Zagreb - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday laid a wreath at the grave of Croatia's first president, Franjo Tuđman, at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death.
Attending the wreath-laying ceremony were also several government ministers, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić, members of the Tuđman family, military officials and other politicians and public figures.
Franjo Tuđman has left an indelible mark on the history of the Croatian people, Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenković told reporters after the wreath-laying ceremony.
Plenković said that they had gathered at Tuđman's grave as representatives of the state leadership as well as people who respected Tuđman's statesmanship in the critical moments of Croatia's struggle for freedom, independence, democracy, liberation of occupied areas and the peaceful reintegration of the Danube region.
He said they also respected Tuđman's very clearly defined course of Croatia's political, economic and social development and of its international positioning.
"As a statesman, dissident, historian, commander, politician but primarily as a victor, Dr Tuđman has left an indelible mark on the history of the Croatian people. With his wisdom and knowledge he used the watershed moment on the European continent to make it possible for the Croat people to make its thousand-year-old dream of freedom and independence come true," said Plenković.
Tuđman is Croatia's greatest politician and one of the few people who made their vision a reality, said Parliament Speaker Jandroković, adding that Tuđman had led the Croatian people in the fight for the establishment of an independent state, a multiparty system, democracy and a market economy.
We transitioned from a totalitarian system into a democratic system, and established and defended the Croatian state from the Great Serbian aggression, said Jandroković.
It was Tuđman who created an independent Croatian state, which is sovereign and which has made all its decisions on its own. It joined the European Union and NATO because he judged that it was in its interest, said Jandroković.
It is often forgotten that the movement led by Tuđman brought Croatia not only independence but also democracy and freedom, which some are trying to question today, said Jandroković, adding that without Tuđman historical processes would not have been to the benefit of the Croat people.