DODIK: REPUBLIKA SRPSKA WILL BUILD A MEMORIAL CENTER IN BOLJANIĆ

DOBOJ, SEPTEMBER 21 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said today in Boljanić near Doboj that at the very place where Chetniks rescued Allied pilots, Srpska will begin the construction of a memorial center.

“This is an important day, not a day to impress anyone, but a day to pay tribute to the Chetnik anti-fascist movement,” Dodik said in his address. He reminded that the Serbs had two anti-fascist movements, the Chetnik and the Partisan, while the Ustaše movement was fascist and Nazi, as was the Handžar Division, which was aimed at harming the Serbian people. “None of them are present here today. Those who sided with fascism received Western support in the 1990s, which is why there is a misunderstanding today,” Dodik emphasized. According to him, the Serbian people did not have a conquering army, but a defensive one, and members of the Chetnik movement did not fight across Yugoslavia; they defended their homes. “I am proud of these people, for it is a fact that not a single Ustaša or German could enter Ozren for four years,” Dodik emphasized, adding that the Chetnik movement was a defensive one, but the communists hid this so that no one would know. He reminded that it is an injustice that other peoples consider it honorable to kill a Serb and that there is no accountability for this, while the West pushes for coexistence with them. “We are part of an experiment that should be ended and freedom given to the Serbian people,” Dodik said. He noted that a negative narrative about the Serbs was spread in the United States, but that it is time to correct the injustices of the 1990s that were ideologically motivated. “We have hope in Trump; it seems to us that America will grant us stability and peace. We are not asking for anything, free us from the straitjacket called BiH, allow us to live freely, we want to have a state, one, for one people,” Dodik emphasized. At the beginning, Dodik reminded that Charlie Kirk, who had a dignified opinion of the Serbs, is being buried today and called for a minute of silence in his honor, noting that he was killed simply for being free. The 81st anniversary of the Halyard operation and the rescue of Allied pilots carried out by members of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland is being commemorated today in Boljanić near Doboj. A total of 500 Allied pilots were rescued in the Halyard operation, and 60 American aviators were evacuated from the improvised airfield in Boljanić.