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Latvian parliament rejects proposal to celebrate Waffen SS day

© RIA Novosti . Oxana DjadanLatvian President Valdis Zatlers
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers - Sputnik International
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Latvia's parliament on Thursday rejected a proposal to establish the day of the creation of the Latvian Waffen SS legion as a national holiday.

Latvia's parliament on Thursday rejected a proposal to establish the day of the creation of the Latvian Waffen SS legion as a national holiday.

The proposal to name March 16 the National Day of Latvian Warriors was made by the Baltic state's ultranationalist Fatherland and Freedom party.

Most Latvian deputies voted against the bill.

Former legionnaires of the Latvian Waffen SS annually hold demonstrations involving several hundred people on March 16. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers says he does not consider the legionnaires, many of whom participated in the holocaust, to be Nazis.

Several Nazi collaborators have been made national heroes in Latvia since the collapse of USSR in 1991.

Russia has long been at odds with the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia over perceived attempts to rewrite the history of World War II and diminish the Soviet role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

While Russia maintains that the Red Army liberated the Baltic states from German invaders, many residents of the republics put the two "occupations" on a par.

 

RIGA, February 24 (RIA Novosti)

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