The Serb member and Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, said in Andrićgrad that Vidovdan was dedicated to all those known and unknown who had contributed to the Serbian nation and history being glorious and rich, regardless of their being also those of suffering and tribulations.

– Vidovdan is strong and powerful because it gathers and is celebrated everywhere – here in Višegrad, in the Sase monastery, in Serbia and in the world. Vidovdan is a gathering place and that unites us in planetary energy and makes us special – said Dodik at the presentation of the Ivo Andrić Grand Prize to the author and Serbian academician Milovan Danojlić.

Dodik pointed out that Vidovdan was a date and holiday that had united Serbs in one moral historical vertical from 1389 until today, through various events, but also made the Serbs in that moral vertical show their clear national identity of a people who had been and was still fighting for freedom, a people who had always shared freedom with others and a people who, perhaps, could have been a little less rampant, and therefore obliterated from history in the face of the strongest of that time.

– Maybe it would have done better, but it would not be the people it is today – Dodik pointed out.

He reminded that that was why Serbs faced the most powerful force of that time in 1389, until 1804, 1914, 1941, and even 1990s, when they fought against the most powerful armed force of civilization – NATO.

– And Vidovdan was always there, part of our victories and defeats, and even more of our hopes and proofs that even a defeat, no matter how painful, gives hope and spurs success – said Dodik.

Dodik emphasized that Serbs had overcome their diseases of the past and that today they had two states of their own – Serbia and Republic of Srpska.

– We have a nation which is integrated in terms of its identity, culture. Every victory of any Serb from the Republic of Srpska and Serbia is a victory of us all – said Dodik.

He said that others were failing to understand this or, perhaps, out of envy, they did not want to understand.

– That identifying thread of ours and the myth that has been created maintain us in everything, but we had something to gather around, unlike others who were inventing stories like Srebrenica to serve as a place of gathering and suffering. That was a place of crime, but against all, not just one nation – Dodik noted.

According to him, both Serbs and Muslims suffered greatly from 1992 until the end of the war.

– What we have – we should keep. Vidovdan is the date around which we gather. We should protect the Republic and strengthen its capacities, carry in our hearts and wish for a strong Serbia, because a strong Serbia is a guarantor of our strength and freedom in this area and only such a Serbia is in the interest of the Serbian people, while a weak Serbia interests many around us whose concept is based on Serbia being valuable only if it is weak and divided – said Dodik.

He noted that the Golgotha the Serbs had gone through in the last century was over, and it had been a suffering for the Serbian people.

– We had delivered freedom also to other nations, but at the end of the last century they showed us that they meant us nothing good. That is why only the united Serbian peoples, Republic of Srpska and Serbia with Vidovdan are here and we will not give in to all the challenges devised by the known and unknown only to harm us – Dodik pointed out.

He said that the Serbian people was special because it had a special history, difficult and of suffering. The Serbian people has never given up on the freedom that had always motivated all of us, our ancestors, or on defending it and building our states, said Dodik.

He noted that BiH was imposed by the power of the international factor, but that this power was not eternal – once lost, its power to impose would be lost.

– We all carry pride of the past times and pride of the future times in the sense of building our Serbian society in which everyone has a place and in which no one is a surplus, regardless of religion and nation. But, we live here on our own and we will never leave what is our own – said Dodik.

He recalled the idea when Emir Kusturica said that Višegrad deserved an Andrićgrad, because it had produced the author who grew up here and originated in this area, who won the Nobel Prize and was undoubtedly explaining what was today and what could be understood today, i.e. the relations in BiH.

– I supported him because I trusted him and because Emir does great things and that will certainly be great in itself. Now I see how right he was then. Marking Vidovdan in that 2014, we had a stage story, timeless and placeless – said Dodik.

Source: SRNA

Photo: RTRS