{"id":10724,"date":"2021-06-22T13:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T11:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.predsjednik.hr\/?post_type=news&p=10724"},"modified":"2021-06-24T15:16:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T13:16:50","slug":"president-milanovic-at-antifascist-struggle-day-commemoration-in-brezovica-croatia-was-on-the-side-of-the-truth-and-good","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.predsjednik.hr\/en\/news\/president-milanovic-at-antifascist-struggle-day-commemoration-in-brezovica-croatia-was-on-the-side-of-the-truth-and-good\/","title":{"rendered":"President Milanovi\u0107 at Antifascist Struggle Day Commemoration in Brezovica: Croatia Was on the Side of the Truth and Good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 took part in the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration held at Memorial park in Brezovica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After paying tribute by laying a flower at the monument in the Memorial park, President Milanovi\u0107 began his address by saying: “The truth is deep water and shouldn’t offend anyone, but it can hurt. However, in our truth there is nothing painful, it is actually beautiful, difficult, bloody, but beautiful. So let\u2019s start with some truths that won\u2019t hurt or insult anyone  because I think that we owe it to the people who assembled eighty years ago on 22nd<\/sup> June not here but in \u017dabenska forest some ten kilometers away\u201d, the President said. He added that we\u2019re not doing a favour to those seventy-seven Sisak communists, revolution fighters, fighters for change by constantly stressing that they were Croats and that it was a Croatian struggle because they were first and foremost communists fighting for a revolution, for a Soviet Croatia, and not for democracy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSecond, Janko Bobetko, our famous Homeland War general was not here, his brothers were. Which doesn\u2019t mean that he wouldn\u2019t have been had he been able to, because on all accounts, he was here, and there were others. There was Mika \u0160piljak, Marijan Cvetkovi\u0107, Vlado Janji\u0107 Capo, famous commander, all Croats if that means something to anyone. To me it means something but to always divide and stress who was a Croat, who was a Jew, makes no sense. They didn\u2019t think in those terms\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 stated. They were heroes, heroes of calibre,\u00a0but they were rough people as well, adventurers who often crossed the line and committed an injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll that is our history, our truth, it doesn’t offend, it shouldn’t hurt”, the President noted, underlining that he never came to Brezovica to force his truth on anyone, to give someone a task or send a message. \u201cI\u2019m here only to point out certain things that put Croatia where it belongs\u201d, he remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t the first detachment in Europe, resistance movements existed in France and in Czechoslovakia, in some states there was nothing, such as Belgium, Denmark, they waited for the war to end, that\u2019s human and one should understand that. But here was a symbiosis of the antifascist struggle. When they were surrounded by large Ustasha forces, the fighters went to the Banija region to rise up in arms, together with our Serb brothers and sisters, to preserve humanity. This wasn\u2019t an easy task because all these Croatian commissars, communists, national heroes, here or in the Kalnik detachment came among people who suffered devastation or were killed. Already in early June the number of civilians killed was shocking, whether someone doesn\u2019t like the numbers, or whether or not they like the Independent State of Croatia. Communist agitation, readiness, organizational skills on the one hand, while on the other the Croatian people who weren’t ready for an uprising, since they lived in the illusion that it gained some kind of state, which sold them for a pittance, and the Serbian people in Croatia, our brothers in arms in that war, unfortunately not so in the last war, but our brothers in arms in that war together with Croatian commissars, they carried that people’s uprising\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Croatia wasn’t just on the side of the winners, Croatia was on the side of the truth and good\u201d, the President noted, adding that stressing that we\u2019re winners and not losers is a risky look on life and destiny because it would mean that we could have lost. He wondered whether our resistance would be any less worthy had the Axis won the war: “Croatia was not only on the side of the winner, that\u2019s a balance sheet, that\u2019s an accounting view on the world. Croatia was on the side of risk, danger and courage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd one more thing about the Croats in World War II. To go to war as a Croat in 1941 and 1942 was an act of incredible bravery and adventure, something that is difficult to describe in words. Croats weren\u2019t persecuted in the way Serbs and Jews were. And in such a situation to be a Croat and live in relative comfort in comparison with the Serbs and the Jews and rise up in arms, here and especially in Croatian Dalmatia. Istria and the Croatian littoral weren\u2019t only liberated through a declaration or a written decision by ZAVNOH but by Croatian arms of Dalmatian partisans who entered Rijeka and Istria. People who had everything to lose, who were Dalmatians, Croats, patriots, not antifascists at first but only freedom fighters. Simply fighters for their native soil, to be allowed to learn the Croatian language in Split and in parts that were occupied by Italy who were sold and surrendered, not to be terrorized\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe truth shouldn\u2019t hurt, it cannot offend in any way. I\u2019m glad that we\u2019ve gathered here again on the eightieth anniversary. Croatia can be better, Croatia is an organized, stable state. There are people in Croatia, and not just a few, I think they\u2019re not the majority, but there are people who don\u2019t approve of Antifascist Struggle Day, who don\u2019t want to celebrate it. But that’s how it is in a political system”, the President noted, and concluded with the words of Franjo Tu\u0111man: \u201cWhen Vlado Janji\u0107 Capo died in 1991, two days after the massacre of our men in Borovo Selo, Tu\u0111man sent a telegram to the family of his late friend, his older comrade from Belgrade, and among others he wrote that his way and his example are an example of national, human and political respect. Let us remember this respect\u201d, the Croatian President noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also speaking at the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration in addition to the President of the Republic were the president of the SABA Alliance of Antifascist fighters and Antifascists of Croatia Franjo Habulin, the envoy of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament and Member of Parliament Krunoslav Kati\u010di\u0107, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovi\u0107. Also attending the commemoration were former Croatian presidents Stjepan Mesi\u0107 and Ivo Josipovi\u0107, Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivan Celjak, Mayor of the City of Sisak Kristina Iki\u0107 Bani\u010dek and the Mayor of the City of Zagreb Tomislav Toma\u0161evi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accompanying President Milanovi\u0107 at the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration in Brezovica Memorial park were the Head of Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia Orsat Miljeni\u0107, the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces Admiral Robert Hranj, the Adviser to the President of the Republic of Croatia for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Muli\u0107 and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces Major General Sini\u0161a Jurkovi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia \/ Dario Andri\u0161ek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 took part in the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration held at Memorial park in Brezovica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10720,"template":"","news-cat":[12],"class_list":["post-10724","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Milanovi\u0107 at Antifascist Struggle Day Commemoration in Brezovica: Croatia Was on the Side of the Truth and Good - President of the Republic of Croatia - Zoran Milanovi\u0107<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.predsjednik.hr\/en\/news\/president-milanovic-at-antifascist-struggle-day-commemoration-in-brezovica-croatia-was-on-the-side-of-the-truth-and-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"President Milanovi\u0107 at Antifascist Struggle Day Commemoration in Brezovica: Croatia Was on the Side of the Truth and Good - 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