ZAGREB, 4 August, 2022 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved on Thursday issued a message on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, saying that Operation Storm heralded peace and an end to the 1991-95 Homeland War.
"As we remember the days that heralded peace for our people, we provide consolation and express immense respect to all those for whom the end of the Homeland War did not bring final peace - the families of Croatian defenders gone missing in the war," the minister said in his message.
Croatians owe the freedom they live in today to Croatian defenders, and one of the symbols of the freedom won is the moment when Croatia's first president Franjo Tuđman kissed the Croatian flag hoisted on the Knin Fortress, Medved said in the message.
"That symbolic and historic act heralded the end of the war, the Croatian Army's victory and the restoration of the Croatian constitutional and legal order in the formerly occupied parts of our beautiful homeland," Medved said.
