“The Czechoslovak trademark caused respect, it was an island of democracy in Central Europe,” Kiska said. Photo: K. Shodieva for @BrnoDaily
Bratislava, Oct 28 (CTK) – The importance of Czechoslovakia’s foundation in 1918 survives until present as at that time Slovakia gained not only its clear borders, but also an opportunity to build political, educational and cultural institutions, Slovak President Andrej Kiska wrote on the anniversary today.
Czechoslovakia was established 99 years ago.
“The new state was not invented by the victorious powers. It was delineated on the map of the postwar Europe thanks to the long-standing efforts to achieve freedom and independence, which was a joint work of domestic patriots and politicians, the Slovak and Czech communities in America and legionaries fighting in Russia,” Kiska said.
He said the fight for the establishment of Czechoslovakia had been connected with irreplaceable statesman Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, charismatic Milan Rastislav Stefanik and extremely hard-working Edvard Benes.
Kiska stressed that by their declaration from October 30, 1918, representatives of the Slovak nation joined the new state.
“With an unprecedented pace, an educated professional class was being born, the public was entered by mayors, regional governors, ministers, journalists, and businesspeople, and civic society was developing,” Kiska said.
“The Czechoslovak trademark caused respect, it was an island of democracy in Central Europe,” Kiska said.
The 20 years of existence of the first Czechoslovakia, which fell apart on the eve of World War Two, was a too short time to solve many problems,” Kiska said.
“At first, we lost the state at the threshold of World War Two and after its renewal we lost its most important characteristic, democracy, in 1948,” Kiska said.
Slovakia has a reason to remember the legacy brought to its development by the joint state of Czechs and Slovaks, which split after the political and social changes as a result of the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, he added.
Unlike the Czech Republic, Slovakia does not celebrate October 28 as its national holiday.
pv/mr
Copyright 2017 by the Czech News Agency (ČTK). All rights reserved. Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of ČTK is expressly forbidden. Brno Daily is not responsible for its content.
