In light of some misleading interpretations that have been provided regarding a rhetorical response given by the President of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, Cav. Renzo Codarin, during an interview, it is reiterated that the ANVGD, consistently with the various communications issued and published on the eve of the Trieste day of July 13, distinguishes two parts of the joint visit of Presidents Sergio Mattarella and Borut Pahor.

"The importance of the historical aspect - Codarin specified - that the visit of the Slovenian Head of State to the National Monument of the Basovizza Foiba has goes far beyond what may be any kind of opposition. It corresponds to what was the hope of our association at the time of the Concert of the Three Presidents (Italian, Slovenian and Croatian), held in Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia in Trieste in 2010. The visit of a Slovenian President to the Basovizza Foiba, which has become a symbol of the ordeal of the Julian, Fiume and Dalmatian people, is a historical event and must remain so. At this point we hope that, as soon as possible, this step will also be taken by the President of the Republic of Croatia".

Equally important was the meeting in the building of the autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, during which President Mattarella, in front of three ministers, assured the resumption of the institutional process that had been requested several times, even in writing, including this last occasion, which must lead to the solution of the issues concerning the Julian-Dalmatian diaspora that are still pending: abandoned assets, compensation by Slovenia and Croatia, compensation by the Italian State and protection of the (current) Italian minority in the Eastern Adriatic, its culture and bilingualism.

"After being at the Foiba, the two Presidents held other ceremonies - explains the National President of the ANVGD - to which we did not intend to participate and consequently we were not invited. We therefore reiterate that we do not agree with the historiography that depicts the executed members of the TIGR Revolutionary Organization as four fallen anti-fascists, but rather we consider them terrorists who in the 1920s hoped by all means for the annexation to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of Trieste, Gorizia, Fiume, Zara and Istria, reunited in an internationally recognized manner to Italy after the First World War".

Codarin continues: «The transfer of the Balkans to a foundation constituted was presented with an anti-fascist narrative that omitted the background to that fateful day that culminated with the burning of the building. Starting from the killing of two Italian sailors in Split and without contextualizing the opposing nationalisms that the Habsburg Empire fomented and did not pacify in these lands starting from the end of the nineteenth century: five years before the Balkans, symbolic places of native Italianness such as the Società Ginnastica Triestina, the editorial offices of the Piccolo and the headquarters of the Lega Nazionale were burned. Finally, we cannot help but be astonished - concludes the representative of the exiles - by the merit received by Boris Pahor. He spoke about the story of the foibe even on July 13th itself with unworthy terms and worthy of that justificationism that President Mattarella also condemned on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, without forgetting some of his nationalist outbursts that have no reason to exist in the European Union, with particular reference to the contestation of the election of a mayor of African origin in Pirano. We are already working to present parliamentary motions on this unfortunate recognition."

With regard to the media coverage of that day, in light of some erroneous statements that have been made, the ANVGD, as the oldest and most representative association of the Adriatic diaspora (founded in 1947, today it has 34 provincial committees and 25 territorial delegations), believes, finally, that it is necessary to involve RAI so that in similar future situations, during the commentary, representatives of the exiles' associations are also involved.

Lorenzo Salimbeni