The events of August 1968 should never perish from the collective historical memory of Slovakia and its people, Prime Minister Robert Fico said at the 46th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by armies of the Warsaw Pact.
He was joined by many international dignitaries, as the events were commemorated; “the events of the 1968 Prague Spring belong among the most significant and positively evaluated milestones of Slovakia’s modern history – and for good reason,” said Fico. “The idea that resonated during the period of the Prague Spring was embodied in the key figure of the reformist process Alexander Dubcek. That vision was one of a society with civic freedom and social justice and it is essentially immortal. Support for this vision for the majority of Slovaks hasn't declined – quite the contrary,” claimed the Prime Minister. According to Fico, it follows that if the reformist process in August 1968 hadn’t been violently stopped by the armies of the Warsaw Pact, the erstwhile Czechoslovakia would have been likely to move closer to such an ideal of a just society. “In that context, the reformist movement [in the late 1960s] process and its violent end forms a legacy from which we should draw inspiration and a knowledge base also for our contemporary steps and decisions,” he added.
