Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (a Slovak National Party/SNS) discussed on Tuesday at the end of her working trip to Italy the possibility of mounting a bust of Milan Rastislav Stefanik in Rome, TASR was told by head of the Slovak Culture Ministry's communication department Petra Bacinska on Tuesday.
The minister discussed the possibilities of installing the bust with the head of the Office for the Preservation of Defence Culture and Memory of the Italian Defence Ministry Diego Paulet on the initiative of Slovak Ambassador to Italy Karla Matiasko Wusterova. Simkovicova promised the cooperation of the Slovak Culture Ministry in this matter.
"A nation that doesn't know its past can't have a future. I very much welcome the initiative to mount a bust of an important figure of our history, M.R. Stefanik, in Rome," the culture minister said at the meeting. Paulet expressed his conviction that memory must be handed over to the young. "If we retreat from this, unfortunately, time will be our enemy," said the general.
Simkovicova together with representatives of the Slovak Embassy in Rome laid on Monday afternoon a wreath at the memorial plaque of M.R. Stefanik to mark the 105th anniversary of his death.
(TASR)
