Attending this year's event, according to estimates, were more than 10,000 local residents and their guests, including Mesic, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, ministers, Zagreb Archbishop Josip Bozanic's envoy Vlado Kosic, military chief of staff Josip Lucic and the diplomatic corps with Apostolic Nuncio Javier Lozano at the helm.
Thanking the residents of Sinj for their invitation, President Mesic said that after a long time the 292nd Sinjska Alka was held under the auspices of the president of the republic.
"That's a sure sign that Sinjska Alka is returning to its historical tradition and my sponsorship is a sign that Sinjska Alka is moving away from politics. When I say that, I mean daily politics which used Alka for narrow political interests," said Mesic.
He went on to say that the tournament had always been recognised as a knightly competition and a symbol of the heroic town of Sinj and region of Cetina.
"Let's therefore work together on making Alka just Alka, a knightly competition which will affirm our culture and not create political divisions. Alka symbolises the free-loving spirit of Sinj, the Cetina region as well as of the entire Croatia, and a spirit that we reaffirmed in the antifascist struggle and in the Homeland War and that we are reaffirming today by building a free and democratic Croatia. That's why Sinjska Alka doesn't and can't have significance only for locals, but for us all, for the Croatian people and all Croatian citizens," said Mesic.
"Alka is the holiday of us all who respect the courage, patriotism and sacrifices of all our ancestors in the struggle for justice and freedom. Today Alka is part of the Croatian cultural heritage and in the future, as a non-material monument of culture, it should become part of the European and world cultural heritage as well. I am underlining this only because as soon as Croatia became independent I advocated not only the preservation, but also the international affirmation of the Alka tradition. It is important to reiterate this here because of the truth about Alka's past as well as future," said the president.
"Croatia's future is the united Europe founded on antifascism, democracy, tolerance, respect for and exercise of human and minority rights. Croatia's future is Europe where borders will connect and not separate, a community of equal states and peoples," Mesic said in his address.