President Vucic speaks about destruction of Yugoslavia

Photo: Shutterstock

President Aleksandar Vucic said today, regarding the criticism coming from some media of his speech during the commemoration for Operation Storm victims held in Sremski Karlovci - which they claim "insulted the European community" - that he spoke the truth and that he cannot influence whether or not someone feels offended, and mentioned the destruction of Yugoslavia.

Recommended

When asked by a journalist to comment on that criticism, Vucic said that the facts are that someone chose recognize the collapse of Yugoslavia, the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia, which were unlawful, because the only entity recognized under international law was Yugoslavia.

"Is it a facts that they then recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina and once again, without consulting the Serb people? Is it a fact that after that, when we accepted all of that and created the Federal Republic of Yugoslavi (SRJ), that they also broke that country up? These are the facts. Is it a fact that when they told us that the (former Yugoslav) republics' borders have become state borders, then they violated our republic's borders and agreed to the secession of Kosovo and Metohija and recognized it, 22 or 23 out of 28 (EU members) while Britain was there as well, as did the US, and many other countries? Is it a fact or not that they (NATO) bombed this country because of that?," Vucic asked during a tour of the construction site for the Slepcevic-Badovinci expressway.

He noted that now "they act offended, while we are not" - assessing that there are no two sides to the truth, but one alone.

"And this is the truth. Shold I tell you about this Brussels agreement (between Belgrade and Pristina)? Should I tell you about what we had to do, otherwise we would have faced the most severe sanctions, something the others never had to do," said Vucic.

He added that it is important that we have had enough time to put Serbia back on its feet and rebuild it.

"What they didn't count on are Serbian builders, the hardworking hands of the Serbian people, ordinary people who build their country, who build our roads, railways, science and technology parks, who raised our Army to unimaginable heights. And you will soon see what it looks like. We saw a strong Army, (there was) a presentation a few days ago," Vucic said.

He added that in some segments the Army has its shortcomings, like any other, but that it will be significantly stronger and that work is being done to correct those shortcomings.

"As you can see, I still tell you today, in front of everyone, that Kosovo is Serbia, that I have no qualms about saying it openly in every place. What am I supposed to do if that offends somebody? And those who are so offended talk to me every day, but they never talk to those who are not allowed to make a noise and are not allowed to say anything. Well, that shows you what kind of attitude they have towards Serbia and what kind of attitude they have towards others," Vucic pointed out.

When asked to comment on the claims made by the prime minister of the provisional institutions of Pristina, Albin Kurti, that Serbia is making efforts to "destabilize" so-called Kosovo, but that its intelligence and security services are thus far resisting those efforts, Vucic said that Serbia is working to stabilize the situation in the region.

"But Serbia is no longer a punching bag, they imagined it to be," said Vucic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)