Polish Embassy celebrates national day

Islamabad :To celebrate the Independence Day of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Armed Forces Day, Ambassador Piotr Opalinski and Defence Attache, Col Bogdan Obuchowski hosted a reception at the Marriott Hotel.

It was a very well attended affair and guests got to view glimpses of Poland’s beautiful cities and countryside via a video screening. The guest of honour was Minister for Defence Production, Zubaida Jalal and the cake cutting ceremony took place after the national anthems of Poland and Pakistan had been played and speeches delivered.

Welcoming his guests on behalf of himself and his staff in Urdu, Ambassador Opalinski received a round of applause from the guests! “Today we celebrate the National Independence Day of Poland, which commemorates the events of 1918 when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of partition and foreign occupation,” he said. “We also celebrate the Polish Armed Forces Day, which falls on August 15th which is the anniversary of the 1920 Battle of Warsaw when the Polish army and people defeated the invading Soviet army.”

He went on to say these anniversaries are important and freedom that was regained after a lot of struggle and sacrifice is very dear. “In my family my generation is the first which did not experience the sufferings and devastations of war,” he said going on to relate a brief family history of the suffering his grandparents went through. “After forty five years of communist rule,” he said, “My country once again fought, this time through a peaceful civic solidarity movement for the liberation of Central and Eastern Europe from autocratic regimes into democratic states that contributed to the reunification of Europe. So it is a tradition to support the freedom of other nations.”

He went on to say that from 1948 onwards, after Pakistan came into being, a big group of Polish airmen and navy men contributed to the development of Pakistani Defence, Air Force and civil aviation, especially mentioning a Polish hero, Wladyslaw Turowicz, who in his many years of military service rose to the rank of Air Commodore in Pakistan Air Force and was awarded with the highest military awards.

“From my perspective, after living in Islamabad for ten years altogether - first as a deputy head of mission and four years as ambassador, I am happy to see that both our countries are developing fast; our economies have much more to offer each other, while direct investment is being increased, especially by the Polish Oil and Gas Company” he said.