New Historic Relic In The Pákozd Memorial Park

Colonel István Görög greeted the guests and showed them around the historic site. In his speech he emphasised that for today, Pákozd has become the symbol of the Hungarian Defence Forces, since the military memorial established here attracts people from every part of the country, they come here to remember the establishment of the historic army. Three civil organizations have joined their forces to open this military memorial park; this is how civil society wanted to pay tribute to the military society and its history.

At the new memorial corner, the guests were received by Lieutenant Colonel István Oláh. He said with the memorial corner they want to honour Hungarian soldiers serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the war in the Balkans, Hungarian engineering troops have carried out numerous tasks and helped to restore normal operation in the country. The stone on exhibition in the memorial corner was salvaged by our troops, together with others, from the Neretva River. The soldiers happily did this because they knew that with their work they can help the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina a lot. In the name of thousands of troops working in the country, Lt.Col. Oláh thanked the Defence Ministry of Bosnia-Herzegovina for its contribution to the establishment of the memorial site and asked the leaders of the two delegations to inaugurate the memorial corner by cutting the ribbon.

Following the inaugural ceremony, Marina Pendes displayed the deed of foundation granted by the Defence Ministry on the wall of the memorial corner. "It is a great honour for our country that I can be here and by inaugurating the memorial corner, I can thank the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian Defence Forces for the work their soldiers have done in Bosnia-Herzegovina," said the deputy minister. She emphasised: they will need this help in the future as well, because "we still have a lot to do until we achieve our common objective, total peace. The troops serving in peace missions have demonstrated that they are competent not only in warfare but in other fields as well. Let this stone be the symbol of the continuous cooperation of the two countries. A stone remains solid, this is how it can withstand destruction and storm. And this is how we can also show our strength to Europe and the world. We have found that the Hungarians are our friends," Ms Pendes closed her speech. She thanked for the support to date but also asked for further assistance in the accession of their country to the European Union and the NATO.

Ágnes Vadai said in her address that the Pákozd Memorial has been added a symbol that is important for the Hungarian Defence Forces as well, for Bosnia-Herzegovina was the first mission where our troops went through ‘baptism of fire’ and it was the first time they helped to reconstruct a devastated country. “These soldiers wanted to do something for the people suffering from the war, therefore they did their job with great enthusiasm. They were also seeking new solutions for the construction of the Mostar Bridge in order to start the salvaging of the stones professionally. For today this structure is more than a simple bridge: it has become the symbol of relations between the two nations, and now new bridges are being built between the two countries. For us, the stone on display here will symbolise a bridge from now on. We should be proud that we have a piece of the bridge here, in this memorial corner, because with this relic, we could raise a permanent memorial for troops working in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Following the inaugural ceremony, the two delegations laid wreaths on the peace memorial in the Memorial Park and paid tribute to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for their homeland.