The Chisinau City Hall, this year as well, has organized two separate meetings with veterans of the Romanian Army and of the Soviet Army on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Iasi-Chisinau operation. The veterans received by 500 lei from the Chisinau administration and by a packet of food products: flour, rice, sugar, buckwheat and oil, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Romanian Army veterans remembered that they were called to free the lands occupied by the Soviet Army in 1940. The Iasi-Chisinau operation had lasted from 20 to 28 August, 1944. After Romania ordered fighting against the former allies, the Romanian and the Soviet soldiers struggled together to free Europe of Nazism. The veterans of the Romanian Army said yet that for many years they have been marginalized in Moldova. Their deeds were forgotten. Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca expressed his gratitude to the 55 veterans of the Romanian Army and the 81 veterans of the Soviet Army, whose youth was destroyed by the Second World War. He thanked them for the efforts they made to defeat fascism and bring peace in Europe. He said that by their efforts they contributed to the removal of a xenophobe, totalitarian and extremist regime that killed millions of people. Dorin Chirtoaca voiced hope that the veterans of the two armies will overcome the animosities and will be together at such events because each of them did their duty of soldier. The veterans should give an example of reconciliation and help the young people realize what a war is so as to prevent new conflicts, the mayor said. The tradition to celebrate the Iasi-Chisinau operation together with the Romanian Army and Soviet Army veterans was established 15 years ago by former mayor Serafim Urecheanu. He tried many times to unite the meetings, but did not manage to as the veterans were against.