Ljubinko Đurković

Ljubinko Đurković (Serbian Cyrillic: Љубинко Ђурковић; born 1962) is a retired military official in Serbia. He is best known for having led forces of the Yugoslav Army in the Battle of Košare during the 1999 Kosovo War. More recently, he has sought election to the National Assembly of Serbia on two occasions.

Ljubinko Đurković
Native name
Љубинко Ђурковић
Born1962 (age 58–59)
FPR Yugoslavia
Allegiance Yugoslavia
 FR Yugoslavia
 Serbia
Service/branch Yugoslav People's Army
Armed Forces of FR Yugoslavia
Serbian Army
Years of service1986–2011
RankColonel (VS)
UnitSecond Battalion of the 125th Motorized Brigade
Battles/wars

Military career

Đurković graduated from the Military Academy and General Staff School in Belgrade. He was assigned to what was then the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in 1985, with his home garrison situated in Peć. During the Croatian War of the 1990s, he fought on the side of the Republika Srpska Krajina in Pakrac.[1]

In the battle of Košare, the Yugoslavian Army fought against insurgents from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were aided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Albanian Army. In two months of intense fighting, the Yugoslavian forces prevented the KLA from securing a corridor from Albania into Kosovo. Đurković served at this time as commander of the Second Battalion of the 125th Motorized Brigade. In a 2018 interview, he described the KLA attack as part of a larger campaign of NATO aggression and praised his soldiers for what he described as their bravery in defending their homeland and its cultural heritage under extremely difficult conditions. He also described the battle as having been a "forbidden topic" in the years immediately after the war and expressed gratitude that its military importance was belatedly recognized.[2] In another interview the following year, he also praised non-Serb officers in the Yugoslavian Army's officer corps for their service at Košare, singling out Captain Krunoslav Ivanković, an ethnic Croat who died in the battle.[3]

He retired from the Serbian Armed Forces (a successor body to the Yugoslavian army) in 2011 with the rank of colonel. He now lives in the village of Pocesje in Raška.[4]

Political career

Đurković has been vice-president of an organization called the Movement for Serbia (Pokret za Srbiju).[5]

He appeared on the combined electoral list of the Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) and Dveri in the 2016 Serbian parliamentary election as a non-party candidate. During this campaign, he said that he would seek the annulment of all agreements with NATO that harm Serbia's interests and that he would fight for the interests of veterans and those invalided by war.[6] Both the DSS and Dveri are right-wing parties, although DSS leader Sanda Rašković Ivić described Đurković as a "committed leftist" who had chosen to align himself with their campaign.[7] He appeared in the twenty-fifth position; the list won thirteen mandates, and he was not elected.[8]

In 2018, Đurković attended a conference entitled "Spiritual and Moral Security of Man in the Modern World" (Духовно-морална безбедност човека у савременом свету) in Lugansk, in the secessionist Lugansk People's Republic in Ukraine. He argued that the spiritual values of the people of the Donbass would lead them to victory over what he described as the materialist values of the west. He also criticized not only NATO but also the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations for their actions in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.[9]

Đurković received the first position on the For the Kingdom of Serbia electoral list led by the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election. Once again, he contested the election as a non-party figure.[10] In accepting the nomination, he said that he would fight for the state to provide support to those soldiers who fought "in the defence of Kosovo and Metohija" and those whom he described as the "patriots" who fought in the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.[11] He was later part of a For the Kingdom Serbia delegation that laid a wreath at the monument of Draža Mihailović at Ravna Gora; in so doing, he argued for Mihailović's credentials as an anti-fascist leader.[12] The electoral list narrowly missed the threshold to win seats in the assembly.[13]

References
  1. Невенка Стојчевић, "Пуковник Љубинко Ђурковић – КОШАРЕ, БИТКА КОЈА ТРАЈЕ", Pečat, 12 April 2019, accessed 19 August 2020.
  2. "ПУКОВНИК ЉУБИНКО ЂУРКОВИЋ: Кошаре, битка која траје", srbin.info, 11 April 2018, accessed 19 August 2020.
  3. Невенка Стојчевић, "Пуковник Љубинко Ђурковић – КОШАРЕ, БИТКА КОЈА ТРАЈЕ", Pečat, 12 April 2019, accessed 19 August 2020.
  4. "Ko je na listi koalicije Za Kraljevinu Srbiju?", Danas, 14 March 2020, accessed 18 August 2020.
  5. "PUKOVNIK ĐURKOVIĆ: NATO želi srpsku rudu, vodu i uništenje pravoslavne Srbije i Rusije (Video)", srbin.info, 23 June 2015, accessed 19 August 2020.
  6. "Dveri i DSS predstavili nezavisne kandidate na svojoj listi", Radio Television of Serbia, 23 March 2016, accessed 19 August 2020.
  7. Jelena Cerovina, "Šešelj je za račun vlasti napadao mog oca, a sada mene", Politika, 29 March 2016, accessed 19 August 2020.
  8. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (ДВЕРИ - ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА СРБИЈЕ - САНДА РАШКОВИЋ ИВИЋ - БОШКО ОБРАДОВИЋ), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 28 April 2017.
  9. "ПУКОВНИК ЂУРКОВИЋ: Духовне вредности воде до победе, крај западне хегемоније", srbin.info, 29 April 2018, accessed 19 August 2020.
  10. Главни одбор, Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, accessed 5 December 2020.
  11. "Командант Кошара на челу листе За Краљевину Србију", Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, 1 March 2020, accessed 19 August 2020.
  12. "коалиције ЗА КРАЉЕВИНУ СРБИЈУ на Равној Гори", Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, 13 May 2020, accessed 19 August 2020.
  13. Monarhisti ipak ispod cenzusa i posle ponovljenih izbora, Danas, 2 July 2020, accessed 18 August 2020.
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