ARMISTICE DAY IN SERBIA, WHICH LOST ALMOST ONE IN THREE OF ITS PEOPLE IN WAR

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 11 /SRNA/ - Serbia is marking World War One Armistice Day on Wednesday, the anniversary of November 11, 1918. On that day the armistice between the Entente powers and Germany was signed, ending the Great War. More than 17 million people died in the war, and Serbia lost 1.24 million people, or nearly a third of its population, making it the hardest-hit country of the conflict in proportional terms.

Armistice Day has been a public holiday since 2012 and is a non-working day.

The state wreath-laying ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at the Memorial Ossuary of the Defenders of Belgrade in World War One, in the New Cemetery complex in Belgrade.

The armistice signed on this day in 1918 remained in force until the final peace treaty was concluded at Versailles on June 28, 1919.

On the Western Front it meant a ceasefire, the withdrawal of German troops, an exchange of prisoners, an agreement on war reparations and the destruction of German warships and submarines.

The Serbian army fought on the southern front, where it achieved the largest advance by any of the Allied powers: the breakthrough on the Salonika Front.

Serbia was the first country to be attacked in the war and won the first Allied victories, at Cer and Kolubara.

It was the last to end military operations and suffered the heaviest losses of World War One in proportional terms.

The symbol of the holiday is the Natalie's ramonda, known as the phoenix flower, which can come back to life after rain or a little watering even when it has dried out completely.

The endangered species grows in eastern Serbia and on Nidže mountain, at its highest peak, Kajmakčalan. There the Serbian army under Field Marshal Živojin Mišić fought fierce battles while laying the groundwork for the breakthrough on the Salonika Front.