Nikolić: Why do the Nikšić authorities bother with the heroine of anti-fascism, Joka Baletić?

The newly elected president of the URA Nikšić Local Government, Darko Nikolić, announced that at the session held on March 16, the Council for proposing names for settlements, streets and squares in Nikšić rejected the initiative of the URA Civic Movement to erect a memorial to Joka Baletić, a symbol of courage and resistance to fascism, a minor heroine of World War II.

"Hiding behind 'abstentions', members of the Council from the councilor clubs of the 'For the Future of Nikšić' coalition, the Democrats and the PES clearly sent a message that for them and the political parties they represent, Joka Baletić is neither a symbol of resistance, nor the personification of anti-fascism, nor a Montenegrin heroine - but that it is a name that should be erased from collective memory and that should be forgotten in the city under Trebjesa," said Nikolić.

On behalf of the Nikšić municipal board of the Civic Movement URA, which submitted the initiative to erect a memorial to Joko Baletić, he requested that the political entities that stood behind the decision to reject the initiative immediately provide the public with an explanation and answers about who is bothering Joko Baletić.

"Who cares about the partisan who, on May 9, 1942, stormed the Italian occupiers and their collaborators? Who cares about the girl who, after being captured and tortured for several days, refused to betray her comrades and was sentenced to death for it? Who cares about the seventeen-year-old girl who proudly raised her bound hands, shouting for freedom, and did not allow the executioner to put the noose around her neck, but did it herself," Nikolić asked.

He added that they are seeking answers to these questions not only as initiators of the memorial, but also as a movement based on the anti-fascist tradition of Montenegro.

"Let those who did not have the courage even to vote 'against' speak out about the heroine who looked death in the eye without fear, and let them know that everyone's name remains remembered - someone's for heroism, and someone's for dishonor. The civic movement URA, regardless of the answers we ask from the 'abstainers', sends a message that their efforts are in vain, because no political, ideological or historical revisionism can and will never erase the name of Joke Baletić from our memory. The people of Nikšić are the guarantors of this, because the memorial to Joke Baletić is forever in their hearts, and despite all the obstructions, it will soon be where it should be, on the central city square, to forever remind with raised hands why we called it exactly - Freedom Square," said Nikolić.