Italian president laments WWI's roots in aggressive nationalism as observances begin for Armistice Day's 100th anniversary
By Associated Press
Nov 04, 2018
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, center, attends an Armed Forces Day ceremony Sunday in Rome. (Massimo Percossi / EPA-EFE/REX)
Italy’s president lamented World War I’s roots in aggressive nationalism and held up the European Union on Sunday as the highest expression of a commitment to common good needed to prevent catastrophic military conflicts.
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, Sergio Mattaella also recalled Europe’s history of anti-Semitism as he urged young people to remember the conflict's lessons while striving for peaceful coexistence.
“To celebrate together the end of the war and to jointly honor the fallen — all the fallen — signifies to reiterate with force, all together, that over the path of war, we prefer to develop friendship and collaboration,†he said at a ceremony in Trieste, a port city not far from some of the deadliest battles between Italian soldiers and troops of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.
Read more at: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-italy-world-war-anniversary-20181104-story.html
Italy, on the side of the Allies was very hard hit in World War I, I believe they even lost a number of soldiers in avalanches in the mountains, the Dolomites which must have been a very hard way to go. As mentioned in the article, they fought in some of the deadliest battles.
