PHOTOS: Hungarian Heroes’ Day commemorated

Hungarians are indebted to their heroes, and they can repay that debt by protecting the free Hungary they fought for, the defence minister said, marking Hungarian Heroes’ Day at Fiumei Street cemetery, on Sunday.

“We owe it to every Hungarian that we don’t drag them into a senseless and avoidable war being fought for others’ interests,” Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at a ceremony.

The minister said the communist dictatorship had “devalued” the first world war and the sacrifices that had been made for the homeland, adding that the restoration of monuments to honour the heroes of the second world war had been an important symbol of Hungary’s transition to democracy.

The declaration of the memorial day for Hungarian heroes at the turn of the millennium, he said, meant that the country would again pay tribute to its heroes and appreciate the thousand-year journey taken by its soldiers in defence of the homeland.