The twenty-fourth anniversary of the beginning of the NATO attack on the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 1999 was marked today in Tivat in the organization of the Sacred Imperial Lavra of the Monastery of Saint Archangel Michael on Prevlaka.
On this occasion, Bishop Metodije of Buda-Nikšić with the clergy served a liturgy and a memorial service in the Prevlač monastery for all the victims of the bombing that lasted for almost three months in the spring of 1999.
After that, at the Brdišta city cemetery in Tivat, a memorial service was held for the people of Tivat who died in the war - Marko Avramović, a member of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, who died in combat in Kosovo in 1999, as well as Dragan Bjelanović, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Serbia, who lost his life in Kosovo in 1998.
The commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the NATO bombing was attended by the Ambassador of Russia to Montenegro Vladislav Maslenikov, the Consul General of Serbia in Montenegro Mićo Rogović, the Mayor of Tivat Željko Komnenović, and the President of the Tivat Municipality Assembly Miljan Marković.
A wreath was laid on the graves of the martyred Tiv people by a delegation from the local OBNOR, military tributes to Avramović and Bjelanović were also paid by uniformed members of the Association of Military Veterans of the then Yugoslav Army, among whom was Bishop Metodija's secretary, priest Miajlo Backović, who was a member of the special units of the VJ – 63rd Parachute Brigade in Niš.
Addressing the crowd, which included relatives and friends of the fallen Avramović and Bjelanović, Backović recalled the shared moments spent with Avramović in that unit and emphasized that "our freedom that we all felt on August 30, 2020, is not the freedom brought by the masses".
"The liturgies were only the peak and the crowning victory of the struggle that lasted both before and after the Second World War, until today. That is why we are grateful to Dragan and Marko and all the other fighters who laid down their lives so that we could enjoy this freedom today. We waited a long time for that freedom that finally came, and thank God that we are the generation that felt the freedom in which we are all the same, where there are no traitorous citizens and second-class citizens, but we are all the same - citizens of this country, all its sons and daughters , completely free," Backović pointed out, adding that the decorations worn by him and the other VJ war veterans from the conflict with NATO in 1999 are not their personal decorations, but belong to all their fallen comrades who laid down their lives in that battle.
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