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SPEECH
BY SLOBODAN MILOSEVICH AT GAZIMESTAN ON 28 JUNE, 1989
The speech was delivered to 1 million people at Gazimestan
on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Battle
of Kosovo polje (also known as Campus Turdorum/Merularum,
Amselfeld, Rigómező), on 28 June, 1989. The unabridged
version of the present text was compiled by the National
Technical Information Service of the Department of Commerce
of the U.S.
[...] Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical
truth about the Battle of Kosovo and what is legend. Today
this is no longer important. [...] If we lost the battle,
then this was not only the result of social superiority
and the armed advantage of the Ottoman Empire but also
of the tragic disunity in the leadership of the Serbian
state at that time. In that distant 1389, the Ottoman Empire
was not only stronger than that of the Serbs but it was
also more fortunate than the Serbian kingdom. The lack
of unity and betrayal in Kosovo will continue to follow
the Serbian people like an evil fate through the whole
of its history. Even in the last war, this lack of unity
and betrayal led the Serbian people and Serbia into agony,
the consequences of which in the historical and moral sense
exceeded fascist aggression. Even later, when a socialist
Yugoslavia was set up, in this new state the Serbian leadership
remained divided, prone to compromise to the detriment
of its own people. [...] Disunity among Serb officials
made Serbia lag behind and their inferiority humiliated
Serbia. Therefore, no place in Serbia is better suited
for saying this than the field of Kosovo and no place in
Serbia is better suited than the field of Kosovo for saying
that unity in Serbia will bring prosperity to the Serbian
people in Serbia and each one of its citizens, irrespective
of his national or religious affiliation.
[...] Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today,
more than in the past, members of other peoples and nationalities
also live in it. This is not a disadvantage for Serbia.
I am truly convinced that it is its advantage. National
composition of almost all countries in the world today,
particularly developed ones, has also been changing in
this direction. Citizens of different nationalities, religions,
and races have been living together more and more frequently
and more and more successfully. Socialism in particular,
being a progressive and just democratic society, should
not allow people to be divided in the national and religious
respect. The only differences one can and should allow
in socialism are between hard working people and idlers
and between honest people and dishonest people. Therefore,
all people in Serbia who live from their own work, honestly,
respecting other people and other nations, are in their
own republic.
[...] The crisis that hit Yugoslavia has brought about
national divisions, but also social, cultural, religious
and many other less important ones. Among all these divisions,
nationalist ones have shown themselves to be the most dramatic.
Resolving them will make it easier to remove other divisions
and mitigate the consequences they have created. For as
long as multinational communities have existed, their weak
point has always been the relations between different nations.
The threat is that the question of one nation being endangered
by the others can be posed one day -- and this can then
start a wave of suspicions, accusations, and intolerance,
a wave that invariably grows and is difficult to stop.
This threat has been hanging like a sword over our heads
all the time. Internal and external enemies of multi-national
communities are aware of this and therefore they organize
their activity against multinational societies mostly by
fomenting national conflicts.
[...] At the time when this famous historical battle was
fought in Kosovo, the people were looking at the stars,
expecting aid from them. Now, 6 centuries later, they are
looking at the stars again, waiting to conquer them. On
the first occasion, they could allow themselves to be disunited
and to have hatred and treason because they lived in smaller,
weakly interlinked worlds. Now, as people on this planet,
they cannot conquer even their own planet if they are not
united, let alone other planets, unless they live in mutual
harmony and solidarity.
Therefore, words devoted to unity, solidarity, and cooperation
among people have no greater significance anywhere on the
soil of our motherland than they have here in the field
of Kosovo, which is a symbol of disunity and treason. In
the memory of the Serbian people, this disunity was decisive
in causing the loss of the battle and in bringing about
the fate which Serbia suffered for a full 6 centuries.
Even if it were not so, from a historical point of view,
it remains certain that the people regarded disunity as
its greatest disaster. Therefore it is the obligation of
the people to remove disunity, so that they may protect
themselves from defeats, failures, and stagnation in the
future.
[...] Six centuries ago, Serbia heroically defended itself
in the field of Kosovo, but it also defended Europe. Serbia
was at that time the bastion that defended the European
culture, religion, and European society in general. Therefore
today it appears not only unjust but even unhistorical
and completely absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging
to Europe. Serbia has been a part of Europe incessantly,
now just as much as it was in the past, of course, in its
own way, but in a way that in the historical sense never
deprived it of dignity. In this spirit we now endeavor
to build a society, rich and democratic, and thus to contribute
to the prosperity of this beautiful country, this unjustly
suffering country, but also to contribute to the efforts
of all the progressive people of our age that they make
for a better and happier world.
Let the memory of Kosovo heroism live forever!
Long live Serbia!
Long live Yugoslavia!
Long live peace and brotherhood among peoples! |
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THE
VISEGRÁD MEETING AND THE GNIEZNO MEETINGS
Medieval events are often used to create historical foundations
for modern international agreements. The regional cooperation
of the so-called Visegrád countries was inaugurated by
a summit of the heads of state and prime ministers of Czechoslovakia,
Hungary and Poland on February 15, 1991. The model for
this was provided by the "royal meeting" of Charles Robert
of Hungary, John of Luxemburg (Bohemia), and Casimir III
of Poland concluding a triple alliance at Visegrád in August
1335, so it was signed in the medieval palace complex (not
contemporary with the historical event).
Similarly, the millennium of the death of St. Adalbert
in 1997 provided the opportunity for the meeting of seven
heads of state in Gniezno, coordinated with the pilgrimage
of Pope John Paul II, where all agreed to propose St. Adalbert,
who connected different cultures, defended human dignity
and served to the poor, as an additional Patron of Europe,
along with St. Benedict and St. Cyril and Methodius.
On March 12, 2000, another celebration took place in Gniezno:
the Millennary of the Congress in Gniezno (the meeting
of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Boleslaus the Brave,
King of Poland in the year 1000). This meeting of presidents
– Valdas Adamskus (Lithuania), Aleksandr Kwaśniewski (Poland),
Árpád Göncz (Hungary), Rudolf Schuster (Slovakia) and Johannes
Rau (Germany) – discussed the "Unity of Europe in the culture
and through culture". |
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THE
VISEGRÁD AGREEMENT, 1335
The similarity of the situation that has evolved over the
past decades has determined for these three countries convergent
basic objectives:
• full restitution of state independence, democracy and
freedom,
• elimination of all existing social, economic and spiritual
aspects of the totalitarian system,
• construction of a parliamentary democracy, a modern State
of Law, respect for human rights and freedoms,
• creation of a modern free market economy,
• full involvement in the European political and economic
system, as well as the system of security and legislation.
The signatories of the Declaration shall jointly undertake
the following practical steps:
• in accordance with the interests of the particular countries
they shall harmonize their activities to shape cooperation
and close contacts with European institutions and shall
hold regular consultations on the matters of their security,
• they shall endeavor to create free contacts between citizens,
institutions, churches and social organizations,
• in order to support free flow of labor force and capital,
they shall develop economic cooperation, based on the principles
of the free market, and mutually beneficial trade in goods
and services, moreover they shall strive to create favorable
conditions for direct cooperation of enterprises and foreign
capital investments,
• they shall focus on the development of the infrastructure
in communications, with regard both to links between the
three countries and those with other parts of Europe, mainly
in the north-south direction, and shall coordinate the
development of their power systems and telecommunication
networks,
• they shall increase cooperation in the field of ecology,
• they shall create favorable conditions for free flow
of information, press and cultural values,
• they shall jointly develop multilateral cooperation to
ensure optimum conditions for full realization of the rights
of national minorities living on the territories of their
countries,
• they shall support mutually beneficial cooperation of
interested local self-governments of their countries and
establishment of sub-regional contacts.
The signatories of the Declaration state that their cooperation
in no way will interfere with or restrict their relations
with other countries, and that it will not be directed
against the interests of any other party.
The cooperation of the signatories will be realized through
meetings and consultations held at various levels and in
various forms.
Done in Visegrad on February 15th, 1991 in three identical
originals in the Polish, Czech and Hungarian languages,
equally valid. |
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