Croatian political leaders emphasize Operation Storm’s historic importance

The Croatian Prime Minister cited Operation Storm as proof of what Croatians can achieve when they pursue a common goal, while the Parliament Speaker called for lies about Operation Storm and the Homeland War to be countered calmly and factually. For his part the Croatian President pointed out that not all nonsense out of Belgrade should be dignified with a response.

Croatia's political leadership was on hand for Wednesday's central celebration marking Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. In their respective speeches they noted that the Homeland War, which culminated in the summer of 1995 in Operation Storm, represented the foundations of the modern Croatian state.

"Operation Storm reminds us that no obstacle is insurmountable when we believe in Croatia and when we come together to achieve a common goal. It is on this unity that we will continue to build a country that will preserve, where people will have families and prosper. A Croatia that knows its history, believes in its own abilities and looks to the future with optimism," said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković commented on Belgrade's attempts to undermine Operation Storm and Croatian statehood: "We must be able to recognize any attempts to impose falsehoods and to oppose them calmly and decisively, with dignity and facts. If we do not do this, even the brightest pages of Croatian history will not be safe from insidious attempts to distort the truth, primarily by those who still dispute Croatia's legitimacy and who have no interest in the truth."

"History is a kind of interpretation that can be more or less honest, I somehow believe that our interpretation of history is honest, but I am subjective, I am the President of the Republic of Croatia, I am a Croat and not everyone necessarily sees history in the same way. But, I also think that we shouldn't react to every instance of verbal nonsense from the other side of the Danube, because it will always come," said President Zoran Milanović, reminding that not everything out of Serbia required a response.

Source: HRT