Podgorica, (MINA) – Montenegro must affirm its responsibility towards its own historical memory, said President Jakov Milatovic, opening the panel discussion “The 110th anniversary of the suffering of Montenegrin volunteers near Medova (1916)”.

According to the press release from his office, the panel discussion was organized in cooperation with the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts and Matica Montenegrin.

Milatovic recalled that this year marks the 110th anniversary of the shipwreck in the Medova Bay, near the Albanian port of Shengjin, on January 6, 1916, which claimed almost four hundred lives of Montenegrin volunteers from America and remains deeply etched in Montenegrin history and collective memory.

According to him, this tragedy happened at a time when an even greater calamity was looming over Montenegro – the loss of its statehood.

Milatovic said that he himself, like many Montenegrins, has close family ties to the emigrants who arrived from afar aboard the ship Brindisi, noting that four of the Milatovics were fortunate to survive the Medova tragedy.

He pointed out that, in the year when two decades of the restoration of Montenegro’s independence are being celebrated, Montenegro must affirm its responsibility towards its own historical memory.

“That’s why, both personally and institutionally, I have advocated that the initiative that has existed for years, to place a memorial plaque in Medova Bay in memory of the martyred volunteers, is fully realized”, Milatovic added.

According to him, the memorial plaque will be unveiled during his upcoming official visit to Albania, close to the site where Montenegrin volunteers lost their lives.