President issues message for Anti-Fascist Struggle Day

The President said Croatian antifascists began their four-year struggle for national freedom and social rights by calling for resistance to the country's fascist occupiers in the Brezovica forest on 22 June 1941.

"By fighting on the side of the Allies, the Croatian people, together with members of ethnic minorities, made an important contribution to the victory over fascism and Nazism. The declaration of the Federal State of Croatia and other decisions of the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) preserved Croatia's statehood and laid the foundation for the declaration of a democratic and independent Republic of Croatia, which we defended from the Great Serbia aggression and liberated in the 1991-95 War," said the president.

"We commemorate the historic achievements of Croatian antifascists in a dignified manner, with full respect for all victims of World War II and its aftermath," Grabar-Kitarovic said in her message.

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