Forward Back Into 1876

At the suggestion of the extended Collegium of the Yugoslav Army Joint Chiefs of Staff, which met on December 15, 1993, the Supreme Defence Council (including Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic, Federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic and General Momcilo Perisic) adopted ten days later (December 25) a new "single sign for the Yugoslav Army, the new date for Army Day and those of the various services". The Chief of Staff, adopted, on the basis of expert research and estimates, new insignia, buttons, campaign buttons, emblems and military fashion details which will enhance "the obligatory serviceableness, the elegant appearance of the troops and officers, and the uniform's masculinity, without trivialities".

All these novelties are part of an introductory text in the magazine "Vojska" (The Army). The once traditional interview with the Chief of Staff on December 22, Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Day, was conducted a week later this year. In an interview to "Tanjug news agency" and "Vojska" Lieutenant General Perisic said, that the "Balkans today, were unfortunately, a place in which the law of civil, ethnic and religious war ruled, one burdened with war tensions" and where "big concerns for the production of arms, and a planetary war mafia" were involved.

Perisic said that "peace was possible, if all were recognized the right to self-determination and war, if Serbia's enemies continued to be stimulated in achieving their goals through the economic and military exhausting of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and all the Serbian states."

In circumstances of isolation, an economic collapse and monetary chaos, a situation when supply service officers and NCO's start behaving like dealers in order to ensure relatively regular meals for the army, a situation in which the officers are leaving the army because of miserable salaries even though the state is earmarking more than three-quarters of the federal budget for the army, it is absurd that this same Chief of Staff should propose to the Supreme Defence Council the adopting of a new date for marking Army Day, new insignia, emblems and all that follows.

It is difficult to estimate how much this is all going to cost, and who will foot the bill in the end. Just the cost of the insignia for service-caps of regular and reserve troops, is estimated at under four million German marks. A lot? Only at first glance. Every self-respecting dealer will shrug and say, "But that's just fifty-odd tanks of petrol". The costs of epaulets, buttons, gold braid, and emblems for special units have not been included in these estimates.

The general staff decided to propose to the Supreme Defence Council that June 16 be accepted as the new date for Army Day. The explanation says that this is the day when "an agreement was signed in Venice in 1876 on an alliance between Serbia and Montenegro, as well as a military convention which foresaw concrete military actions for liberation from the Turkish Empire in the Balkans. This was an introduction to the war of liberation fought by Serbs and Montenegrins. The results of this cooperation were important and positive for both Serbia and Montenegro. At the Berlin Congress in 1878, Serbia's and Montenegro's joint military success was crowned with significant territorial extension, with the annexation of those territories which the two countries had liberated and with the international recognition of the two states."

Did it all really happen this way?

The agreement itself gives rise to many dilemmas. Montenegro achieved its goal - to have as little as possible to do with the Serbian army and its operations. The fronts were separated, each state liberated what it wished.

Thanks to Russia's intervention, Serbia avoided a total catastrophe. A year later, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania gained independence and Bulgaria expanded its territory at Serbia's expense. The Berlin Congress agreed to Serbia's independence without the guarantees of the great powers, and the "significant territorial extension" according to the Yugoslav Army's interpretation, was reduced, as far as Serbia was concerned, to 518 sq kilometers.

December 24 has been proposed as Airforce Day, namely, it is the day in 1912, when the Airforce command was set up. Navy Day will be celebrated on August 10, when the Supreme Command staff decided in 1918, that the Ship Command would be separated from the Military Road Department, and placed under the direct administration of the Traffic Department.

With all the will in the world, it is very difficult to a find an adequate date by going back to historical events prior to the last fifty years, a date which would have some meaning for the Yugoslav Army.

The Battle of Kosovo June 28, 1389 is suspect for the simple reason that there are indications that Croats took part in it, on the side of the Serbs! The battle at the Maritza River (one of the first conflicts with the Turks) is also inadequate, because contemporary Turkish records show that the Serbs entered the battle dead drunk. There are no dates from the times of Dusan Silni, perhaps because his throne was in Skopje (today capital of Macedonia), which was under Serbian rule. And so, in the end, we are left with June 16, 1876.