The Immortal Regiment march will now take place in Serbia every year as part of the May 9 state holiday, or Victory Day, Serbian Labor Minister Zoran Djordjevic said on Tuesday
BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2019) The Immortal Regiment march will now take place in Serbia every year as part of the May 9 state holiday, or Victory Day, Serbian Labor Minister Zoran Djordjevic said on Tuesday.The Immortal Regiment is an annual event that honors the sacrifice of those who fought against Nazi Germany in World War II. These marches gather people whose relatives and loved ones fought during the war and are made "immortal" by the fact that photographs of these soldiers are carried by their families. It takes place on May 9, known in Russia and many other post-Soviet countries as Victory Day, when people celebrate the anniversary of the Nazis' surrender.
On Friday, organizers of the international Immortal Regiment conference told Sputnik that the event would gather over 100 representatives from 55 countries in Serbia from September 25-26. Members of the Serbian government, Belgrade mayoral office, Russian Embassy in Serbia and Russian Foreign Ministry will be among the conference's participants.
"We have recently, this year, made the decision to include May 9 in the Calendar of official Serbian holidays. We will support the Immortal Regiment march, which is included in the state program, on each May 9 in Belgrade together with our friends throughout the world," Djordjevic said during a press conference.
Serbia organized Immortal Regiment marches for the fourth time this past May in more than ten cities, including Belgrade, Nis, Novi sad, Kraljevo, Krusevac, Kragujevac and others. The marches also gathered thousands of people in the cities of Trebinje, Banja Luka and Istocno Sarajevo of the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Representatives of the Russian embassy, members of veteran organizations, local authorities and regular citizens attended the event with photographs of their ancestor-liberators.
Djordjevic announced in August at a meeting with the Russian ambassador in Belgrade, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, that the Immortal Regiment had become an event of national importance in Serbia this year.
