DODIK PAID TRIBUTE TO DOBRO JOVANOVIĆ AND SERBIAN SOLDIERS OF SALONIKA FRONT

BRČKO, NOVEMBER 11 /SRNA/ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik today laid a wreath in Brčko at the monument to Dobrosav Dobro Jovanović and to the volunteers from this region who fought on the Salonika Front.

Dodik was accompanied by Siniša Karan, Minister of Scientific and Technological Development and Higher Education of Republika Srpska, Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minić, and Siniša Milić, Mayor of the Brčko District. The commemoration for Jovanović and the Salonika volunteers was held to mark Armistice Day in the First World War. More than 20 names are inscribed on Dobro Jovanović’s monument in the city park in Brčko, but it is believed that the number of participants and victims from Brčko and its surroundings in the First World War was much higher. Dobro Jovanović is regarded as a symbol of Serb suffering and heroism during the First World War. On Thursday, November 13, Brčko will mark 107 years since the liberation of the city in the First World War, in remembrance of the day when the liberation army of the Fifth Regiment of the Drina Division, part of the First Serbian Army under the command of Duke Petar Bojović, marched in and brought freedom to all peoples living in this area, regardless of religion or nationality. Dobroslav Dobro Jovanović, a law graduate from Novi Sad, was a komita /guerrilla fighter/ in Voja Tankosić’s company. He was wounded by Austro-Hungarian forces in Krupanj in early 1914 and subsequently captured. The Austro-Hungarians soon hanged Jovanović at the site of today’s central city park in Brčko, and left his body on the gallows for days to intimidate other patriots. Later, the people of Brčko buried him at that same spot and erected a monument in his honor.