DUSHANBE, May 8, Asia-Plus -- President Emomali Rahmon has congratulated veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, rear laborers and the people of Tajikistan on the 62nd anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany. 

In the message posted on his website on May 7, President Rahmon, in particular, noted that the Victory Day is the glad holiday and the day of memory to commemorate the servicemen who died in that war.   

President Rahmon noted that more than 290,000 residents of Tajikistan had participated in World War II.   

Victory Day marks the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945.  It is celebrated in the successor states to the Soviet Union on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender actually entered into force (May 8, 1945 at 23:01 Central European Time (CET), it was already May 9 in the SSR and Eastern Europe.  

Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7/8 1945, the date when Allies during World War II formally celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich.