Association for preserving tradition of Serbia liberation wars until 1918

HOW IS FOUNDED ‘ASSOCIATION FOR PERSERVING TRADITION OF SERBIA LIBERATION WARS UNTIL 1918‘

It’s hard to determine when the idea about necessity of preservation and raising monuments to soldiers died in liberation wars of Serbia appeared in the mind of former artillery colonel Dr. Dimitrije Pavlović and when he decided to devote himself to an noble, humane and patriotic task. Was it in 1966, when he was with group of elder warriors on Island Vido as secretary of Association of Bearers of Albanian Memorials? Or it was in 1968, when they visited ‘Island of Death’ again? The Mausoleum on Vido Island was without guardians and without surveillance of any kind. The door was wide open and inadmissibly frowsty mausoleum was going to rack and ruin. In the nearby building was detention institute for minors. Serbian heroes and young Greece delinquents were on the same place! To make an impression even worse, there was excursion with Serbian pupils who were in front of the monument to Leonid, a Greek hero who died along with his 300 Spartans in first days of August in 480 BC while they defended Thermopiles gorge from Persians. In conversation with a pupil, colonel Pavlović found out that children had visited many Greek show places. He asked him if they had visited Serbian mausoleums on Zeytinlik and Vido. The boy told him that these places weren’t in their plan of journey. The boy actually looked at him strangely, as he has never heard that such places exist in Greece. Stressed Pavlović wrote latter: “I must confess that we, elder warriors, were surprised by that answer. Well, we were not just surprised, but even hurt.” In front of Leonid and his Spartans “the Blue Tomb” was sunken, in which were placed bones of 10 000 disobedient grandfathers and great-grandfathers of those children. The cemetery on Zeytinlik was erased, in which were buried 7 441 ancestors of Serbian children. All of them died on Salonika battlefield in fights for liberation of the homeland! On what traditions, on which noble examples should young people be educated for praising the patriotism?

For retired colonel, a condition of memorial landmarks was also degrading.

It's been 35 years since Association foundation

35 years ago Dr. Dimitrije Pavlović and Serbian veteran warriors from WWI and Balkan wars founded Association for Preserving Tradition of Serbia Liberation Wars to 1918 in order to prevent those enlightened events in history of Serbian people from falling into oblivion. They also gave opportunity for future generations to learn about their ancestors’ century-old fight for freedom, about their sacrificing, heroism and endless loyalty to homeland.

Every year Association goes through many activities. These are traditional pilgrimages on Islands Corfu and Vido, which also involve laying wreaths of flowers in Gouvia, place where Serbian soldiers were landed in 1916, as well as paying tribute to glorious members of Drina division in front of their monument in Agios Matheos. As a member of Union of allies’ countries in WWI,every year Association represents our country in ceremonials of allies in Salonika where they denote breach of the Salonka front, an even which is preceded by commemoration on ‘Zeytinlik – Serbian military graveyard.

The central celebration of Truce and Allies’ Victory Day in WWI is held every year in Paris on November 11th. Association delegation is active participator in that ceremony, and while they are in Paris they necessarily pay visit to Serbian warriors buried in Serbian military graveyard in Thiais.

Association adopts plan of activities on annual bases. Within those activities, many others aimed at proper denotation of important dates, events and at participation of great persons in those historical events are involved. The honorary president of the Association, Mr Slobodan Stević, during the years has developed en exceptionally close and prolific cooperation with other Associations in the Union, which are also dedicated for preserving memoirs on that period of our common history. With help of members and management of the Association, cooperation is especially active with Associations of elder warriors from Greece, French and England. It’s important to mention that these tasks were done purely voluntarily during all these years.