ZAGREB, Jan 28 (Hina) - Repeating historical mistakes will not help Croatia join Europe, President Stjepan Mesic said during the presentation of a book, entitled "The History of Croatians" at the National and University Library in
Zagreb on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, Jan 28 (Hina) - Repeating historical mistakes will not help
Croatia join Europe, President Stjepan Mesic said during the
presentation of a book, entitled "The History of Croatians" at the
National and University Library in Zagreb on Tuesday. #L#
The bilingual book, published in Croatian and English, is a
chronology written by scholars Ante Nazor and Zoran Ledic who
presented the history through several topics covering the period
from the seventh century until 1990 when Croatia waged the war for
its independence.
The 500-page book with 700 pictures, graphs and copies of documents
is published by the Zagreb-based "Multigraf" company.
Speaking at the presentation, the Croatian head of state described
the book as a good chronology of Croatian history.
"This is a book about the eventful history of a small nation in which
there were great men but also criminals. We should be able to know
the difference between bright and dark historic times, as we have to
remember both of them," Mesic said.
"We lived in two totalitarian systems and in one system close to
totalitarianism, although it was under the guise of democracy," he
said.
Mesic warned that just as one had to be silent about Bleiburg during
the Socialist rule, today some would like not to talk about the real
nature of the Ustasha regime, although, Mesic said, all of it was a
part of history.
Reiterating that the country is in front of the European Union's
doorstep, Mesic says the glorification of Fascists symbols,
regardless of the fact that only few people do it, and the tolerance
of the revision of history as well as recurrence of historical
errors would not take Croatia into Europe.
(hina) ms sb