"We must be ready to fend off increasingly frequent attempts by history revisionists and anti-Communists who have confused the notions of Communism as an idea, Bolshevism as practice and anti-Fascism on the soil of Yugoslavia as as the struggle led by Communist. We must defend the historical truth," Mesic said at the commemoration in Brezovica Forest, outside the city of Sisak, marking the 68th anniversary of the establishment of the first Croatian Partisan unit, which was the first organised anti-Fascist unit in the then occupied Europe.
"These efforts (to defend the truth) require the support of all Croatian citizens who are committed to democracy," he said calling for joint efforts to safeguard "everything valuable and noble in Croatia".
Mesic added that all what he was saying today "is not an apologia for Yugoslavia, as Yugoslavia used to exist but no longer exists and will not exist any more, but that this is an apologia for anti-Fascism as a pillar of democracy and of the present-day democratic Croatia".
"Our state is young, growing as a result of the Homeland Defence War, which was the struggle for freedom and independence," he said adding that the present-day Croatia has nothing to do with a statelet "which during the Second World War smeared the Croatian name and which was responsible for unheard-of crimes against Serb, Jews, Roma, antifascist Croatians and anybody who it believed to be different".
Mesic referred to the 1941-1945 Ustasha-led Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a statelet under the control of the then German and Italian forces.
Neither the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was the expression of the Croatian people's historical aspirations, nor the present-day Croatia is in any way its sequence or its recurrence, he said.
Addressing the commemoration on behalf of the Croatian government, Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that members of the first Croatian Partisan Unit, who commenced their struggle against Fascism 68 years ago in Brezovica Forest, were Croatian anti-Fascist committed to the struggle for freedom and democracy, to the dignity of every man and the Croatian people and that they deserve deference and permanent tribute.
"The Croatian Government is determined to refute any form of extremism and totalitarianism, and is committed to anti-Fascist principles," Kosor said adding that the government finds unacceptable any attempt to flirt with symbols of fascism and that there was no justification for hatred, intolerance and extremism.
She went on to say that "Croatia is undertaking steady and resolute efforts to create its European future based on pillars of anti-Fascism and the Homeland Defence War" which Craotia fought in the first half of 1990s.
Leaders of several political parties, both from the ruling coalition and opposition ones, as well as delegations of local authorities and anti-Fascist associations from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina attended the Brezovica commemoration.