"President must know more about helicopter crash"

"President must know more about helicopter crash"

The president said that "only the truth can preserve the army's credibility and dispel any trace of doubt," and that all the circumstances of the crash must be "explained."

"Aircraft crash, that's not our specialty, but this is about some circumstances that have remained unclear even after the press conference," said Stojadinovic.

According to the analyst, the accident represents "a great tragedy" while the public must learn about "all of its causes," which, he noted, he "expects to also be bizarre."

Despite Nikolic's statement, Stojadinovic does not think that the Serbian Army's credibility is "directly threatened":

"It's known how responsibility is assessed and how somebody gets to be responsible in an institution like the army. I would raise it up one notch and comment with more attention on the defense minister's statement about several 'attacks' on the army occurring lately. The minister in this way attempted to exhonerate the state from what happened within the VS. However, when generals provide an answer to President Nikolic, an answer also needs to be provided about the extent to which the state is responsible for what happened."

Stojadinovic advised considering the crash "in the wider context of the responsibility of the state as such, taking into account everything that's been done in the past decades."

"The key responsibility for this event, not taking into account the concrete circumstances, lies with the state. It must provide an answer as to what happened. It was the state above all that has been marginalizing the army for the past 20 years - in the conceptual, personnel, and technological sense of the word, but also in the sense of the manner it has been valued," said the analyst.

He noted that while "this is not discussed publicly," he learned that "effectively not a penny was invested in something so sensitive as the Air Force" during the past 30 years.

"There are many problems that Air Force officers did not publicly touch on during the news conference (in the wake of the crash)," Stojadinovic added, explaining he had in mind "the broader status" of this branch of the military.

"In that sense I see the state's responsibility, as institutions. I don't have only this government in mind, though I refer to them, too."

According to him, "the state is under attack" precisely from those who are not investing in the military, who are cutting salaries and "reducing commanders to the status of welfare cases."

Stojadinovic believes that the army is being "roped in to politics" by means of the authorities "supposedly taking care of it legislatively, but with that concern coming down to marketing tricks, and verbal-only investments."