KARAN: SERB PEOPLE UNITED REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY LIVE

ANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 13 /SRNA/ - The President of Republika Srpska Siniša Karan has stated today that Serb Unity, Freedom and National Flag Day is one of the most important holidays jointly celebrated by Serbia, Republika Srpska and Serbs as a whole.

"The central message of this joint celebration is unity. There are several ways to understand that unity, but above all, we want to send a strong message that the Serb people, as a national and political community, are one people regardless of where they live," Karan said.

Karan stressed that this was the key message of the holiday.

Karan reminded that the Declaration adopted by the All-Serb Assembly, which calls for the joint protection of the national and political rights of the Serb people and a joint future, was a response to those who had sought to undermine the Serb people throughout history.

"The main objective of those who sought to weaken the Serb people was to divide them, not only politically or in other ways, but also as a national and political community. That is why, throughout history, we have heard references to Bosnian Serbs, Croatian Serbs and other categories of Serbs," Karan said in a statement to ATV.

He said that anyone who sought to weaken the Serb people had, in effect, been seeking to undermine its unity.

"Once the Serb people lose that sense of unity, wherever they live, they become vulnerable to partial or complete assimilation. In that case, Serbs can effectively disappear, even though they were constituent peoples in places such as Slovenia and Croatia," Karan noted.

The holiday, he added, serves as a symbolic reminder of the history of the Serb people, wherever they have lived.

"Unity is what has preserved the Serb people through all the wars, including the First and Second World Wars, when this relatively small nation suffered enormous losses in proportion to its population, particularly in the First World War, but also in the Second," Karan said, noting that the holiday is marked on the anniversary of the breakthrough of the Salonica Front.

Karan said the joint celebration of the most important holidays of Republika Srpska and Serbia reflected the strong relations between the two, which, he said, had been built and strengthened by Presidents Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Dodik.

Speaking about the national flag, Karan said it was a symbol of the unity and freedom of the state.

"Together with Serbia, we also celebrate Statehood Day and Constitution Day on February 15, Sretenje, and through these joint celebrations we seek to reaffirm the shared history and historical memory of the Serb people, wherever they live," Karan said.

Karan reminded that the January 9 Declaration on the establishment of Republika Srpska envisaged it as a federal unit within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"The Serb people's national and political identity was torn apart following the breakup of Yugoslavia. That is why unity, freedom and the national flag carry such strong meaning," Karan stressed.

Karan said that the decision made on March 1 was, in effect, aimed at excluding the Serb people and turning "this unfortunate BiH into a state belonging to only one people."

"That is precisely why this unity is so important. Any attempts to undermine the special ties between Republika Srpska and Serbia are anti-Dayton and unconstitutional. They directly contradict, above all, the Constitution of BiH, which explicitly provides for the right to establish parallel special relations with neighboring states," Karan said.

He stated that negation of the special ties between Republika Srpska and Serbia would, actually, mean denying the Serb people, their statehood and their status as a constituent people.