SIMOVIĆ: SERBIAN NATIONAL UNITY IS VITAL NEED

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 13 /SRNA/ – Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Banja Luka Vlade Simović told SRNA that the celebration of the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag is a vital need of the Serbian people, who have survived a traumatic past.

“In the processes of the 1990s, the Serbian people remained living in several different states created on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, as well as abroad, and they want to have their day and a space to mark what is a vital need – Serbian national unity,” Simović emphasized.

He stressed that this unity is primarily a cultural category in which the Serbian people show their cultural connectedness, tradition, and history – the history of a great European nation.

“Serbs are few in number, but a historically great nation, and the Day of Serbian Unity is one of the events when Serbs demonstrate all their cultural and historical greatness, but also the fact that in a traumatic past they managed to survive, endure, and continue to be one of the most important factors in the area of Southeastern Europe,” Simović underlined.

The Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag is a state holiday celebrated on September 15 in Serbia and Republika Srpska, and it was symbolically established on the day when the breakthrough of the Salonika Front is commemorated. It has been celebrated since 2020.

The idea of a joint holiday of Serbia and Srpska was initiated by the leaders of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić and Ana Brnabić, in agreement with the leadership of Republika Srpska, headed by Milorad Dodik.

This year, the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag will be celebrated on September 15 in Gadžin Han, the birthplace of the most famous soldier of the Salonika Front, Dragutin Matić.