On Sunday, Slovaks and Czechs commemorated the 48th anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of five Warsaw pact counties (Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Bulgaria), which took place in the summer of 1968. "No brutality can permanently stop the desire for freedom. Let's honor the memory of the 72 people who died during the occupation and let's thank those who sacrificed their lives for the return of freedom," wrote President Andrej Kiska on his social network profile. Speaker of Paliament Andrej Danko also remembered August 1968. "This event dramatically influenced the lives of Slovaks and Czechs and became a sad part of our nation's history." On Monday, the EU Justice Ministers will meet under the Devín Castle in Bratislava to remember victims of totalitarian regimes.
On August 21, 1968, around 700,000 soldiers with 800 aircrafts, 6,300 tanks, as well as 2,000 cannons, entered the country in reaction to an invitation letter written by the conservative wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Thus, the process of political liberalization called 'the Prague Spring' conducted by the party's liberal wing was interrupted and ended. The liberalization began in 1965 when Slovak Alexander Dubček was named the leader of the only legal communist party. He and other leaders of the country started the country's process of democratization. In June 1968, many significant Czechoslovaks signed an appeal named '2,000 words', which reflected the ideas behind the Prague Spring. This act caught the attention of the Soviet Union, which subsequently started visits, meetings and conferences leading to the final occupation. The supression was sealed in April 1969, when Gustáv Husák became the new leader - the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
