ZAGREB, June 6 (Hina) - "Our fate is in our hands," Croatian President and president of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Franjo Tudjman, said in a speech at an assembly of the HDZ Youth held in Zagreb on Saturday night. It
is up to the Croatian youth to be aware of the position in which the Croatian people lived until 1990, of what we have achieved, what needs to be cared for and developed, Tudjman stressed. We must never allow Croatian politics and intelligence to wander again, he added. For the first time in history, Croatians fought under their flags and for their interests. We avoided a historic tragedy which followed us until World War II, when the Croatian people were divided and fought among themselves, with huge sacrifices for the entire people, Tudjman said. From political and military victories to success in economy (the introduction of the national currency, kuna), we have achieved a
ZAGREB, June 6 (Hina) - "Our fate is in our hands," Croatian
President and president of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ), Franjo Tudjman, said in a speech at an assembly of the HDZ
Youth held in Zagreb on Saturday night.
It is up to the Croatian youth to be aware of the position in which
the Croatian people lived until 1990, of what we have achieved, what
needs to be cared for and developed, Tudjman stressed.
We must never allow Croatian politics and intelligence to wander
again, he added.
For the first time in history, Croatians fought under their flags
and for their interests. We avoided a historic tragedy which
followed us until World War II, when the Croatian people were
divided and fought among themselves, with huge sacrifices for the
entire people, Tudjman said.
From political and military victories to success in economy (the
introduction of the national currency, kuna), we have achieved a
greater social and economic stability than two dozen former
socialist countries, he stressed.
In order to sustain all the results achieved by the victorious
generation, to secure the future of the younger generation, the
Croatian people, it is important that we maintain the unity of most
of the Croatian people, territorial and spiritual integrity of the
Croatian people, Tudjman stressed.
It is important that those who are continuing the negative
political thought -- that Croatia cannot exist on its own and must
live in some kind of association -- do not get the right to speak.
"Today, when we are witnesses of an anti-national and catastrophic
view of the situation in Croatia, we must stress that this
victorious generation, both the young and the old, achieved results
which were difficult to imagine," Tudjman said.
What is today surfacing as anti-Croatian is in service of foreign
ideas, he said, adding this was only a small remnant of what the
Croatian people had experienced throughout history.
Thus, we reiterate the truth to the Croatian people that finally, in
recent history, we have taken our fate into our own hands and are
never letting it go, Tudjman said, recalling political ideas and
life of the Croatian people under repression during the periods
when Croatia was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and
Yugoslavia.
The free, independent and democratic Croatia is for integration
with the world, but for associations in which it can exist as a
subject and in which nobody will impose their will to the Croatian
people, Tudjman said.
Although the most important global and European factors did
everything to maintain Yugoslavia -- which was falling apart,
although they wished for Croatia's loss in the Homeland war -- we do
have friends in Europe and the world, who know that every people,
including the Croatian people, who are one of the oldest peoples,
have the right to their freedom and state independence, Tudjman
said.
According to Tudjman, one of the strongest pieces of evidence of
such a standpoint in the world is last year's, second, visit of the
Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, to Croatia.
The arrival of the Holy Father to Croatia and the beatification of
Cardinal Stepinac, is not only significant for the Croatian people
as regards their internal life, but has a deeper significance which
speaks of the importance of such a Croatia which we have created in
the present Europe and the world.
The million people who greeted him speaks about the aroused
awareness of the Croatian people and their positive role in the
world, in which the decadence of modern civilisation is becoming
more and more accentuated.
This visit was recognition of the historic truth about the Croatian
people in world War II: that the Croatian people had had a quisling
regime as part of Hitler's Europe, but at the same time, had the
anti-fascist movement and people such as Cardinal Stepinac, who
advocated Croatia and were on the side of democratic powers in the
world which were eventually victorious.
Those numerous Croatians who greeted the Holy Father are a show of
the Croatian national awareness, the connection of the Croatian
people with their religion, their determination to never allow the
past to happen again.
"As I believed in the Croatian man and youth in 1989 and 1990, when
others thought our place was in prison, so today I believe we will
stand up to our historic tasks, that we will secure Croatia's
freedom and independence and the future of the Croatian people,"
Tudjman said in his speech.
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