President Milanović: No European policy will change the right and the aspiration of national states to exist in Europe
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended today a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of the village of Šajini, which experienced an unprecedented crime in the night between 8 and 9 January 1944 when fascists killed fifty villagers and set the village on fire.
In his address at the commemoration held in memory of the innocent civilian victims President Milanović stated that this tragic event hits close to home since his grandfather was killed when Senj was bombed by the Germans in the Second World War, an event similar to this one in the Istrian Municipality of Barban.
“I’d like the troubles on which people can’t have too much influence to bypass us, from the war in Ukraine to the war in the Middle East, and that we have as little connection to them as possible because we can’t change or stop them. I would like us to consider our own interest, to remain just and humane in doing so, and to learn lessons from what wasn’t right in Europe,” President Milanović said, adding that Europe is necessary and good as it is, but not much more. “At its core are national states which are historical, and just as the Croats in Istria have a historical right and aspiration to be part of Croatia, so do the Czechs, the Poles, the Hungarians, and the Portuguese have the same desires and aspirations, and those aspirations are just and they exist. And no European policy can change that”, he said.
President Milanović recalled that Europe was a bloody soil throughout history. “The wars of today are also a warning. People are killing each other, there are double and triple standards. There are those who are strictly assessed and criticized, and those who live in a more relaxed framework. And on the fringe of all that are we, a small state and a small people, the state of the Croatian people, including here in Istria, where people were killed and fought for this to be Croatian land”, the President noted, reminding that Croatian Istria was liberated in 1945 with Croatian weapons, it was a fight fought by Istrians and largely Dalmatians. “And my ancestors, who came to fight here for the Croatian land and the people who live here”, he added.
Also speaking at the commemoration held every year not to forget the great sacrifice made by innocent civilians and as a warning to all regimes of the senseless of hatred and wars besides President Milanović were the president of the Local Council Doris Glavaš, the head of the Municipality of Barban Dalibor Paus, the president of the Union of Associations of Antifascists of Istrian County Branko Oplanić and Istrian County-Prefect Boris Miletić.
Prior to the commemoration President Milanović laid a wreath and lit a candle at the memorial to the victims. Accompanying President Milanović was the Adviser to the President for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan