SNP80: Ziga: Roots of Modern Slovakia Can Be Traced Back to SNP

Banska Bystrica/Bratislava, August 29 (TASR) - The roots of the independent and modern Slovakia can be traced back to the 1944 Slovak National Uprising (SNP), temporary House Chair Peter Ziga (Voice-SD) declared in his speech at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of SNP in Banska Bystrica on Thursday. Ziga pointed out that the entire political scene, including the opposition, has converged upon Banska Bystrica, to commemorate the legacy of the Uprising. "That's an example that even despite our severe political struggles, this is the subject that unites us. It's the pride we feel for Slovakia and our ancestors," he underlined. Slovaks won their right to stand on the side of WW2's winners with their own bravery and willingness to fight in the name of good against overwhelming odds. "The Slovaks showed that they're a small but brave nation," he claimed. Ziga underlined that the SNP doesn't belong to any political party. "The fact remains that it was mostly Soviets, French, Americans, Brits and others who decided to stand on the side of the Slovaks with their full weight. But that wouldn't be possible particularly without the 60,000 soldiers of the Slovak army and 18,000 of our guerilla fighters," he said and added that the scope of the Uprising and the ability to hold the resistance area under control behind the Soviet-German front line had been unprecedented in Europe. Eighty years later, peace is no longer to be taken for granted. "The world around us is no longer as safe and secure as it used to be decades earlier. Freedom is once again becoming a precious commodity. Let's not allow the evil to spread again and divide people, in a purpose-built manner, into those who are good and right, and those who are evil and not decent," claimed Ziga, pointing out that at the end of that road there's always some Kremnicka or Terezin [the former a village burnt down by Nazis and the latter a Nazi concentration camp in the Czech Republic -ed.note]. "Slovakia is a small state. Therefore, let's seek things that unite us and of which we can be rightfully proud. The SNP is unequivocally one of them," he said. mf/mcs