Preservation of national identity and freedom are Srpska and Serbia’s main tasks arising from the Declaration on the Protection of National Rights of Serbs, announced, among other things, the event Strength of Unity, held as part of the 59th Kočić Gathering in Stričići near Banja Luka, the birthplace of Petar Kočić.

We must not lose ourselves, our goals and our identity, and that is why it is important to return to Petar Kočić, who taught us how to persevere because that is the only way we can succeed, said the President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, in his address to the audience.

The envoy of the President of Serbia, Nikola Selaković, stated – we are one nation, we speak one language, and that one language creates one culture.

Yesterday, Stričići was a place of assembly – around Petar Kočić, his works, his fight for the freedom of the Serbian people. That fight was not only reflected in the written word, but also through political action.

When we compare current times with Kočić’s time, we as a people have a greater degree of freedom, said Dodik.

BiH is not our identity, our identity is the Republic of Srpska and Serbia, noted the president of Srpska. And that is why, according to him, we need the unity of the people in order to defend Srpska in these difficult times.

– Our goal is to connect as much as possible with Serbia. We are one united people. The Declaration we adopted says that there are no Bosnian, Croatian or these and those Serbs, only Serbs. They can be defined as Kočić’s Serbs. The Serbian Declaration is the most powerful document of recent Serbian political history and its importance is yet to come – said Dodik.

Kočić’s Gathering is another confirmation of Srpska and Serbia’s determination that Serbs, as one nation, celebrate figures and events from the past that testify to the unity of Serbian identity, said Nikola Selaković, the envoy of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

– My wish is that every culture minister in Serbian Government has a sweet and good obligation to be present here. The countries may be different, the politics and boundaries a changeable category, but one thing remains the same. We are one nation, we speak one language, and that one language creates one culture – stated Selaković.

And Petar Kočić is part of that culture. Apart from him, according to Selaković, there is no person whose life, literary oeuvre or work, emphasizes more the thirst for Serbian freedom. For a moment, that thirst was revived on stage by the actor Aleksandar Stojković.

The Strength of Unity cultural and artistic program was also marked by the poem Bogojavljenje (Epiphany) by this year’s Kočić Award recipient, academician Matija Bećković.

In Stričići, Bećković reminded that Petar Kočić, like Nikola Tesla, was the son of a priest and that these were two great personalities of the Serbian people who, as time went by, grew bigger and bigger, and their works more and more contemporary.

Source: RTRS

Photo: President of the Republic of Srpska