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The risks that fake news have on the democratic course urge us to remain vigilant and ready to combat them, defending human rights, Euro-Atlantic values and security, President Klaus Iohannis emphasized on Thursday, in a message sent on the occasion of the commemoration of the 82 years since the Iasi Pogrom.
The message was presented by Catalina Galer, state councilor in the Department of Relations with Public Authorities and Civil Society, during the commemorative events organized in Iasi.
"I remain firmly committed to strengthening a society guided by compassion, which rejects hatred, stereotypes and discrimination of any kind, and I urge the authorities and institutions responsible to fight against the manipulation of the past and against extremism. These dangers and the risks that fake news have on the course our democratic urges us to remain vigilant and ready to combat them, defending human rights, Euro-Atlantic values and our security," the head of state said.
He recalled that, in June 1941, Iasi "became a place of dread and terror, where unimaginable horrors took place, coordinated by the Romanian authorities against their own citizens".
"At that time, the Government led by Ion Antonescu took a decision that was going to have catastrophic consequences not only on the Iasi community, but also on the whole of Romania. Acts of unprecedented violence were unleashed on the Jews of Iasi. They took to the streets from their own houses, looted, barbarically beaten, suffocated and shot, without a trace of remorse, by the Romanian military and even by some civilians, thousands of Jews lost their lives in the cruelest possible ways," added Iohannis.
He added that the "Death Trains" from that period "remain a dark chapter of our history, which left deep wounds in the national consciousness, shaking us even today", and the shocking testimonies of the survivors "demonstrate the depth and atrocity of the crimes they committed against the Jewish people of Iasi".
In this context, the head of state highlighted the importance of the historical truth, "to swiftly sanction the attitudes and behaviors that currently call into question humanist values and fundamental human rights".
"Those bloody moments are not only a dark memory, but also an opportunity to reflect on what we can do now, so that such events never happen again. We have the duty not to forget the victims of these tragedies, not to we forget those whose lives were ended brutally and unjustly in their own homes, in the courtyard of the Chestura, on the streets of Iasi and in the train carriages. We are equally responsible to the younger generations, to pass on to them the painful lessons of the Romanian people's history and to teach them about the tragic, criminal consequences of hatred, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism," Klaus Iohannis pointed out.
