to the Prime Minister, who led the ceremony as the envoy of the President of the Republic, in that critical historical moment, the insurgents rallied around their leader Karadjordje Petrovic. He reminded that Petar Petrovic Njegos considered Karadjordje the greatest Serb of recent Serbian history because, as he said, Karadjordje "raised the people, christened the land, and shattered barbaric chains, summoning life to the Serbian soul from the dead."

"After awakening in Orasac, the uprising flared up with all its might. 'Blood sprang from the ground, and the people rose like grass from the earth.' Nothing more could break our ancestors' will for freedom. With immense sacrifice and suffering, the foundations for the construction of a modern Serbian state were laid, as well as the foundations of freedom for other Balkan peoples," Vucevic emphasized.

Viskovic: Freedom is the sanctity of the Serbian people

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Viskovic, stated at the central state ceremony for the Statehood Day that freedom is the sanctity of the Serbian people, a holy word and covenant, and that the seedling of the Serbian people's freedom started from Orasac 221 years ago. He noted that even today, there are attacks on the freedom of the Serbian people.

He thanked the Presidents of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, Aleksandar Vucic and Milorad Dodik, for establishing at the All-Serbian Assembly the Declaration on the Rights and Freedoms of the Serbian People, which founded Sretenje as a joint holiday, the Statehood Day of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska.

"We from the Republic of Srpska know best how dearly we paid for the freedom of Serbs in the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the last century," he said.

He reminded that Karadjordje, when he raised the uprising in 1804 in Orasac, was already in Visegrad, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, today's Republic of Srpska, by 1809, and that uprisings then began in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the freedom of the Serbian people. They were quickly suppressed, but just over 70 years later, an uprising began in Nevesinje, known among the people as Nevesinjska puska.

"After that uprising, Serbia and Montenegro gained statehood. We Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unfortunately, did not win freedom at that time, but instead replaced one occupier with another. After the Ottoman Empire, we fell under Austro-Hungarians, and that is why we know what freedom is," Viskovic emphasized.