Dacic: Our duty is to not allow attempts to change history

BELGRADE - Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic congratulated all Serbian citizens on May 9 - WWII Victory Day - on Thursday.

"Victory Day is a great holiday, a symbol of heroism and unity of peoples that, above all, brings back strong memories of the joint fight against fascism, the biggest evil of the 20th century," Dacic said in a statement released by the Interior Ministry.

"After the tragedy of WWI, relying on the ideas of anti-fascism, freedom, justice and peace, generations of our ancestors literally saved the world, ending the war and laying the foundations for peace and ensuring our present and our future," Dacic noted.

"Today is also an opportunity to confront all current challenges that can put the achieved benefits of peace in doubt. Unfortunately, we are facing attempts to relativise the crimes of fascism and equate victims with criminals, as well as ideas of exclusionism, hatred and intolerance, whose tragic consequences were felt by a generation of our ancestors," Dacic said.

"Our duty is to not allow such attempts to change history," he noted.

"We must remain committed to preserving freedom and peace, for which they gave their lives. United with all friends around the world, we must defend our common values - freedom, democracy, security, human rights, and fight against intolerance and hatred," Dacic concluded.