15.09.2021.

President of Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic attended today a central event dedicated to celebrating the Day of Serbian unity, freedom and national flag on Sava square.

′′ Your Holiness, respected member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Dodik, esteemed president of the Republic of Srpska Mrs. Cvijanovic, respected president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, respected president of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Mrs. Brnabic, your excellency, honorable fathers, dear friends,
King Petar the First Karadjordjevic, presented June and November 1911. the 51th regiment flag to his army.
None of those flags are captured, which is a precedent in modern warfare history.

Heroes who were entrusted with the task of taking care of those flags, passed all the battles of Balkan and World War I, so that on this very day in 1918., storming under those banners, would go victoriously into the breakthrough of Thessaloniki front. Glory to our great Serbian heroes!
To our ancestors, heroes of Kolubara, Cer, Kumanovo, carriers of Kara đor đee's star and Albanian monument, Serbian tricolor, red-blue-white, was bigger and more important and more important and stronger than life, because it warned them that Serbia's freedom has no price, no alternative That's why barjaktari died, but the flags survived.
Because of them, because of all the others who under that flag, under that name, gave their lives, today we celebrate the Day of Serbian unity, freedom and national flag, perhaps the most important holiday of ours, which clearly tells us who we are, where we come from, and where we are going.

It is a holiday of our identity, the one in which language, culture, tradition, faith, but also values on which society rests, values that make one country civilized, organized, capable of remembering, but also to know what is wrong with it and why To do.

The date we chose, September 15. th, is the date of breakthrough of Thessaloniki front, that day in which, together, lie both our pain and our glory, which make up the first part of that Renan definition of the nation, by which it is based on mutual suffering, glory in the past, but also in common plan for the future.

On that September 15. th, 1918., the only plan was freedom, towards which Serbian troops rushed with the famous order of Zivojin Misic: In death, just don't stop! Forward, to the homeland!

That day was the first in a series of similar plebiscites, on which, regardless of the bloody price, we chose, nanovo and nanovo, Serbia and its freedom.

Today, precisely, it is important, that celebrating all the victims, every drop of blood they shed, every bone they sowed, on another plebiscite we adopt our new plan for the future. The one, in which we will stand under the same flag, knowing that it is the flag of freedom, and the flag of peace, but also the flag of the future.

The flag of our unity in the intention of preserving our identity and right to be who we are, one and the same people, who do not want to take anything from anyone, to endanger anyone, but only to perform for themselves the same right they admit to others. The right to name, to history, culture, language, faith, tradition and the right to exist.

It is the right to dignity, the right to remember, but also the right to what no one can force us to do, and many still try, unsuccessfully - the right to decide for ourselves and when and what to forget.

To myself, and others.

Not everything has always been quite bright during history, and most often towards ourselves, sometimes towards others, but, at least in these areas, there is no nation that has been through such darkness, and that grave, nation that has made such sacrifice to see light and became a nation, free.
What of all that we will forget, and many things we have to, just to not live forever in the past, can be exclusively our choice, not the decision of anyone on the side.

And immediately to be clear, this flag, all those who lie under it and because of it, the flag of our suffering, the flag of our bones, our pits, camps, the children they took from us, we will definitely never forget and we will proudly carry it.

In her, and that's another important lesson we have to learn, are all our meaningless divisions, all the failed dreams we dreamed, every mistake we made, but what matters in that is that, and such, that Our flag, represents that unity that is based on the fact that we are not perfect, that we are different, but also to know that the beauty of togetherness, is the beauty of the flag, exactly in that.

Exactly why, our red-blue-white tricolor is no call for single-mindedness, but the exact opposite, to preserve all our differences under one, same flag.

Under the symbol of freedom, identity, existence, rights to life, because these are the conditions for diversity.
Slaves are all the same, enslaved. Free people differ, because they are free.

And that's something that has to apply to all the people in the Balkans, regardless of where they live. To be free, to the same extent, with the same rights, with their language, faith, culture and tradition.
And it is not any special Serbian world, for which they accuse us, it is, simply, the world of the free, the world of those with their own name, with the right to speak loud and without consequences, always, and in every place.
We will never apologize to anyone again for the Serbian tricolor. We will carry it with pride always, and everywhere. There is nothing more important and more important to us than the unity of our people.

And that, according to us, has to apply to all the people in the Balkans, without any exceptions, and especially without constant attempts to allow someone, Serbs, first of all, a name, but also to add a stamp of guilt

This holiday of unity and freedom of ours, this flag of ours, play that role, they are proof that, being a Serb, does not mean being guilty, does not mean carrying the burden of condemnation, but, exactly the opposite, they say that pride goes with that name

Pride for Misar, Deligrad, Cele tower, and Takovo, Kumanovo, Milos, Djordje, Mihajlo, pride for Kolubara, Cer, Kajmakcalan, pride for Peter and Alexander, all the lives given for one beautiful, most beautiful attempt by all anti-fascists to preserve freedom in both that hardest time, but also because of the martyrs from Prebilovci, Jadovna, Jasenovac, whom we must never forget again, as we have forgotten for 70 years.

And that's us. That's Serbia. It's a new Serbia, a different Serbia, proud Serbia, which doesn't ask anyone for anything and who won't beg anyone, who just wants to have rights, just like everyone else has, and nothing more, but also nothing less.

That is the language, our Serbian language, language and Mesa Selimovic, and Ivo Andric, and Milos Crnjanski. It's the culture we created, it's faith without hatred, it's our being, it determines us and makes us a worthy nation.
That, in the end, gives us strength, science, that in this century, whose foundations are in our hands today, we seek peace and to discover our strength, greatness, in life, in what makes it better, in work, in great endeavors Making roads and bridges, in connections, in factories, new hospitals, in knowledge and faith that we can, can, equally, or more than all others.

And just like we are proud of our ancestors who gave their lives for freedom, so tomorrow our descendants should be proud of us, who teach them how to live for freedom and how to live in freedom.
And we need to teach them how to remember, and how to forget only by our own will. How you deserve dignity and how you respect the foundation.
And the foundation is that name, Serbia, under which so many unknowns are buried. And that flag of ours, in which they have woven their lives, to remain recognized. And glory, Homeland, which sees its children, hears, and helps, wherever they are.

The foundation is also this holiday, the holiday of our identity, our history, but also our differences that, again, give both glory and pain in the past, and a clear plan for the future.

And I want to say a big thank you to our people in Republika Srpska, I want to say a big thank you to his representatives, who are here, I want to say a big thank you to our people in Montenegro and its representatives, those who are not ashamed to say that they are Serbs , I want to say a big thank you to our martyr nation in Kosovo and Metohija, their representatives, who are here tonight, with us, but also to say a big thank you to all those who were not allowed to highlight their, Serbian flag today because of the threats of their regime in the region , to say thank you, because I know that their hearts are here tonight, with us and that they are beating for ours, for their Serbian people.

And allow me, in the end, to say that what I will do, however much I can, with all my strength, with all my heart, with all my soul, as much time as is left, I will lead Serbia to be even stronger, stronger, so that it can help the Republic To Srpska, never touching the rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to help our people in Montenegro, and in every place, and to protect every Serbian man from persecution, never to repeat to us again neither Jasenovac, nor Jadovno, nor Prebilovci, Neither Storm, nor Flash, nor pogroms from 2004. And that's our vow!

Let the Serbian unity live, our freedom and our red-blue-white tricolor! Let the Republic of Srpska live!
Long live Serbia!"