Addressing the crowd, he said that the Serbia we have today was not a gift from anyone, in the most difficult times, the Serbian people, shedding seas of their own blood, bile, tears and sweat, won, preserved and defended it themselves. "And that is what the best among us always did. Together, we all pay our respects to them today and thank them for their hard work, for which we are forever in their debt," said Dr Orlic.

As he added that the fighters for Serbia’s freedom and peace managed to achieve important dreams, and left some of them for the generations to come. "And then, we know it well, years of great suffering and problems rolled one after another and became decades, the people changed the century, entered the new millennium, realised in the meantime that neither freedom nor peace should be taken for granted but need to be constantly defended. And that brings us to today's moment when we can say that now, after decades of waiting, we are part of those important dreams - we have managed to make them come true," said the Serbian Assembly Speaker, referring to the construction of the monument to the founder of the Serbian state, Stefan Nemanja, completion of the Saint Sava Temple, of the Clinical Centre of Serbia, Prokop, the completed Belgrade bypass and other important roads. "These are all testimonies of historical, significant changes, proof that today Serbia knows not only how to fight, but how to win the fight. That it understood that they lied to us when they told us that none of our success belongs to us, that we are condemned to constantly look at others’ backs. We changed that. Many people outside our country are not happy about that, they cannot accept a successful Serbia and they will not forgive, first of all, the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic, the man who, as head of state, led those great changes, just as they will not, subsequently, any one of us whose fault, just as it was with our fathers and grandfathers, is only the fact that we belong to our people, that we believe in our independent, free and sovereign state, we rejoice in its success and we do not hide that we love it the most in the world", said Assembly Speaker adding "The state is not a plaything and the state is not a toy. That is why we will not allow it to fall into the hands of the irresponsible, those who will one day trample everything that the greats have been creating for generations. Those who do not wish Serbia well would rejoice in it. But we will not allow that. We will save our country because it is the guarantor that our people have a future. It is our duty to those who will come after us, it is also our promise to them".

Wreaths were also laid by delegations from the City Municipality of Cukarica, the Serbian Armed Forces, SUBNOR of Serbia, SUBNOR of Cukarica, as well as representatives of the association of soldiers' descendants and political parties.