World
‘If we lose this heritage, what else are we left with?’
![‘If we lose this heritage, what else are we left with?’ ‘If we lose this heritage, what else are we left with?’](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSC05138.jpg?resize=1920,1440)
Tbilisi, Georgia – Anzor Maisuradze is a anxious farmer.
As fears of a looming international meals disaster dominated headlines in August, he struggled to reap his wheat amid a scarcity mix harvesters in Georgia and costly gas costs, which spiked after Russia launched a conflict on Ukraine.
“Our frequent enemy is simply there,” he mentioned, pointing north from his fields within the village of Nabakhtevi.
The Russian-controlled borders of the breakaway area of South Ossetia, which Georgians name Samachablo, lie fewer than 10km (6 miles) away.
Maisuradze is not any typical farmer. His 48-hectare (119-acre) operation, one of many nation’s first natural wheat farms, has helped revive native types of Georgian wheat that just about disappeared in the course of the Soviet period when farms had been collectivised and intensive agriculture was prioritised below a centrally deliberate financial system.
“We misplaced a lot of our tradition and id throughout [the Soviet] interval, not simply our agricultural data and seeds,” he mentioned.
Right this moment, Maisuradze grows 4 sorts of endemic wheat.
They develop greater, which suggests the heads of the plant are likely to droop all the way down to the bottom when ripe, and so they have lengthy bristles on the seed ideas. All of those traits make them harder to reap and thresh.
“If it prices 200 gel ($70) to reap one hectare of regular wheat, I’ve to pay 300 gel ($110),” Maisuradze mentioned. “I don’t know the way a lot it’ll value me this 12 months.”
Till the center of the final century, 14 of 20 of the world’s historical wheat species – 5 of that are endemic to Georgia – and lots of of subspecies and domestically bred varieties had been broadly cultivated throughout Georgia.
Pushed to obscurity by Soviet agricultural insurance policies, these endangered historical wheat varieties are making a gradual comeback in a rustic that has been chronically depending on Russia for its wheat, regardless of having no diplomatic relationship with its highly effective northern neighbour, with whom it went to conflict in 2008.
“Our nation is partially occupied, and we’re depending on Russian wheat. It’s ridiculous,” mentioned Tamaz Dundua, programme supervisor at Elkana, a non-profit group that promotes natural agriculture and home types of crops and animal breeds amongst farmers.
Elkana’s free seed distribution programme, which started in 2009, helped convey tsiteli doli, an endemic grain, to Georgians.
Dundua believes the group’s efforts are as a lot about meals sovereignty and bringing again Georgia’s wealthy agro-biodiversity as they’re about providing homegrown, more healthy options to the economic wheat that’s principally imported from Russia.
“It’s not solely about meals safety. It’s about common safety for certain,” says Eka Gigauri from Transparency Worldwide’s Tbilisi workplace. “Russians aren’t our pals, and they’re going to do their greatest to make us depending on them and punish us if we do one thing they don’t like.”
![Georgia Farmers](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSC05439.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C550)
In the intervening time, although, 98 p.c of Georgia’s wheat imports come from Russia, and Georgia’s authorities has refused to affix worldwide monetary sanctions on Russia, citing “nationwide pursuits.”
Gigauri fears that the heavy reliance on Russian wheat may weaken the nationwide financial system and trigger injury akin to the impression of Moscow’s 2006 embargo on Georgian wine.
With the worldwide grain squeeze, the value of bread, which on common constitutes greater than 60 p.c of the each day weight-reduction plan in Georgia, has risen by 36 p.c.
The most well-liked bread is known as tonis puri, a form of flatbread baked on the partitions of {a partially} buried mud tandoor oven.
“We’ve managed to nonetheless maintain our costs for a tonis puri at 1.30 lari ($0.05) however most bakeries downtown have already elevated their costs to 1.50 gel ($0.53),” mentioned Nika Makharadze, a tone puri baker in suburban Tbilisi.
He mentioned the lower cost has elevated site visitors to his bakery, the place he makes about 500 puris a day. In February simply earlier than the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, a tone puri right here value 1.10 gel ($0.39).
Stimulating home wheat manufacturing
The federal government is taking discover and has hinted at a large-scale programme to stimulate wheat manufacturing.
“We expect it is going to be doable to extend wheat self-sufficiency within the nation from 15 to 50 p.c in a number of years, and we are going to do it,” Otar Shamugia, the setting and agriculture minister, instructed parliament in April, including the federal government would work on support packages to assist farmers meet rising gas, fertiliser and pesticide costs.
However when contacted by Al Jazeera in September, the ministry mentioned the federal government had but to give you a complete plan.
Regardless of this, wheat manufacturing is on the rise in Georgia.
The worldwide improve in wheat costs has inspired younger farmers like Beka Aslanishvili, who lately left his fintech trade job to handle his father’s farm.
![Georgia Farmers](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSC05071.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514)
Though he’s fascinated by endemic wheat varieties, he has determined to domesticate an Austrian winter wheat on 40 hectares (100 acres) of his land.
“I’m purely pushed by economics,” he mentioned. “I need to concentrate on productive varieties to make sure my income for the primary few years, however on the identical time, I see the marketplace for different grains is rising.”
Irakli Rekhviashvili, 78, is a revered agronomist and seed choice specialist who helped protect indigenous seeds on his private farm after testing and analysis stations closed within the wake of the Soviet collapse.
Rekhviashvili cultivates greater than 90 types of wheat on his natural farm. He’s additionally the director of analysis at Lomtagora, one in all Georgia’s largest wheat seed suppliers.
Collectively along with his accomplice Kakha Laskhi, Rekhviashvili helped breed an intensive wheat selection known as Lomtagora 126, which has yielded 11 tonnes a hectare on the firm’s take a look at web site.
Given that almost all indigenous seed varieties yield not more than two to a few tonnes per hectare at greatest, he too believes trendy intensive wheat varieties that yield 4 to 6 tonnes on common needs to be prioritised to enhance Georgia’s self-sufficiency – regardless of the heavy agro-chemical inputs like fertilisers they require.
“Rising outdated varieties is a future enterprise for many who are keen to pay the value of bio-products and admire prime quality wheat,” he mentioned.
Advantages of outdated varieties
Dundua, from the non-profit Elkana, fears that any large-scale state programme will push for intensive wheat cultivation and overlook some great benefits of Georgia’s historical heritage grains, identified for his or her more healthy gluten and better protein content material.
“We’d like the small farmers to keep up range,” he mentioned.
Many of those historical varieties have additionally been confirmed to be extra proof against pests, fungus, drought and even frost.
“What we see is [climate change] getting increasingly more problematic, so chelta zanduri, makha, dika, … these [local] forms of wheat, they’re very sustainable,” Dundua mentioned. “They’ll by no means die even with none sort of irrigation. If you happen to don’t irrigate industrial wheats, they are going to die.”
Georgia’s marketplace for heritage grain bread is restricted to a handful of boutique bakeries catering to Tbilisi’s upmarket clientele.
However extra inexpensive bakeries utilizing native wheat are popping up.
Natela Khutsishvili opened her bakery two years in the past in a blue-collar Tbilisi neighbourhood greatest identified for development supplies and used automobile elements.
“Whoever tries this bread and likes it is going to by no means return to consuming white industrial bread,” Khutsishvili mentioned.
A lot of her common prospects sought her out due to weight-reduction plan restrictions because of diabetes or persistent pores and skin circumstances brought on by gluten sensitivity.
![Georgia Farmers](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSC05202.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C524)
Though her heritage grain bread prices twice as a lot because the puri constituted of industrial wheat, Khutsishvili mentioned folks have to eat much less of it to really feel satiated due to its dense texture, wealthy style and better dietary content material.
She additionally mixes white flour into a few of her breads to make them extra inexpensive.
This additionally helps stretch her restricted provide of heritage grain wheat flour.
“Even in my village, I attempted to get farmers to develop native endemic varieties, however nobody needs to danger it but due to the low yields,” she mentioned.
Seed certification debate
Dundua estimates that about 500 farmers throughout the nation have began rising endemic wheat however most are small farmers with a mean of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of land.
He believes an absence of state assist and a scarcity of kit put a distinct segment market out of attain.
The Georgian authorities has additionally lately began implementing a 2017 regulation that tightens restrictions across the sale, distribution and manufacturing of seeds. It requires all seeds to endure a fancy and costly certification course of that features genetic lab testing earlier than being bought.
“We will’t squeeze farmers at this level,” Dundua mentioned. “The one option to save these endangered varieties is for farmers to start out rising them.”
He fears the additional prices and the extremely variable and repeatedly evolving properties of outdated types of wheat will make it laborious for them to fulfill trendy certification requirements. His organisation is campaigning for modifications to the regulation for heritage seeds.
Extra advocates for Georgia’s endemic seeds are becoming a member of the combat.
In 2019, improvement employee Asmat Lali Meskhi began a marketing campaign to register Georgian wheat with UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage in want of pressing safeguarding.
The UN company deferred the appliance and requested the nomination focus extra on “Georgian wheat tradition” moderately than “the preservation and restoration of endemic wheat as a crop”, however Meskhi is assured a resubmission subsequent 12 months will show profitable.
In that case, Meskhi hopes it may replicate the success of the 2013 nomination of Georgia’s methodology of constructing wine in clay pots. It helped spur pure winemaking and restore endemic grape varieties.
Nonetheless, Meskhi can be supportive of the certification of seeds that agricultural staff like Dundua worry will hamper famers’ want to develop indigenous wheat.
“Seed high quality may be very, essential if you end up rising cereals or wheat, and in the event you don’t have licensed seeds, how have you learnt that the seeds are of fine high quality?” requested Meskhi, who additionally helps a seed certification regulation she believes will safeguard endemic seeds and permit them to enter European markets.
Grassroots seed revival and sovereignty
However not everybody agrees.
In response to Dundua from Elkana, harder seeds legal guidelines will have an effect on their ongoing free seed distribution programme and likewise curtail the grassroots work of farmers like Manoni Akhvlediani, who’re serving to propagate nonetheless uncommon endemic grains.
Three years in the past, Akhvlediani turned a nook of her ancestral apple orchard right into a subject the place she grows two forms of wheat – chelta zanduri and gvatsa zanduri, that are associated to einkorn and emmer, two of the world’s first domesticated varieties.
From a handful of seeds she obtained from researchers in 2019, she hopes she will revive their cultivation in Lechkhumi, her dwelling area the place these seeds are believed to have originated.
“Restoration, popularisation and preservation of zanduri is my fundamental purpose, initially as a result of it’s an endemic breed of our area Lechkhumi and it is a a matter of status for us,” she mentioned.
Her dream is to bake bread from these native grains, as soon as she will afford a de-hulling thresher for the species.
![Georgia Farmers](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSC05243.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514)
Whereas the way forward for endemic grain revival is being debated, the Ukraine conflict and solidarity felt by many Georgians may win over extra prospects.
“That is additionally a form of political protest for me,” mentioned Levan Qoqiashvili, who along with his spouse, Lali Papashvily, lately launched a niche-dining enterprise specialising in Georgia’s well-known conventional bread and cheese dish known as khachapuri.
The couple is properly referred to as gastronomic consultants who’ve helped set up a number of of Tbilisi’s greatest identified fine-dining venues.
However their newest challenge, known as Gunda, is a private enterprise.
“An important a part of this expertise goes to be the flour – flour constituted of endemic Georgian wheat,” mentioned Lali.
The couple pre-ordered 10 tonnes of endemic wheat flour this 12 months from native farmers. They plan to increase, and talks are below means with a possible accomplice in New York. Making a buyer base will encourage extra farmers to develop endemic Georgian wheat, they mentioned.
They’ve labored with ethnographers and gastronomic researchers to hunt out greater than 50 conventional khachapuri recipes throughout the nation, lots of which they hope so as to add to their menu. However for this to work, Levan mentioned, geopolitical occasions matter.
“Russia is an occupier, and for our bread idea, peace is essential,” mentioned Lali.
Again in Nabakhtevi, Misauradze, who was in a position to harvest his fields in late August, mentioned he welcomes the rising assist for the endemic wheat motion he helped pioneer.
Though he believes native wheat might by no means feed all Georgians, he mentioned these historical grains are important to emphasize the nation’s sovereignty.
“If we lose this heritage, what else are we left with? However for this to proceed, we want correct [state] assist.”
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
World
Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere
![Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2169776610-1.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
Brad Pitt and George Clooney hugged and danced at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday night as the two megastars’ latest film, “Wolfs,” received a polite four-minute standing ovation.
The premiere itself was delayed by more than 30 minutes as fans crowded into Venice’s Sala Grande in an attempt to catch a glimpse at Pitt and Clooney. When the duo finally arrived inside, the sound — and general vibe — in the theater could only be described as carnal. Both actors took to different sides of the carpet, signing autographs and taking selfies, before being whisked away to their seats by security.
As the two stars entered the theater, they greeted the eager crowd with a booming “Buonasera!,” prompting some fans to shout back in hopes of being noticed. Even as the film began rolling, the chaos continued, with those without tickets scrambling to find any empty seats. Some were ejected during the early scenes in the film as latecomers entered.
When the credits rolled on the crime romp, Pitt and Clooney hugged it out before grooving to Sade’s “Smooth Operator.” Clooney then turned to his wife Amal, and the two shared a sweet kiss. He and Pitt then walked down the stairs, from the balcony of the theater where they were seated, to greet the cheering fans.
The four-minute ovation was perhaps not as long as one may have expected given Pitt and Clooney’s star power, but it seemed that festival officials were keen on getting audience members out of the theater given the premiere’s late start time and unruly energy.
Pitt landed in Venice only two days after his ex Angelina Jolie debuted her latest movie “Maria” here, to an eight-minute standing ovation and Oscar buzz. Neither mentioned their long pending divorce, and Pitt wasn’t asked at a press conference on Sunday about court documents that allege “a history of physical abuse of Jolie” in their marriage. (The hashtag #BradPittIsAnAbuser trended on the social media platform X shortly after “Wolfs” premiered.)
Written and directed by “Spider-Man” helmer Jon Watts (who had to miss the premiere after testing positive for COVID), the Apple Original Films action-comedy stars Pitt and Clooney as two professional fixers who prefer to work alone, but must come together after being hired for the same job. “Wolfs” also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams and Poorna Jagannathan. A sequel to the film is already in development with Watts and the two stars attached, Apple announced earlier this month.
“Wolfs” marks Pitt and Clooney’s first time co-headlining a film since the Coen Brother’s 2008 black comedy “Burn After Reading.” Prior to that, the two were co-stars in the “Ocean’s” franchise from 2001 to 2007. Both actors have graced the Lido before, with Clooney attending in 2009 for Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats” and Pitt having premiered David Fincher’s “Fight Club” in 1999 and earning the Volpi Cup for best actor with Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” in 2007.
In a recent cover story for GQ, Pitt and Clooney discussed their longtime friendship and the state of Hollywood today. “They haven’t developed stars the way the studio system used to,” Clooney said. “We kind of were at the very end of that, where you could work at a studio and do three or four films, and there was some plan to it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. So it’s harder for you to sell somebody something on the back of a star.”
After its Venice premiere, “Wolfs” will release in theaters for a limited time starting Sept. 20 before debuting on Apple TV+ on Sept. 27.
World
UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages
![UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/American-hostage-Hersh-Goldberg-Polin-5-others-brutally-murdered-by-Hamas-right-before-rescue-IDF.png)
JERUSALEM – The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, is facing a barrage of criticism for failing to explicitly condemn the Hamas terrorist movement for its murders of one American and five Israeli citizens on Saturday.
Israel Defense Forces were looking to rescue the six hostages held by Hamas, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in the tunnel system below Gaza’s Rafah city, but instead found all six murdered at the hands of the terror group. The Times of Israel, quoting Israel’s ministry of health, reported that the hostages had been murdered between Thursday and Friday morning.
Guterres wrote on X, “I will never forget my meeting last October with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostage families. Today’s tragic news is a devastating reminder of the need for the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the nightmare of war in Gaza.”
ISRAEL SHARES DOSSIER SPELLING OUT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST 12 UN EMPLOYEES ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN HAMAS ATTACK
Guterres’ post on X sparked criticism from Israel’s former U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan for playing down the severity of the murders by labeling the news as merely “tragic” and not condemning Hamas outright.
Guterres’ spokesman did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital press query.
“You are shredding the UN charter” says Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan while speaking during a special session of the UN General Assembly regarding the Palestinian bid for full membership to the UN, at UN headquarters in New York City on May 10, 2024. A veto from the United States during an April 18, 2024 UN Security Council meeting previously foiled the Palestinians’ drive for full UN membership. (Photo by Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Erdan, who only left his role as ambassador last month, told Fox News Digital , “The Secretary General not only has Israeli blood on his hands, but he has American blood on his hands too. Since his “fig leaf” meeting with the hostage families, he has done ZERO to help them. He could have demanded visits from the Red Cross, he could have condemned Hamas and held them to account, but instead he spent his time criticizing the law-abiding democracy of Israel instead of the ISIS-like terrorists.”
Erdan continued “This is a new low, even for the Secretary General. Even today, he wouldn’t condemn the evil Hamas terrorists, but of course, you can’t condemn what you support. Hamas terrorists can rely on a morally bankrupt Secretary General for their survival whose only actions are meaningless photo-ops with hostage families, and criticism of Israel, while innocent hostages are being executed in cold blood.”
![Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra'anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/Hostage-Funeral.jpeg?ve=1&tl=1)
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra’anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday. (Yossi Zeliger/TPS-IL)
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that “U.N. Secretary-General Guterres despicably now turns the cold-blooded murder of Israeli hostages by Palestinian terrorists into a win for the terrorists. He refuses to name the perpetrators. And equates their horrible deliberate execution with Israel’s effort to release them.”
![A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/Palestinian-Hamas.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A terrorist from Hamas takes part in a military parade. Three Palestinian migrants caught at the southern border were detained after they were allegedly found to have terrorist ties. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo)
She added “The United Nations top apparatus – its Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council – has never specifically condemned Hamas. U.N. denial of the right of Israeli self-defense and its promotion of violence against the people of Israel has never been more clear. No amount of U.N. photo-ops with hostages or their families will erase the reality of the U.N.’s insidious role in the nightmare of war in Israel for seven decades.”
UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN ‘SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION’: EXPERT
![Guterres](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/12/1200/675/GettyImages-1833212930.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
TOPSHOT – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York City on December 8, 2023. Guterres said on December 8, 2023, that Hamas’ brutality could never justify “collective punishment” of Palestinians as Israel presses its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
In October, Erdan urged Guterres to resign after he claimed that the head of the world body had suggested that Israel was to blame for Hamas’ October 7 massacre that resulted in the murders of nearly 1,200 people, including more than 30 American citizens, and the kidnapping of over 250 people. Guterres came out to refute Erdan’s charges, but the United Nations has long been seen by critics as a bastion of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.
![Nir Oz bloodied hand](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/10/1200/675/israel_wall_blood_handprint.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A bloodied handprint stains a wall in a Nir Oz house after Hamas terrorists attacked this kibbutz days earlier near the border of Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
On Guterres’ watch, a number of U.N. agencies have been embroiled in scandals where they showed sympathy for Hamas. The scandal-plagued United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a lawsuit in Manhattan for its alleged role in aiding the terrorist movement Hamas’ slaughter on October 7.
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, lambasted Guterres’ decision to not name the perpetrators of the mass murder of the six people. “Hamas just murdered six Israeli and American hostages by shooting them in the head. Why can’t you say so? Why can’t you condemn them?,” wrote Neuer in a post on X.
Hamas is not on the United Nations’ list of terrorist organizations. Fox News Digital sent press queries to Israel’s current U.N. ambassador and the country’s foreign ministry.
World
Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion
![Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/69/40/70/1200x675_cmsv2_089bec5e-93bc-58f1-9ac1-9f7354c12ec7-8694070.jpg)
In more than five years of brutal German occupation during WWII, the central European country lost 6 million citizens, or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jewish.
Poland held solemn ceremonies early on Sunday, marking the 85th anniversary of German Nazi forces invading and bombing the central European country’s territory at the start of World War II.
Sirens wailed and a memorial bell tolled as Polish President Andrzej Duda and deputy ambassador of Germany, Robert Rohde, attended an observance in the town of Wielun, the first civilian target of German bombing in the small hours of 1 September 1939 in Europe.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack.
“We can say that we have forgiven even though we remember, even though the pain is persisting, and even though there are still tens of thousands of those who have been directly hurt by the Germans,” Duda said. He also called on Berlin to make amends.
Meanwhile, at a monument on the Baltic Sea’s Westerplatte peninsula, where a military outpost was shelled by a German warship just minutes after Wielun was attacked, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz laid wreaths and attended a memorial roll call for fallen soldiers.
At the time, the outpost’s outnumbered troops fought for seven days before surrendering to the Germans, becoming a symbol of heroism and patriotism.
Tusk said war was present again in the region as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, grinds on.
He said, in a clear reference to Germany, it wasn’t enough to speak about “reconciliation” or to “bend your head in a sense of guilt,” adding that the best sign of lessons learned from the past is “the readiness to organise the entire western world, Europe, and NATO for the defence against aggression that we are witnessing today in the battlefields of Ukraine.”
“Today we will not say ‘never again’. Today we must say ‘never again alone’,” the prime minister said. Tusk also said Poland was building “the most modern army in Europe, one of the strongest in Europe” to actively contribute to the unity and strength of the NATO defence alliance and the European continent, “to defend our civilisation,” and “never again expose our homeland to any risks”.
In more than five years of WWII and brutal German occupation, Poland lost 6 million citizens, or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jews.
Poland’s previous right-wing government demanded $1.3 trillion (€1.17tr) in damages from Germany. Tusk’s current cabinet has toned the demand down to some form of compensation that could serve to strengthen the ties between the two neighbours.
The country also suffered huge losses to its infrastructure, industry, and agriculture.
Germany insists the matter is closed because it paid damages to the Moscow-led East Bloc after the war. Warsaw says it did not receive any share of it.
However, addressing attendees at the Wielun observance on Sunday, Duda said: “Forgiveness and the admission of guilt are one thing, but compensation for the damage caused is another thing. And this issue has not been settled yet.”
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