President of the Republic at the post-New Year reception of Slovenian Armed Forces

Ljubljana, 23.1.2008  |  press release, statement

Today, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, organised a post-New Year reception for the officers of Slovenian Armed Forces and the high representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia. “Slovenian Armed Forces are very good,” stressed the President in his speech and added: “This results from the assessment of my predecessor, the former President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Janez Drnov¹ek, this results from numerous assessments of our partner organisations, Nato and others, this results from your own activities. And this is what we must first have in mind when considering Slovenian Armed Forces. Our armed forces are also armed forces building on rich military traditions which make us proud and fill us with self-confidence. These traditions include the traditions of Maister fighters, the traditions of Slovenian Partisans as a national liberation army. These traditions undoubtedly include our war for independence and the excellent military result characteristic of that war and contributing so much to the rapid, successful and rather painless development of Slovenia after the independence," said President Dr Türk in his speech.

He emphasised that Slovenian Armed Forces nowadays enjoy the necessary trust and respect of Slovenian people and that such trust and respect must be understood and fostered. “Slovenian armed forces are a part of Slovenian society, and Slovenian society must understand Slovenian Armed Forces as a very important part of its social tissue and its state structure,” said the President of the Republic. He spoke also about the professionalisation of Slovenian Armed Forces and about the obligations and tasks in the field of international peacekeeping forces. “These are great and demanding tasks which are sometimes not known enough and often not understood enough. Therefore it is especially important to spread the understanding about Slovenian Armed Forces in our society and to make efforts to ensure its maximum training in the future - so that they will be capable of responding to the challenges brought by time, and so that we will be able to speak about Slovenian Armed Forces with the same amount of pride as today. Of course, this requires the resolution of problems occurring in our joint efforts, this requires a quick resolutions of these problems and the care for the future adequate level of training of Slovenian Armed Forces, their equipment, material provisioning and everything else that is involved,” stressed the President. He concluded that he intended to devote to the Slovenian Armed Forces and the national defence system his "full attention and efforts, as expected from the President of the Republic."


Ljubljana, 23 January 2008 – President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Dr Danilo Türk, organised a post-New Year reception for the officers of Slovenian Armed Forces and the high representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia (FA BOBO)