Every year we mark this significant day. The 13th of January is not only a living memory of our unity in our fight for freedom, it is much more, as it comes from the bottom of our hearts: love to Lithuania, the proof that if needed we are ready to die for our homeland over and over again. It is a reminder and a lesson to our children and grandchildren: defend your country, defend Lithuania, cherish its independence and freedom, for which our people sacrificed their lives on 13 January 1991. We bow our heads to those who left for eternity:

Loreta Asanavičiūtė,

Virginijus Druskis,

Darius Gerbutavičius,

Rolandas Jankauskas,

Rimantas Juknevičius,

Alvydas Kanapinskas,

Algimantas Petras Kavoliukas,

Vidas Maciulevičius,

Titas Masiulis,

Alvydas Matulka,

Apolinaras Juozas Povilaitis,

Ignas Šimulionis,

Vytautas Vaitkus,

Vytautas Koncevičius.

Let us pay tribute to those who died for freedom by observing a minute of silence.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Every year the 13th of January is a test for each of us as to whether our hearts are still burning with love to our country and whether, if needed, it would break out as a storm as it did 23 years ago? What are we in our Motherland today and what would we be now had there been too little courage and unity then?

The book on the events of 13 January titled “We were there…” released three years ago features the testimonies of freedom fighters. I would like to quote Jonė Balčiūnaitė,

“The square held its breath. People stood still. They stood next to each other holding hand in hand, feeling that the interlock represented their unity. If I had been at home, in front of a TV screen, perhaps I would have felt sorrowful, but I felt nothing of the kind there. There was no panic, no fear. We stood there, we were a live wall in front of tanks, in front of heavily armed paratroopers. We were a great force when we were united. Moreover, the whole parliament was with us. Men and women parliamentarians comforted and reassured us and we comforted them by our presence.”

Unfortunately, we have to admit that when we address various problems of our public life today that unity is sometimes missing. We, the politicians, often raise our personal ambitions and goals above the concerns of ordinary people of Lithuania. I would like to share some ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato. He believed that harmony in a state is only possible when everyone does what is for the benefit of the state.

Freedom is not simply a gift that we are given. We are responsible for our decisions to ourselves, to others and the state. Lithuania’s present and future depends on the moral values of each and every one of us. We shape our values, we all have them. Sometimes we look for quick solutions, but the road leading to fairer society is complex and lengthy. We will need a few decades in order to change. We must come together for a common goal, to create a better and fairer life by respecting and loving each other. We all want the same things, to be happy, to fulfil our dreams and aspirations and we need to be united to achieve that. First, it applies to politicians who are elected to serve the people.

A state exists as one big family. Unfortunately, many members of our family mark this day far from Lithuania. There are Lithuanians living in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Australia and many other countries. It is not just emigration, it is our nation scattered or even worse, a part of it lost.

We should not cease to care about the consequences of this scattering, whether it is a temporary phenomenon or not, whether a part of our nation will be lost or not. We should not cease to care what stories migrant parents tell their children about Lithuania and what songs Lithuanian mothers sing to their babies born abroad. I would like to quote a 6-grade pupil, “I am very proud of my country because it is wonderful. Although it is small, it is very strong. And I like it just because it is my homeland, the homeland of my mother and father, my sister, grandfather and grandmother.”

No matter where we are, we have to carry Lithuania in our hearts. It is also very important to leave the door wide open for our people to return.

Many of you sitting in this hall are an invaluable living source of history. The generation which was brought up in 23 years of our independence can learn from you rather than from the textbooks the true story of reestablishment of Lithuania’s statehood and how much we had to sacrifice to achieve it. It is very important for our younger generation.

We must speak about our past and tell about the horrifying, painful but very dear events of 13 January which changed the fate of Lithuania. We have to pass the memory about those who died for the freedom of Lithuania from generation to generation. The strength of our nation lies in our memory.

I would like our future generations to visit the places related to our painful past and light candles there without being forced in the future, even after a number of years. It is the task for each of us to preserve our national identity.

We do not know what those who died on 13 January would tell us today. We can only guess. But I have no doubts they would subscribe to the words of our poet Justinas Marcinkevičius,

Why you, the living, speak so loud?

Why do you shout?

We hear it all. But,

Cannot understand it all.

Thank you for your attention.