Montenegrin nationalists did not allow the Serbian ambassador to lay a wreath on Reconciliation Day
The nationalist “comites” covered the memorial plaque at the entrance to the Budva citadel with the country’s flag, having learned that the Serbian Ambassador Vladimir Bozovic intended to lay flowers there on the Day of Reconciliation (the end of the First World War).
After this prank, the ambassador refused to come to the memorial, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The inscription on the nationalist-draped memorial plaque reads: “In memory of the arrival of the brave and victorious Serbian army, which liberated Budva after heroic victories, the community of Budva established November 8, 1918.”
The nationalist rally began early in the morning. Those gathered sang songs of the Komits of the beginning of the last century - a group of separatists from among the bureaucratic and military elite of the Montenegrin kingdom, who launched an armed rebellion after the majority of Montenegrins voted for the country to join Yugoslavia.
Subsequently, the rebels during the fascist occupation became the core of the collaborationist administration. Their current successors chanted “Montenegro will not be the shore of the Serbian sea!” and waved both red national and green “Comite” flags.
In turn, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro invited Ambassador Vladimir Bozovic for a conversation, during which he was told that “laying wreaths on the Memorial Plaque at the entrance to the Old Town of Budva on Armistice Day is a gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.”
In turn, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Montenegro rejected such formulations, stating that the Day of Armistice and Victory in the Great (First World) War should be a day of peace and reconciliation between fraternal peoples. And the laying of wreaths was intended to demonstrate “a firm commitment to building the best fraternal and friendly relations between Serbia and Montenegro.”
However, after an action of nationalists showing comite gestures (thumb and index fingers sticking out), the Serbian Ambassador decided to cancel the ceremony.
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