You did not know about this grave of Serbian heroes! It is not a place of pilgrimage like the island of Vido, but it should be!
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“Bože pravde” echoed on the little-known islet in the Ionian Sea, at the border of the waters of Greece, Italy and Albania. The tricolour fluttered on Othoni, and a priest read the Lord’s Prayer – five unknown Serbian heroes, whose bodies the sea washed ashore in 1917, finally received the deserved respect of Serbia. The state delegation of Serbia paid official tribute to the heroes, which will henceforth become tradition alongside the regular commemorations on Vido and Corfu that mark the anniversaries of the landing of the Serbian army on this Greek island in 1916.
An hour’s sail from the town of Agios Stefanos, on the far northwest of Corfu, lies Othoni. A small island, with only a few houses, overgrown with olive and cypress trees, with winding paths up the hills offering views of the sea. In summer, at the height of the season, it barely has 300 inhabitants, in winter fewer than 100. Here was born Spiros Mastoras, honorary consul of Serbia on Corfu. An orthopaedic surgeon who studied medicine in Belgrade. He greets us at the dock. As do the cars selflessly offered by the islanders so we might reach the Chapel of Saint Petka. The sanctuary of the Mitsialis family. And beside it a Serbian sanctuary, unknown to many of us.
“Here rest in eternal sleep far from their homeland five unknown Serbian heroes. 1917,” reads the modest old stone monument.
The church was built by the great-grandmother of Elena Mitsialis. Little is known of the Serbs buried here.
“They were travelling by ship to Corfu and most likely suffered an accident. Their bodies washed ashore, and they were buried beside our church,” says Elena, tearing up, for Kurir, having lost her brother seven months ago:
“Although we live on Corfu, we will never allow the church to fall into ruin. Thank you for coming to us, we will also guard the grave of the Serbian soldiers.”
An honour guard for the heroes was held by descendants of the Military Academy and students of the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies, and the first wreath was laid by Zoran Antić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs:
“We are on a pilgrimage at this place, also one of the sacred ones, where lie several of our soldiers who passed through the Albanian Golgotha. Unfortunately, they did not pass through recovery on Corfu and resurrection on the Salonika front.”
How important this island is, he emphasised, is shown by the love of the inhabitants and the Mitsialis family, to whom Serbia is grateful.
“We are today the first official state delegation of Serbia to lay wreaths and render the highest state military honours at this place,” said Antić, who conveyed greetings from the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, Prime Minister Đura Macut and line minister Milica Đurđević Samenkovski, and stressed:
“May our cadets and students pass on to future generations that those who died for their freedom will never be forgotten. Long live Greek-Serbian friendship! Long live Greece! Long live Serbia!”
Historian Dr Nenad Lajbenšperger of the State Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments officially visited the island of Othoni last year.
“In the churchyard there is a monument to five Serbian shipwreck victims from 1917, and the locals buried them together with Serbs. There is no evidence that Dis rests there, except perhaps the year 1917, which connects Dis and these shipwreck victims. And we do not know from which ship and exactly when the Serbs buried on Othoni perished, nor whether it was the ship ‘Italia’, on which Dis was. And these are the graves of unknown soldiers. Dis was not a soldier,” Lajbenšperger told Kurir earlier in Belgrade, and added that Dis was famous at the time, when the whole Serbian state was on nearby Corfu, that he was known on the ship on which he sailed, and from which some were rescued, so it is incredible to him that the Serbs who buried their compatriots did not know they were also burying Dis.
The first official delegation of the Republic of Serbia visited the island of Othoni in the Ionian Sea where the Greek Micijalis family keeps the grave of five unknown Serbian heroes who perished in 1917;
Tribute was also paid by representatives of the Serbian Army, the Ministry of Defence, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the Zavetnici, Ljubomir Saramandić, curator of the Serbian House on Corfu, and the good host was Consul Mastoras with his wife and little son.
“Not even the local schools know that Serbian soldiers rest here. We want to acquaint the public with this page of our history. Those heroes and the island of Othoni deserve it,” said Mastoras.
By Jelena S. Spasić