France to Invite 72 Countries to Join WWI Commemoration
France will issue an unprecedented invitation to all 72 countries involved in World War I to take part in its annual Bastille Day military parade in July next year, President Francois Hollande announced Thursday.
Bastille Day, on July 14, will fall just before the 100th anniversary of the start of the 1914-18 Great War.
Hollande also revealed that Germany's President, Joachim Gauck, will come to France for a ceremony on August 3, 2014, which will be exactly a century after the two countries declared war on each other.
"I asked the president of the Federal Republic (Germany) Mr Gauck to come to France on the occasion of the commemoration of this tragic act, he has accepted and I thank him for that," Hollande said in a speech launching the centenary.
"On July 14, all 72 countries that we can call belligerents of the Great War will be invited to take part in the parade on the Champs-Elysees.
"They will be gathered together for an unprecedented national festival -- unprecedented because it will be international.
"There will be soldiers in their uniforms with their flags but young civilians will also take part in what will be a great demonstration for peace."
Source: Agence France Presse
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