With Tuesday marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava in WWII, more than a hundred people came to the Slavin monument to honour the memory of the fallen soldiers, among them direct participants in the resistance movement Karol Kuna and Branislav Tvarozek, as well as partisan Anna Bergerova.
Peter Weiss, a member of the central council of the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters (SZPB), pointed to the circumstances of the outbreak of the Second World War, in which the Slovak army took part. "Slovak soldiers became not only witnesses, but sometimes also actors in extermination operations on the territory of Belarus and Ukraine. Only the Slovak National Uprising atoned for this shame," he said. According to him, the uprising restored the Slovak nation's honour, its dignified place in Europe and its position in the renewed Czechoslovak Republic.
April the 4th, 78 years ago, brought freedom to the city of Bratislava and those responsible who contributed to the defeat of fascism are worthy of our gratitude, regardless of whether they wore Soviet, Romanian or other uniforms, President Zuzana Caputova posted on a social network on Tuesday. Marking the anniversary, Caputova pointed out that more than 700 soldiers had fallen during the liberation of Slovakia's capital city.
"Experience from the past as well as the present confirm that it's not nations or states that are aggressors but rather their political systems that attempt to subdue other countries and enforce their own rules. I'm confident that if we stay firm and principled in our stances and our relationship to the values of democracy and freedom, we can prevent the recurrence of similar tragic conflicts on our continent," posted the head of state.
Slovakia has a moral duty to commemorate soldiers of all nationalities who fell during the 1945 liberation of Bratislava from fascism, opposition Smer-SD's chair Robert Fico underlined to mark the 78th anniversary of the capital city's liberation.
Speaking at the Slavin Memorial in Bratislava, Fico urged for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
"Regardless of what's happening in Ukraine, we're saying that the Soviet Union and its nations contributed the greatest share to the defeat of fascism. And another fact is that freedom came to Slovakia from the east," stated Fico. Fico underlined that no military solution exists to the conflict in Ukraine and called for peace talks. He criticised military supplies to Ukraine as well as the stances of Slovakia's foreign policy officials. "In our foreign policy, sovereignty and self-confidence has been completely consigned to the past," he said.
Another commemoration event was held in the Bratislava borough of Vajnory, where local mayor Michal Vlcek thanked soldiers present, from Slovakia and allied countries, for all they do for Slovakia's security. "The war must never be repeated, its horrors must never be forgotten," he remarked. Vlcek noted that people can live secure lives thanks to the fact that 19 years ago Slovakia became a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, whose liaison team is based in Vajnory. "We have recently spoken with its leadership about informing people in a better way because today war is fought not only on the front lines; we are also witnessing it in a hybrid form," he said.
