NIKOLIC NEXT TO PUTIN President attends commemorations in Yerevan

NIKOLIC NEXT TO PUTIN President attends commemorations in Yerevan

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic was in Yerevan on Friday, attending commemorations on the 100th anniversary of the massacre of Armenians.

He addressed the gathering to say that Serbia, having itself suffered in wars, has a deep understanding of the suffering of Armenians.

 

- I arrived in Yerevan to, in the name of the Serbian people and in the name of the Serbian state, bow in front of the victims of the terrible tragedy of the Armenian people during the first great world war in the 20th century - said Nikolic.

 

- If anyone can understand and feel the misfortune of biblical proportions that in 1915 befell Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and its permanent
consequences that cannot he healed, it is the Serbian people, it is Serbia -  Nikolic said.

He explained that Serbia in the First World War had the highest percentage of losses among all countries and peoples affected by the war.

 

- Serbia's total losses from 1915 until 1918 reached a terrifying figure of 1,247,435 victims, which was approximately 28 percent of the population, of which 402,435 soldiers and 845,000 civilians. The remains of Serbian victims of the Great War are scattered in 1,815 burial sites in 18 countries. The burial places of many are not known - Nikolic said.

 

He added that the Armenian victims are "a perpetual reminder to the living" and that they must not be forgotten - "especially not today, when, in the words of Pope Francis, 'a piecemeal Third World War' is happening, and when once again hundreds of thousands of people are losing their lives, dignity and property."

 

According to him, the unwillingness and shying away from a fair and...

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