Selaković: The issue of the visit of the President of Serbia to Jasenovac is a civilizational issue

The Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Selaković, hopes that President Aleksandar Vučić will be able to visit Jasenovac by 17 September, and highlighs that there is an ongoing attempt to finalize the visit of the President of Serbia to the largest extermination site of Serbs in history.

“For what possible reason would a president of a country and a grandson, whose grandfather perished at Jasenovac, along with his two paternal cousins, whose children and other close relatives also perished in the Serb holocaust that bears the name of Jasenovac, be banned from visiting that site, to lay a flower or light a candle”, Selaković asked in a guest appearance on Radio Television of Serbia.

Selaković also pointed out that in the last year alone, representatives of Croatia entered Serbia 700 times without prior announcements, questions from our side, measurement of sincerity...

“The issue here is not the visit of the President of Serbia to the memorial area of Jasenovac, the issue here is the visit of the President of Serbia, whose name is Aleksandar Vučić, because he is a descendant of the Jasenovac victims, because he is a man who fights for the truth about Serbian suffering.”, said Selaković.

President Vučić, as he explained, symbolizes the spirit of disobedience and does not agree to bowing his head and being silent about everything done to the Serbian people in the past.

“What’s important is that Serbia has not taken any action in this matter for which it could be blamed. Imagine if Serbia acted like this, as unimaginable as it is, since there were never extermination sites here, no fascist or Nazi blemishes on our past, and since we always face our past. The problem of dealing with the past lies with those who do not allow the president of the country from which many who perished and suffered in Jasenovac came from, to go there." Selaković said.

The head of Serbian diplomacy emphasized that the problem of dealing with the past lies with those who name streets and squares and erect monuments to the ideologues of Jasenovac, those who invite performers of songs glorifying crimes to state events, those who regularly break signs in Cyrillic script and prevent Serbs from officially using the language and script...

“The issue of the visit of the President of Serbia to the memorial area of Jasenovac is a civilizational issue. This is where you show your awareness of the fact that in the past, someone in the territory of your country, a Quisling Nazi creation, tried to completely exterminate a people. And you don't allow the president of the country those people originated from to visit," Selaković explained.

The head of Serbian diplomacy assessed that the visit of President Vučić to Jasenovac would be one of the most important moments in the historical reconciliation of Serbs and Croats.

“Let the man visit the place where his father's father and his cousins were killed, and that is all. We are not asking for anything more," said Selaković.