Of the many Montenegrin athletes who compete or are coaches in the Middle East, it was the hardest for Marko Bakić - the only one who plays in Iran, the only one who was in Tehran, the epicenter of the conflict.
Late last night, the 32-year-old football player of Iran's biggest club, the pride of the country, the historic Persepolis, arrived in Montenegro after a two-day journey, getting his hands on his Budva.
"I was sitting on Saturday morning watching the missiles fall. In the diplomatic part of Tehran, where I am stationed, in the cafeteria, because there was no other place, except for my apartment and balcony. Tehran is not a particularly protected city in terms of underground shelters or anything like that. Is it some kind of adrenaline, or what, but I only felt real fear when I was safe - in Montenegro. Like some kind of post-trauma, I don't know. I have to say that I was not directly threatened, the missiles were falling around, but it was unpleasant - it was," Marko Bakić tells "Vijesti".
The Americans and Israelis attacked Iran on Saturday morning, but everything could have been foreseen long before that, says Bakić, who has been a resident of Tehran since the summer of last year.
"From the summer until November, until I got injured, and spent most of my recovery in Belgrade, I have to say that it was the most beautiful place to live - I enjoyed it in every possible sense, football-wise and in any other way. Tehran is a big city, 17 million inhabitants, in some parts of the city you simply wonder if you are in Madrid or London. Of course, there are other contrasts, I mean primarily places outside Tehran, but I enjoyed it," says the Montenegrin international.
Since January, however, everything has changed.
"As the biggest club in the country, we had all the privileges. We went to Qatar for training, at the same time as mass anti-regime protests began in Iran. All I can say is that after that, when we returned to Tehran, it was no longer the same place to live. It was simply unbearable, a closed country, and especially unbearable for the Iranians, the local population. Everyone knew what was coming. It wasn't a question of if there would be an attack, but when it would come. We were warned, but we could feel everything ourselves," says the former footballer of Mogren, Italian Torino and Fiorentina and Spezia, Portuguese Braga and Belenenses, Spanish Alcorcon, Belgian Mouscron, Buducnost and Greek OFI from Crete.
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Bakić points out, after all, that he doesn't regret a single moment of his decision to sign for "Tehran Reds" last summer, or the "Red Army" - the proud football club of old Persia.
"And when I signed, and not just me, because there are a lot of foreigners in the team, we knew this could happen."
When the protests against the government began this year, Persepolis, he says, was also no longer the same club.
"There were no fans in the stadiums, the club seemed to have lost its bearings. We started to lose."
On Saturday morning, March 1st, he was getting ready to go to training.
"Persepolis is a big club and all of us players had people in charge of us. The man from the club who drove me to training waited for me in front of the building and just told me to go back - that the war had started. I wasn't even aware of what was happening, I hadn't looked at my phone before that. But, about ten minutes later, everything became clear to me. The power went out in the building, and everything around started shaking."
Bakić says he went down to the local cafeteria.
"It was all in the diplomatic part of Tehran, and that's where the attack began. There were missiles flying, there were detonations, there was shaking for at least four hours, from 10 a.m. to 14 p.m. on Saturday. I wasn't directly threatened, but I could see and feel everything, like in a video game. The sound of a missile, and then a crash, somewhere nearby."
Around 14 p.m. the detonations stopped, and Bakić says there was fear of what the night would bring.
"Luckily, Persepolis is a wonderfully organized club and all the foreigners received organized transportation on Sunday morning. Under military escort, the bus took us to the border with Turkey, where our arrival had also been announced. Although the journey took a long time, 12 hours, there were no problems, especially after a night that passed peacefully. We entered Turkey and were already safe there."
Thank you to the Embassy of Montenegro in Turkey, especially Vuk Rakočević
Marko Bakić owes special thanks to the Embassy of Montenegro in Turkey.
"They not only took care of me, but also of many other foreign citizens. Special thanks to Vuk Rakočević - no embassy has done what ours did, and with me were football players, and football workers, from other countries in the region. Ours took care of all of them, we really felt safe."
Anger has now erupted among Iranians, even among those who were against the regime.
Witnessing the first attacks by the Americans and Israelis on Iran from the spot, Marko Bakić cannot predict how long it will last.
"I don't know, I'm not a military analyst, but from what I've seen, the Iranians have become resentful - even among those who were against the regime, and there are many of them, the majority. And they are all united now."
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