The President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov sent sincere congratulations to the President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset on the occasion of the country's national holiday celebrated today - the Day of the Swiss Confederation.

Taking this opportunity, the head of state expressed wishes of good health, happiness and well-being to President Alain Berset, and peace, further progress and prosperity to all the people of the Swiss Confederation, reports “Neutral Turkmenistan” newspaper today.

The Swiss Confederation Day, celebrated annually on August 1, is set to commemorate the event that occurred on this day in 1291, when the three forest cantons (a canton is a separate state with an independent popular assembly and executive power) - Unterwalden, Uri and Schwyz - announced an eternal alliance and union. The document, in fact, was not only a Declaration of Independence, but also an agreement on mutual defense - in view of the possible aggression from the Holy Roman Empire.

Subsequently, other cantons joined the “eternal union”. Nobody prevented them, however, the formal recognition of Switzerland took place only in 1648, when its independence from the Holy Roman Empire was officially confirmed by the Treaty of Westphalia.

Officially, the holiday was established in 1891, the year of the six hundredth anniversary of the founding of Switzerland. For a long time, 1 August was a working day in most cantons. After the popular initiative was approved by referendum on September 26, 1993, in 1994 it was declared an official non-working day throughout Switzerland.