While the strike continues at the Aviation Academy due to the political pursuit of the director, Dario Lilin, head of the Academy's pilots, tells "Vreme" why he was labeled as an aggressive oppositionist
"He openly advocates attacks on the state and state bodies, promotes actions of the opposition that cause incalculable damage to Serbia, and puts pressure on colleagues and students to join opposition activities."
This is how Daria Lilina, the chief pilot, is Aviation Academy, described by the authors of the SNS tabloid "E Vršac", while the political persecution continues, but also suspension of work because of the dismissed director of this institution.
"They called me an oppositionist because I shared 'stories' from Novi Sad on social networks, after the fall of the canopy," Lilin explains to "Vreme".
On the story he shared, he added, "a bunch of people saw it."
"I added a symbol of prayer to the mentioned picture, dedicated to the innocent victims and their families," says the pilot instructor of the Academy. "I believe that no national or party affiliation is necessary in order to be human, to show sadness, empathy, compassion, humanity above all."
Lilin says that the captions in the tabloid are "harsh words and insults to his honor, dignity and professionalism."
Why the chief pilot?
Daria Lilin was appointed as the head pilot of the Academy by the former director of this institution, Goran Cvijović, who was recently dismissed.
Because of his recall, the Air Force Academy's Parent Council on Wednesday (January 8) held a protest in front of the school on Kalemegdan, and the employees announced a work stoppage a day later. Due to the strike, Serbia could be left without the necessary licenses that the students of this school will receive.
Nevertheless, even though the protest, the photo of which he shared on social networks, was more than a month ago, his "persecution is still ongoing."
"Various accusations are being spread, almost daily, and it has already gone too far," explains Lilin, who adds that "he does not belong to any of them."
"I'm just doing my job and that's it." Nothing beyond the law and regulations. But there it is," he says. "There is a huge hunt for me, and it is said that I influence the cadets I lead."
Lilin has been working at the Academy in Vršac for two years, and he says that during that time "he literally did not misspell a single letter".
"Let alone doing any kind of fraud," he adds.
On Dario Lilin's Facebook page, you can find a post in which he comments on the destroyed crops on his own property in 2016 because "Tehnika Vršac" changed the poles, without, as he says, any notification.
This post was made six years before he took the job at the Academy.
However, Lilin says that he has never been a party member and that his "greatest love is aviation."
"I'm really not in those waters at all and I have nothing against anyone, anywhere, and to whom it belongs," he adds.
"The only thing that matters to me is that I am surrounded exclusively by professionals who have been trained for this and love their work," says the pilot.
When asked about his relationship with the dismissed director Goran Cvijović, the pilot replied that "from the first day of taking office, he had almost flawless cooperation" with Cvijović.
"Absolute understanding of the industry and all the needs of the aviation department of the Air Force Academy," he adds.
Dario Lilin graduated from the Aviation Department at the Academy, and then, he says, he was a student at the Air Force University in the United States of America.
Then, in 2008, he entered the then JAT pilot academy in Vršac and got a job as a flight instructor.
He has a national and European work permit.
Why was the director replaced?
The Ministry of Education dismissed Goran Cvijović from the position of director of the Air Force Academy, after two decades in this position.
Cvijović spent 25 years at the academy, and his mandate was supposed to last two more years.
In his place, Miroslav Lepir, a member of the city administration of the municipality of Vršac from the ranks of the Serbian Progressive Party, was appointed as the new acting director.
On January 3, the Council of Parents held an extraordinary meeting where they were given a copy of the Decision of the Ministry of Education, by which the current director was dismissed, as well as the complete documentation that the school submitted to the Ministry in response to the findings of the Republic's Education Inspection.
"By examining the aforementioned decision, as well as the documentation with which the school responded to the objections, it can be unequivocally concluded that this is a classic example of a political replacement of the director," the statement of the Council of Parents also states.
Parents call the decision of the Ministry of Education "unnecessary" and "in the opinion of lawyers, very sloppily written, and in most points legally unfounded."
It is also added that it is not clear what were the criteria on the basis of which the Ministry of Education appointed Miroslav Lepir, who, according to the statement, "does not have a single day of experience in managing any educational institution or in jobs related to the aviation industry", and not it is not even known whether it meets the criteria prescribed by the current Law on the Basics of the Education System.
The parents think that it is a political revenge because in October 2024, director Cvijović dismissed Miloš Đokić, responsible manager of the pilot training center in Vršac, "due to a series of omissions that seriously threatened the safety of the training and the lives of the students of the Aviation Academy".
"E Vršac" also wrote about Goran Cvijović.
"With unconcealed oppositional activity, it is causing enormous damage to this higher education institution, because it is appointing insufficiently qualified people, exclusively members and activists of opposition parties, to key positions in it," it says in text.
"At the same time, Cvijović persecutes even sympathizers of the Serbian Next Party, degrades the teaching and professional staff, and his students fail future pilots in the exams, because they don't like their political orientation."
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