Few peoples have written their history in blood, tears and suffering. Petar Kočić is not just a name and a historical figure, but a history book, President of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska Nenad Stevandić said in his address at the 61st Kočić Gathering on Mount Manjača.
He stressed that through Kočić, we can also see what is happening today.
“If we look at his life, we will see how he himself said that he was born in bondage, lived in bondage and would, unfortunately, die in bondage. We will see that he did not live to see freedom and liberation, but today we see that what Petar Kočić did and said, and the works he created, did live to see liberation. And today we live and celebrate that liberation, and with that liberation within us, Petar Kočić lives on today,” Stevandić said.
Since Srpska and Serbia are never separated, Stevandić continued, we should also remember that in that period, and somewhat earlier, Svetozar Miletić did not live to see the unification and liberation of Vojvodina with Serbia, but his children and his works did.
“It was always more difficult for us, because when Serbia freed itself from the Turkish yoke and bondage, here one form of bondage was simply replaced by another — Ottoman rule by Austro-Hungarian rule. Petar Kočić bore eloquent witness to this, and Bjelošević spoke about it eloquently. That is why it is our duty, having learned from that history and from what we created together with our fathers and brothers, not to give in. We must not sell out what Petar fought for, what we are doing today, or what our children should be able to do tomorrow in freedom,” Stevandić stressed.
He recalled that Kočić best described the mentality of the kadija, the mentality of hatred toward Serbs, Serbophobia and attempts to make Serbs deny who they are and become what others want them to be.
“Having learned from Petar Kočić, we have shown that we are capable of driving out the biggest kadija, who carried on that legacy of destroying Serbs and their tribunes and representatives. And that Schmidt, the biggest kadija, was driven out of here because we learned from Petar, because we stood united and because we did not allow it. And the man whom the kadija wanted to see behind bars is still here with us today. But there are still those little kadijas, those insidious hypocrites waiting around every corner and in every small town, looking for an opportunity to pass judgment on us in an instant. They would deny us even the right to celebrate, to offer condolences, to mourn our own, or to be who we are. And where? In our own land, which we built and paid for with tears and blood,” Stevandić said.
He recalled that Kočić was not fortunate enough to have descendants, but that his works do have descendants.
“Today, all of us are descendants of the struggle that Petar Kočić began, lived and died for. Our children and all our descendants will live in the freedom we gained, learning from the people’s tribunes not to sell our faith for a meal and not to be turncoats. Because in every era, including this one, recruitment for traitors and sellouts is always open, while the gallows for tribunes and patriots are always ready. But there do not seem to be many traitors, and the gallows you have prepared to frighten us are too few. Together, having learned from history and looking toward the future, we remain responsible and determined never again to allow kadijas here to decide the fate of Petar or any of us,” Stevandić concluded.
Source: RTRS
