Distinguished,
I am particularly honoured by the invitation of Slovak Ambassador Mr Roman Hloben and Czech Ambassador Mr Karel Urban to speak at today's ceremony of marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic. This occasion also marks the 50th anniversary of the Prague Spring and the 25th anniversary of the two states’ independence.
We in Montenegro love important dates and ceremonies. They are especially important to us when celebrated by our friends. We and you, Montenegro, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are bound by continuous threads of support and understanding, confirmed in the last decades. As with people, also among countries, true friendships resist temptation of differences.
The 20th century, instead of boasting only about undeniable technological and other developments, is also remembered by exoduses, scourges, occupations ... and all other occurrences fought and opposed by primal human feelings from time immemorial. In such European and world history of the twentieth century, it is not a legend, but the fact that your two nations succeeded in creating the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which we are celebrating this year and in this place, giving an example that the past should not forgotten, but instead it should be a testament. You had formed your community in a dignified, voluntary and historically justified manned, and in the same way, your historical circumstances led to separation. You have shown that the break-up, if it is "velvet" as in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, serves as an example of how people seek their place under the modern sun, respect and are respected, teach but not judge, and most importantly - they know and last on experience. That’s why you have even bigger and more important role to play in the development of a modern European society.
The First Word War did not bring any good to anyone. The Second one even less, but many felt relief after its completion, despite the burdensome victims. However, you had the Prague Spring, which, instead of prosperity and reform, brought you an occupation that made you no object of envy. Others would languish and kneel, but your two nations survived and now they represent an example and a driver of democratic changes and maturation. I want you to stay on that path for a long time ... but also, I want Montenegro to catch up with you on that path as soon as possible.
Dear friends of Montenegro, unlike the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which in 1918 jointly went forward, that year Montenegro was pushed backwards. I don’t believe that it was destiny, the inevitability of something that was undeserved and unearned, but I believe that it was the lack of will, vision and ideas, given that Montenegro, although the ally of the winner in the First World War, lost its statehood. Montenegro became a victim of mythology and mythomania. Epic Montenegrins ended up just like their heroes, on the margins of history and parahistory. Today, some stunned engineers are returning us to this track. However, our train hasn’t stopped on their platforms for a long time, instead it is rushing towards Euro-Atlantic and European integrations. But neither then nor today, Montenegrin people haven’t made their history on defeats, but on the victorious spirit that aroused in the Komitas movement, which did not accept the occupation. The Montenegrin rebellion, not used on shackles, escalated several decades later with the 13 July Uprising, when 30,000 rebels impressed the subjugated Europe, and Jean-Paul Sartre said that the 13 July Uprising was "a magnificent event of the European history of the 20th century ".
We belong to the instable Balkans; we are people of strong and expressed emotions. We live in the area where often there were no good manners, nor good neighbourly relations; in the area weakened by the burden of the past and a concern for the future. However, all these challenges have taught us to uphold the right values and pursue the right paths. To many, even to us, the Montenegrins, the Czech Republic and Slovakia can be a lighthouse in many ways.
Therefore, learning from both - our and your history, it is clear to me that the most important thing is that memories do not leave a bitter taste; instead we should collect these memories and store them in the archives, in history, in the feelings, in the progress ... we should use them to dig experience like from the wells of wisdom, and to create new systems of values. It is not new to live absurdity, to enjoy antagonisms, to trample on fire and water ... It is not new to suffer ... But it is always necessary and new to be wise, to prevent and to avoid trouble...
It is a pleasure to speak at this ceremony, which should serve as a warning and a lesson to shattered democracies, bewildered scourges, wrong criteria ... on how people and states, even after separation, can live in the way proper to human beings and humankind - therefore thank you, the Check Republic and Slovakia, for the lessons that you have been giving to all those whose unreasonable appetites and emotions are more important than reason and progress.
Everything on this planet evolves, and even the planet itself. Living beings and things as well ... also words and language, scripts, and art ... even societies and states ... And everything goes into history and memory ... including a man, but not before he completes his mission: to remember, to learn a lesson, and above all - to leave a message to future time and future generations.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have left a message and indebted future generations with wisdom - I congratulate you honestly for that and I wish you a happy jubilee.
Speech of President Brajović at the ceremonious reception of Czech and Slovakia
Cover footage from the ceremonious reception of Czech and Slovakia
