NATO chief addresses 1956 photo exhibition at headquarters

Brussels, October 24 (MTI) – A photo exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution opened at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Monday with an address by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

The secretary-general said, “The pro-democracy uprising could have led to a new dawn of freedom and peace in Hungary,” but Hungary’s revolution became trampled on by Soviet tanks.

“Thousands of ordinary people turned freedom fighters,” after authorities fired shots at peaceful demonstrators marching for free press, free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops in the autumn of 1956, he said.

He noted that his parents had worked as volunteers at an aid organisation helping Hungarian refugees at the Hungarian-Austrian border.

“NATO is built on values Hungarians fought for in 1956, namely democracy, individual freedoms and the basic principles of the rule of law,” he said.

Source: MTI