More than 200 students, boys and girls, took the military oath on Friday, in the presence of their emotional families, at the Nicolae Balcescu Land Forces Academy in central Sibiu.

Among the 228 students is Ana Zotica, a young woman from Sibiu, who graduated from the National Military College in Alba Iulia, after which she chose to return home and continue her military training.

Ana’s parents, visibly moved, entrusted their child to the professors with the Military Academy in the city and are confident that their daughter will be fine, even if it is a difficult international context, with more and more conflicts.

“I am emotional, too, and for a father it seems to be more difficult, because fathers have a special relationship with girls, but it is definitely our duty to support her. And if you still mentioned this difficult international context, no, we don’t fee fear, because, civilians or soldiers, we all owe this country one thing: the oath to defend it. I repeat, civilians or soldiers, so we are not afraid,” Ana’s father Ovidiu Zotica told AGERPRES.

In contrast to him, Laura Zotica, Ana’s mother, admits that the news about the armed conflicts that have multiplied lately worries her.

“I have great emotions. It is a unique moment. She is the only child we have and we did not expect her to wear this beautiful clothes, with so many responsibilities. We are glad that she came to Sibiu. This (international, ed. n.) context creates big problems for any parent, but we are with her and we know that everything she will learn in this Academy will help her overcome the critical moments that life will throw at her, but we are convinced that, at the end of the day, everything will be fine. We really trust her and these people to whom we have entrusted our child,” Laura Zotica said.

Ana chose the Military Academy in Sibiu, majoring in Telecommunications, because she always liked, as she herself testifies, “discipline, order, safety”. And she always liked to do something different from the rest, and here she found them all.

“It’s something unique, something you don’t find everywhere, in civilian faculties, and it’s something special, particularly for someone who likes to socialize, be with colleagues, work in a team. I really recommend it if someone is in a situation like mine, I recommend an academy, especially the one in Sibiu,” Ana Zotica said.

When it comes to the news about the war in Ukraine and the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip, Ana Zotica admits that it is not easy for her, but that “here we learn how to get over the hard times and how to overcome them”.

The 228 first-year students from the Nicolae Balcescu Land Forces Academy made a covenant with the country. The 102 girls and 226 boys, students in the first year and their older colleagues are educated in Sibiu for the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Romanian Intelligence, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service and the Ministry of Justice.