Hungarian Chief of Defence Pays Tribute to the Memory of Troops Killed in Afghanistan
Szöveg: Defence Staff | 2014. november 23. 6:09Nearing the end of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, NATO is closing down – or transferring to the Afghan National Security Forces – more and more bases which earlier formed an organic part of the operations conducted in the Central Asian country. But the memorial sites in Afghanistan – created to commemorate soldiers killed in action – will not be left to their fate after the troop withdrawal.
Since they joined the Afghanistan operations in 2003, the Hungarian Defence Forces have stationed their troops mainly in the area of responsibility of the German-led ISAF Regional Command – North (ISAF RC-N), so the memorials to Hungarian soldiers killed in operations are located in this area too. Concurrent with the troop withdrawal, and with the start of closing down the RC-N bases, the memorials are going to be relocated – on the initiative of Germany as a lead nation – to the “Forest of Memory" in Potsdam, which has been established in the area of the Bundeswehr Operational Command.
The first relocated memorials were unveiled in the presence of German President Joachim Gauck, the German Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior as well as Chiefs of Defence from the Czech Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Germany and Sweden. The just opened memorial site not only commemorates the Afghanistan victims, but also soldiers who sacrificed their lives in other German-led operations, so it honors those fallen soldiers of partner nations who were co-deployed with the Germans.
The present initiative is similar to a memorial park set up some years ago in Pákozd, Hungary, which has since become the memorial site of Hungarian soldier heroes. The Hungarian Defence Forces have supported the Bundeswehr’s initiative, but the Pákozd Military Memorial Park continues to play the most important role in commemorating Hungary’s soldier heroes. The commander of the German armed forces’ operational command and the Minister of Defence paid deserved tribute in their commemorative speeches, and a representative of the dead servicemembers and a soldier who had served in Afghanistan also gave speeches during the ceremony.
The President of Germany personally thanked the Chiefs of Defence of partner countries for their personal presence at the commemoration. The event closed with a wreath-laying ceremony and a joint tribute paid by the German Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior and the chiefs of defence.
