100 years since the end of WWI
The tough lesson of WWI should not be repeated, it was said in Paris on the occasion of the commemoration of the November 11 Armistice Centennial
Roxana Vasile, 12.11.2018, 13:24
The ‘old demons and the ‘new ideologies are a threat to peace, the French president Emmanuel Macron warned on Sunday, at the ceremony for the commemoration of the Armistice Centennial that put an end to WWI. More than 70 heads of state and government from the entire world, among whom the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, attended the ceremony in Paris upon the invitation of the French President. Before the start of ceremonies they walked together to the Triumphal Arch, in a move symbolizing commitment.
The only presidents who came separately were the American and Russian Presidents. In the afternoon, the world leaders participated in the Paris Peace Forum, except for the American President who chose to leave France earlier. It was also President Trump who created consternation and discontent after he had previously cancelled a visit to an American military cemetery in the north of France simply because of the unfavorable weather.
The Paris meeting, which is under way until Tuesday, is devoted to safeguarding multilateralism, a concept also ignored by the White House leader. Nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism and extremism are very sad sentiments whose recrudescence may create vulnerability, Emmanuel Macron said. According to him, the world we are living in is made vulnerable by all sorts of crises, be they economic, ecologic, climate or migration related. Humankind is made vulnerable also by the reemergence of threats able to hit at any moment: terrorism, chemical and nuclear weapons proliferation and cybercrime. In this context, multilateralism is essential.
For the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, without the support of everybody, humankind risks getting into a situation similar to that which led to the breaking out of WWI. Also, the prospect of the worst threats may be thwarted through peace, as happened on November 11, 1918. The peace treaty signed by the Entente and the Central Powers in Compiegne, France, put an end to hostilities on the western front of WWI.
Historians dont like the concept of ‘luck, which is rather vague and hard to place in a scientific discourse. But, what happened in Romania, immediately after the end of WWI, is related to miracle. In the early 1918 Romanians were a defeated nation, obliged to leave the war after signing a terrible peace treaty with Germany. At the end of the same year, they were included by France in the winners camp.
So, three weeks after the Armistice was announced, on December 1, 1918 Romania became a unitary state, with all the territories inhabited by a majority Romanian population becoming united in one single state. Therefore, after marking the WWI Armistice Centennial on November 11, Romania will mark the Union Centennial on December 1. (Translated by L. Simion)
