23/02/2025
COMMON HISTORY UNITES US
I appreciate that during my trip to the Czech Republic I had the opportunity to honor the unique history that shaped our two nations. Slovakia and the Czech Republic also share a strong anti-fascist legacy. It is important to remember it, not to forget what happened and to learn so that similar moments do not happen again.
In Prague, there is the National Monument to the Heroes of the Heydrich, where we commemorated the Slovak Jozef Gabčík and the Czech Jan Kubiš. Both were part of Operation Anthropoid and in 1942 they carried out the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. And Jozef Gabčík has a strong personal meaning for me, as he is a native of my region from Poluvsia near Rajecké Teplice.
As part of my visit, I had the opportunity at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs to view important archival documents together with Minister Jan Lipavský - a copy of the peace negotiations after World War I, the so-called The Treaty of Trianon, but also documents that talk about the Munich Betrayal or the Vienna Arbitration, or documents signed directly by General Milan Rastislav Štefánik about the support of the Czechoslovak legions by the then Italian government.
Knowing our history is extremely important, as well as not forgetting to talk about it with the younger generation. So that even those who were already born in the independent Slovak Republic or the Czech Republic know where our unique Slovak-Czech relations come from and on what foundations they were built.
