Wednesday, 27 July 2016. | |
Statement by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic |
+ larger fontnormal font- Smaller font |
"Perhaps, our protest note to Croatia may personally be reminiscent of the era of Slobodan Milosevic for Minister Kovac, which of course is untrue, but the resurrection of Ustashe in Srb today is not reminiscent of anyone or anything, as they are truly successors of the Ustasha-run fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Ante Pavelic.
Our protest note does not contain any false citations, as Minister Kovac put it, but the verbatim quotes of statements given by Cardinal Stepinac at Easter in 1941 in a Zagreb cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, where he preached loyalty to the Ustasha-run fascist NDH, along with the quote from his circular letter to his bishops saying that the NDH is the most notable event in Croatian people's existence and an ideal that has been long desired and dreamed of. Moreover, on 3 October 1946, Stepinac interrupted the trial against him just to announce that the forced conversion of Serbs (to Catholicism) was not a correct term, but that it was actually a "religious transition". These are historical facts, in no way related to Milosevic. While Hitler is a symbol of evil for Germans and the whole world, for the Croatian Government the NDH is a Croatian dream come true, Ante Pavelic and Ustashe are symbols of heroism, and their cleric Stepinac symbol of holiness. Proof of this are pictures of today's rampage of Ustashe in Srb. Serbia wants to have good relations with Croatia, but not at the price of the war criminals turned alleged martyrs." |