President Milanović at Anniversary of HVIDR-a Association of Sisak: Croatia owes nobody nothing, nobody helped Croatia during Homeland War
The President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović attended today in Sisak the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans’ Association (HVIDR-a) of Sisak. He noted that Croatia’s Homeland War story is specific because Croatia was defended exclusively thanks to itself and the fact that Croatia owes nobody nothing.
“The sentence ‘You don’t have to owe anybody’ is not quite in the spirit of good human relations. To owe somebody isn’t shameful just like giving isn’t shameful, but it’s something good. Therefore to owe good people isn’t a human fall, downfall or ruin but normal dynamics of human relations. Nonetheless, Croatia owes nobody nothing”, President Milanović stated.
Equally so, he added that the truth about the Homeland War is a good and pleasant truth. “Not all truths about historical epochs of every nation are the same, and aren’t conveyed so easily and transparently as ours. Our truth is easily conveyed. It’s a triumphant truth in which good, just and justified far outweigh what wasn’t good. What is good, what is permitted, what civilized people, individuals, nations, families accept as good, is dominant in our case”, he noted.
President Milanović emphasized that nobody helped Croatia in the Homeland War. “Not only that nobody helped us, but each of our goals was achieved with threefold and fourfold efforts in relation to other states, peoples, and nations in similar circumstances. Croatia was threatened with sanctions from day one. The political leadership of Croatia at that time, including the first Croatian president, wartime President Tuđman, worked in impossible conditions. They constantly endured threats and blackmail from that same civilized, friendly West to which we belong, not because they allowed us to join the European Union and NATO, but because that’s where we should be. That place is deserved here in Sisak and in other execution sites where Croatia defended the West. We belong there!, the Croatian president said, and concluded that today, when we are integrated in EU and NATO “we must demand that our word be respected and fight for our justice and our rights”.
Prior to the 30th anniversary ceremony of the HVIDR-a Association of Sisak, President Milanović visited the Association’s headquarters where he held a meeting with the mayor of Sisak Kristina Ikić Baniček and the president of the Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans’ Association (HVIDR-a) of Sisak Stjepan Lugarić. The President of the Republic also paid tribute to the fallen, missing and deceased Croatian defenders at the memorial to the fallen Croatian defenders of the town of Sisak, and toured the memorial room dedicated to the fallen Croatian defenders of the town of Sisak. Alongside President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić