Sabor marks its day, commemorates decision to sever ties with SFRY

The Croatian parliament on Friday held a special session to commemorate its day, 8 October, when in 1991 it made a decision to sever all state and legal ties with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), whereby Croatia was declared an independent state.

The special parliament session was attended by five former parliament speakers - Vladimir Šeks, who participated in the parliament's historic session, Luka Bebić, Josip Leko, Željko Reiner and Božo Petrov, as well as by Franjo Gregurić and Mate Ganić, who at the time were the prime minister and the deputy prime minister.

Attending were also former prime ministers Zlatko Mateša, Jadranka Kosor and Tihomir Orešković, and former presidents Ivo Josipović and Stjepan Mesić, the latter being the only one who held the posts of parliament speaker, prime minister and head of state.

In attendance were also Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and government members, President Zoran Milanović's envoy Melita Mulić, Constitutional Court President Miroslav Šeparović, and European Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica.

A short television report was shown of the historic parliament session, held due to the security situation in the oil company INA's head office in Zagreb's Šubićeva Street, featuring Šeks who chaired the session and read out the historic decision.

A minute's silence was then observed for the first Croatian president, Franjo Tuđman, as well as for the deceased parliament speakers Žarko Domljan, Vlatko Pavletić and Boris Šprem as well as all deceased members of parliament and people who gave their lives for Croatia, notably Homeland War defenders.

Thirty years ago, on 8 October 1991, a day after Yugoslav People's Army fighter jets shelled the government building where the state leadership, headed by Tuđman, was, and the Serb aggression spread to a large part of Croatia, the parliament decided to sever all state and legal ties with the former federation.

The parliament made the decision unanimously, paving the way to Croatia's independence.

Text: Hina

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