Within the National Council of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, which met on Tuesday 30 June via videoconference, in order to allow councillors from all over Italy to participate in compliance with the current health provisions, a document was approved regarding the imminent joint visit of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor to Trieste.

After having focused in previous communications the attention on the visit of the two Heads of State to the National Monument of the Foiba of Basovizza, the ANVGD has intended to make its own an open letter released by Davide Rossi (Adriatic Coordination APS) containing a historical reflection and a series of still open questions concerning the Julian-Dalmatian Exodus community and which, in light of the attention that the imminent Trieste day is arousing, must absolutely be included in the national political agenda.

As can be seen from the text that here is attached and as reported below, the ANVGD intends in particular to insist in the institutional offices on these points: abandoned assets that the Italian State still has to compensate the exiles, establishment of a Foundation of Istrian, Fiuman and Dalmatian Exiles, reconstitution of the Italo-Slovenian and Italo-Croatian historical-cultural bilateral commissions, establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Vergarolla massacre and appointment of a Senator for life of Julian-Dalmatian origins.

Renzo Codarin
President of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia

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Trieste, July 13, 2020: an important date, but still many issues to be resolved.
Document approved by the National Council of ANVGD dd 30 June 2020

 

The National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, aware of the historicity of the official visit of the Slovenian President Borut Pahor together with Sergio Mattarella to the National Monument of the Foiba of Basovizza scheduled for Monday 13 July 2020, also realizes that the Republic of Slovenia with the restitution of the Balkans and with the passage to the monument to those executed by the TIGR will receive full satisfaction.

Unfortunately, this will not be the case for the Julian-Dalmatian Exodus Community.

The building in the center of Trieste that housed the Balkan Hotel and Slavic associations was set on fire a century ago at the end of a day of riots following the arrival of the news that in Split, a city whose fate after the First World War was still in the balance, two men of the Italian Navy had been killed by Croatian nationalists. The symbolic place in the Julian port of the Slavic presence (supported and exploited in the final decades of the life of Austria-Hungary in opposition to the increasingly irredentist Italians) was the scene of a clash with deaths and injuries, in which the besiegers - among whom were the first squadristi from Trieste - and the besieged did not hesitate to use pistols and hand grenades. In the years that followed, the internationally recognized annexation of Venezia Giulia, Zadar and Fiume to the Kingdom of Italy and the nationalization of the masses conducted by fascism fueled the separatist feelings of the Slovenian and Croatian nationalists who had become Italian subjects. The TIGR (“tiger” in Slavic), to which those shot in Basovizza on 6 September 1930 belonged, advocated through attacks and terrorist initiatives the separation of Trieste, Istria, Gorizia and Fiume (Rijeka, hence the homonymous acronym of the combative feline) from Italy and their annexation to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The four shot were tried by the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the Fascist State, but their action was irredentist, anti-Italian and not primarily anti-fascist. The logic that inspired them would later be adopted by the Yugoslav communist partisan army of Josip Broz “Tito”, who would transform a struggle for national liberation into a project of territorial expansion to the detriment of neighboring states that in these lands would lead to the massacres of the Foibe.

We must, therefore, on this occasion, claim a series of issues that cannot be removed from the political agenda and that are crucial for our World. In a climate of absolute absence of revanchism on the part of the Associations of Exiles - many have even changed their name to demonstrate it - the love for that land that saw the birth, prosperity and hospitality of our predecessors must remain unchanged. There are numerous pending issues, with History, but above all with the Italian State, that the Exiles can boast.

Abandoned Goods.

In these difficult times for the Nation, an immediate disbursement is not required, but a precise and definitive recognition of what is due, with the consequent assumption of the commitments as signed in the International Treaties. As other Nations have done in similar situations, the establishment of long-term bonds could be envisaged, or the budgeting of the amount that can then be managed even over decades. For this purpose, it would be necessary to establish a joint commission between Public Administration and Associations of Exiles with different competences than those previously established.

Foundation of Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian Exiles

For years, there has been a request for the recovery of the money that Slovenia and Croatia, as successor states of Yugoslavia, have to pay, which had committed itself to this with the Treaty of Osimo (1975), with reference to the real estate abandoned by the exiles of Zone B (districts of Koper and Buie) of the never established Free Territory of Trieste. This sum, once any specific requests for compensation by those expropriated by the Yugoslav communist regime and their heirs have been satisfied, could serve as a pool for the prediction of a Foundation of Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian Exiles. It would support the cultural activities of the Exiles' associations, aimed at maintaining the historical memory and research on the Italians of the Eastern Border, as well as activities beyond the border, to be carried out in full agreement with the Authorities of the States of the ex-Yugoslavia, such as the restoration of Italian monuments, the addition of bilingual toponymy and others.

Joint Italian-Slovenian and Italian-Croatian Commission

In 1993, the Mixed Bilateral Historical-Cultural Commissions between Italy and Slovenia and between Italy and Croatia were established: the latter has practically never even taken hold, while the former produced a document on 27 June 2000 that was not fully shared. Twenty years later, the renewal of that cooperation instrument and the establishment of new Commissions are called for. In the meantime, in fact, the accession of Slovenia and Croatia to the European Union and moments of conciliation such as the Concert of the Three Presidents (13 July 2013) have laid the foundations for attempting to overcome the cultural obstacles that still exist, in search of a path that – while respecting the identities of each – can lead to a shared sensitivity.

Parliamentary Commission for the Vergarolla massacre

On August 18, 1946 in Pola, a city still formally Italian, an attack caused a massacre with at least 64 dead and a hundred injured among the bathers who were watching a sporting event in Vergarolla. It was the first massacre in the history of the Italian Republic, which marked the highest number of victims, even compared to the much more well-known massacres of the Years of Lead. The time has come for those dead to find peace with the seal of History, perfecting the research developed by Lino Vivoda, William Klinger, Gaetano Dato and Paolo Radivo.

Appointment of a Senator for Life of Julian-Dalmatian origins

Among the excellences that are counted in the Exodus community, a personality should be chosen who has particularly distinguished himself not only in his professional life, but also for the cause of the Exiles and be appointed Senator for life, in recognition of the patriotism of those people who wanted to remain Italian. This would give satisfaction to the eighty-six year old provisional president of the Constituent Assembly Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, an eminent jurist, but equally fine Sicilian politician, who decided to inaugurate the works ««in memory of the desperate pain of this hour, in the tragedy of our people of Trieste, of Gorizia, of Pola, of Fiume, of Zara, of all of Venezia Giulia, who however, if they did not vote, are nevertheless present, since no material force and no immoral trade can prevent them from always being present where Italy is present».

As has been done for decades, even more so in these days when the issue of the Eastern Border will be at the center of attention, it is important to make ourselves heard as a united voice around these issues, to be forcefully re-proposed in institutional settings and to the attention of public opinion.