Speech of the Prime Minister of the CR, Mirek Topolánek on the occasion of the Veteran Day at Vítkov on 1Oth November 2006

Do not let us forget heroes

It did not occur to me a better motto, which would match to this day, than a sentence of the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: "States are held by those ideas, which had been born of."

Yes, our modern state was born also thanks to bravery and faithfulness of the Czechoslovak legions. It was born thanks to merits of our soldiers who were fighting abroad. It has passed through many peripetias, bloody wars, and times of mortification and long decades of subjugation. However in every time, even in the worst time, this nation had its heroes. And it still has them nowadays, when our soldiers show their faithfulness to ideas of freedom by service in abroad.

States are held by those ideas, which had been born of. These words connect generations of those, who started from the first legionnaires up to participants in today's missions, who had fought and are fighting. Tradition of heroes has never become extinct and therefore the idea of the Masaryk´s state continues.

I can see a lot of those here who create the tradition at present. But the line continues back to the past. We honoured today memory of those who have and will have firm position even if they are not among us. And we will appreciate those who form in the line a bridge between the past and the future, because our state will last as long as the line is uninterrupted. Do not forget those who had not forgotten us, so that we ourselves would not be forgotten!